“SunKoo Yuh: Grafted Stories” opens at the Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design (MDC Museum) on November 30 with a solo presentation of work by Professor SunKoo Yuh. Yuh teaches ceramics at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Displaying art made over the past 12 years, the exhibition features large-format porcelain tiles and ceramic sculptures in addition to works on paper.

above image: SunKoo Yuh, Repatriations

Yuh’s work is notable for its lush glazes and his ability to work on a scale that challenges notions of what can reasonably be built and fired. Although often narrative and figurative, the work is more imaginative than grounded in realism. The artists says that: “My ceramic sculpture expresses not only physical realities but psychological realities at the same time; the sculptures also reflect my relationships with people and life experience around me, encompassing front and back, inside and outside, present and past memories.” For example, Memory of Sabbath, pictured above, came from doodles that Yuh made on the Sunday church bulletin while listening to sermons over the past few years. Taking this element of his daily life, he scanned the drawings and manipulated them on the computer to design this ceramic mural, which he made during a residency at a tile factory in Jingdezhen, China.

SunKoo Yuh in his studio at the Lamar Dodd School of Art

Curated by Miami gallerist Mindy Solomon, the exhibition at the MDC Museum emphasizes themes of cultural integration and imaginative discovery in the work of the Korean-born artist. Yuh describes his practice overall as being about transforming images in his head into tangible sculptures. He is often concerned with basic human issues: “Fundamental desire as a human being and mundane life are two big concerns in my work. Longevity, fertility, good marriage, well-being and every-day issues in our life are interwoven in my work.” At the same time, Yuh uses symbols and images that he freely borrows from different traditions, such as animals from the Chinese lunar calendar or images from Korean folk painting, as well as his own personal lexicon developed over the years.

“SunKoo Yuh: Grafted Stories” will be on view November 10, 2016 through January 15, 2017 at the Miami Dade College Museum of Art and Design. Learn more here.