YOUNG SOOK PARK
박영숙

Young Sook Park was born in Kyongju in 1947. Once the capital of the Shilla kingdom, this region exists as one of Korea’s most fabled artistic enclaves. The beauty of the surrounding landscape instilled within Park a commitment to the purity of form found in traditional Korean pottery-making techniques.

Through rigorous study and meticulous practice of these techniques, she began developing her own distinctive style. Park’s commitment to recreate the “lost” methods and styles of Korea’s storied Chosun Dynasty led to the establishment of Park Young Sook Ceramic Studio in 1979. Since the Studio’s inception, Park has fastidiously experimented with material, form, scale, and firing technique in order to forge a new tradition within the canon of Korean ceramic art.

Her clays take anywhere from 6 to 10 years to mature; reduction firing at 1350 degrees centigrade (or 2462°) a perfect fusion of clay and glaze, ensures durability of each piece. Park’s bold decision to work with such high temperatures only serves to increase chance for error, as intense heat exaggerates the clay’s vulnerability. Forging a symbiotic relationship between clay and glaze, she carefully calculates every step of the process: how the air moves in the kiln, how to adjust the shape of her objects to compensate for the slight variations of temperature, and how the glazes react to different surfaces and heat conditions.

Throughout Park’s artistic career, she has demonstrated unconditional devotion to the perfection of ceramic art; the shapes, clay and glazes she employs result from over 30 years of dedicated research. Her creations demonstratively surpass existing processes in both structure and aesthetic. Young Sook Park’s versatility and precision reflect long-lost artistic traditions infused with a contemporary aesthetic, evidence of her unyielding efforts to challenge the technical boundaries governing both clay and glaze.

The Victoria & Albert Museum
The Seattle Museum of Art
The Harvard Museum of Art
The Museum of Fine Art Houston
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Peabody-Essex Museum of Art
The British Museum of Art

Born in Kyoungju, Korea in 1947