Cover image: Sunkoo Yuh, Guardian, Year of the Tiger, 2007. Porcelain. 22 x 24

Ceramics Professor Sunkoo Yuh presents the solo exhibition Old and New at the Lucy Lacoste Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts, featuring handcrafted pieces reconstructed from Yuh’s past work. Yuh titled the exhibit Old and New to represent the reuse of his existing creations.

Old and New is on view from October 1 - October 29, 2022. In anticipation of the exhibition opening on October 1, the artist was also invited to host a workshop at Harvard University on September 29.

View of Old and New exhibition at Lucy Lacoste Gallery. 2022

Exhibition Dates

October 1, 2022 – October 29, 2022

Opening Reception with the Artist

Saturday October 1, 3 - 5 PM

Sunkoo Yuh outside Lucy Lacoste Gallery.

In Old and New, Sunkoo Yuh made fundamental changes to his technique that allowed him to breathe new life into his ceramics. For instance, Yuh stepped away from figurative and narrative forms of art to create more abstract pieces. The process by which Yuh created this new work involved making a hundred hollow forms, decorating each one through an intuitive routine. He also let go of polychrome glazes, opting to utilize clay’s natural colors for a monochrome look.  

“I am super excited about the changes that I’ve experienced in preparing for this show. With these ideas, this exhibition is a big step toward escaping from my old work and myself to understanding my new work and myself,” said Yuh.

During his visit to Massachusetts for the exhibition opening of Old and New, the artist delivered a one-day workshop at Harvard University. In his presentation, Yuh spoke about his methods of constructing, loading, firing, glazing, and installing large-scale architectural sculptures. Harvard students witnessed Yuh’s unique way of transforming pressed forms into three-dimensional sculptures. They also learned how to apply and enhance underglazes on translucent porcelain surfaces.

Sunkoo Yuh, Carbon Composition IV, 2022, Porcelain, Carbon Trap, 11 x 6 x 4

Artist Bio

Sunkoo Yuh was born in 1960 in South Korea, where he received his BFA from HongIk University. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1988 to obtain his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred, NY. Yuh currently resides in Athens GA, where he is a professor of art at the University of Georgia. Yuh's ceramic sculptures are composed of tight groupings of various forms, including plants, animals, and human figures. While Korean art and Buddhist, Christian, and Confucian beliefs inform some aspects of his imagery, his work is largely driven by implied narratives that often suggest socio-political critiques. Yuh's current focus is on architectural-scale sculptures and pushing his medium to its limits of size.