Kwun, Suncheol
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The Sublime Face Shaped by Time
If the artist of today must think deeply about the past and the present, he must also prepare for the future. Art, for Kwun Suncheol, is not merely an act of representation; it is an ethical and spiritual readiness for what humanity is becoming. Rooted in a profound awareness of Korea’s historical wounds and collective memory, his work seeks to give form to human suffering — and, beyond it, to endurance and hope.
Kwun’s paintings confront the viewer with the human face. Yet these are not portraits in the conventional sense. They are faces shaped by time — dense, layered, and monumental. His thick impasto carries a physical intensity that recalls the great masters of European Expressionism, yet his language remains distinctly his own. The surface is not decorative; it is sedimented history. Each stroke accumulates like memory itself.
In Kwun’s practice, the face becomes more than likeness. It becomes existence.
Art critic Lee Dal-Seung once wrote that every painting is ultimately a portrait of the painter — the trace of the painter’s gaze. In Kwun’s case, that gaze is directed toward the face as the ultimate site of being. For him, everything approaches as a face: a person, a landscape, even darkness itself. “Night too has the face of night,” as the poet suggests. Nothing exists without a face.
The face, in Kwun’s work, is not simply anatomical. It is where longing gathers, where silence thickens, where history leaves its imprint. His figures seem to emerge from shadow, as if memory itself were surfacing through layers of paint. What we encounter is not an individual alone, but the condensed presence of a people — a nation’s grief and resilience held within a single visage.
Through one face, he speaks of many. Through matter, he speaks of time. Through silence, he evokes the sublime.
Kwun Suncheol’s paintings demand not quick recognition but sustained contemplation. They resonate deeply with the European humanistic tradition, where the dignity of the individual and the weight of history remain central concerns. His work does not shout; it endures. It stands before us with gravity, inviting reverence.
In his world, to paint a face is to affirm existence itself. Where there is a face, there is being. And where there is being, there is history — still unfolding.
CV | Kwun, Suncheol
Kwun, Suncheol
b. 1944
Education : 1984 Master degree in Art, Seoul National University
1971 Bachelor degree in Art major, Seoul National University
Prizes : 2013 17th KBS expatriate awards in culture and art category
1992 4th Lee Jong Sup art prize award
Solo Exhibitions
2025
만고풍상(萬古風霜), KUH Gallery, Daejun, South Korea
2024
KWUN Sun-Cheol, Shah Gallery, Changwon, South Korea
2021
<Cheol> Changsungdong, Seoul, South Korea
2020
<Trace> Gana art, Seoul, South Korea
2019
Galerie Son, Berlin, Germany
2017-2016
<Soul’s light – Christ> Gana art, Seoul, South Korea
2016
<Gaze> Daegu art museum, Daegu, South Korea
2015
Bongsan cultural center, Daegu, South Kore
2012
Galerie Son, Berlin, Germany
2010
Gana art, New-York, USA - 2012 Gana art center, Seoul, South Korea
2007
Gana art Busan, Busan, South Korea
2003
Contemporary Museum, Troyes, France
And many others
Group Exhibitions
2024
Sonamou, Espace 24, Paris, France
<Dual perspective: Humanité & Nature>, Paris, France
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Son, Karlsruhe, Germany
2023
Sonamou exhibition, Galerie 5, Paris, France
<Urban reality>, SeMA Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
<Inhale, Exhale>, Kki Gallery, Paju, South Korea
<Colorful Korean Painting>, Art space 3, Seoul, South Korea
<Kwun Sun Cheol - Kim Sun Doo>, Wolha Art, Seoul. South Korea
<Colorful Korean Painting - From Harmony to Purification>, Art space3, Seoul, South Korea
2023-2022
<George Rouault & korean arts: resonance of eyes>, Jeonnam museum of art, Jeonnam, South Korea
2022
<Kwun Sun-Cheol - Lee Kang So>, Changsungdong, Seoul, South Korea
2021
<Shinjayeon declaration 28th anniversary> ALLME gallery, Seoul, South Korea
<Shinjayeon Art movement, the RHIZOMES ENTANGLED with the INTRA NET>, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonju, South Korea
2019
<Yangju-Palgye>, Jang Wookjin museum, Jangheung, South Korea
<Landscape, Face : Kwun Sun-Cheol, Seo Yongsun, Joo Tae Suk>, Wow Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2018
TEFAF, The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, Netherlands
<Kwun Sun-Cheol, Kwak Soo-Young, Lee Bae>, Dongwon Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
<no comfort comfort women>, Berlin, Germany
2018-2017
<Cracks in the Concrete from the MMCA collection>, Museum of modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2017
<Sonamou>, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
<Visages Pluriels, Kwun Sun-Cheol et Alain Soreil>, Cultural Center, Paris, France
<Construction Time Again>, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
2016
<One,Two,Three, and… 7> celebration of 130 years french-korean diplomatic exchange, Rouen, France
2015
<Portrait of Memory-Korea’s 70th Anniversary of Liberation Special exhibition>, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon
2014
<Sonamou, where is its soul>, Galerie Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, FRANCE
<KOREA KOREA> Galerie Son, Berlin, Germany
And many others
Awards & Selections
2013
The 17th KBS Overseas Koreans Award (Arts & Culture category)
1992
The 4th Lee Jung-seob Art Award
And many others
List of Works
Mt.Baekdu
284×680.5cm, Oil on canvas, 2020
Cross
72×91cm, Oil on canvas, 2017. 04. 11
Snowfield, Jangheung
91×72cm, Oil on canvas, 2024
Soul
130×162cm, Oil on canvas and barbed wire, 2017
Jeju, The Empty Field
193.5×112cm, Oil on canvas, 2010
Face (Presence)
72×91cm, Oil on canvas, 2020
Woman (Endurance)
72×91cm, Oil on canvas, 2017~2025
Old Man of the Village
130×162cm, Oil on canvas, 2009~2025. 08
Gazing at the Sky
130×162cm, Oil on canvas, 2009~2025. 08
Comfort women
130×162cm, Oil on canvas, 2017~2025. 08
Mother Figure
130×162cm, Oil on canvas, 2009~2023
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