Oh, Seyeol
Embedded Files
The Wisdom of Innocence
If modernity has burdened humanity with complexity, Oh, Seyeol responds with radical simplicity. Yet his simplicity is never naïve. It is distilled. Having lived through the turbulence of the Korean War and the astonishing reconstruction that followed, Oh does not approach painting as mere expression. For him, painting is a return — to a state before calculation, before ideology, before the weight of adulthood. His canvases appear at first glance like a child’s drawing: fragile lines, floating figures, scattered symbols. But beneath this apparent spontaneity lies a surface built through innumerable layers of time.
He paints, erases, scratches, presses, and polishes. Layers accumulate, only to be partially revealed again. What seems effortless is in fact sedimented. The canvas becomes a quiet archive — a field where memory has been buried and unearthed repeatedly. Perspective dissolves. Backgrounds flatten. Small enigmatic forms drift across the surface like fragments of forgotten dreams. The figures often stand alone, suspended in open space, carrying a silence that feels both tender and unsettling. These are not illustrations of childhood; they are traces of something prior to it — a state of perception unconditioned by social order.
Across many works, numbers emerge — recurring, sequential, almost ritualistic. They do not function as calculation. They suggest rhythm. Structure. An unseen order. Arranged with poetic restraint, they appear less as symbols to decode than as quiet notations of a larger harmony. What may resemble a scribble begins to feel like a meditation on pattern — an attempt to record what escapes language. European audiences often recognize echoes of Jean Dubuffet or Jean-Michel Basquiat in his raw linearity. Yet unlike the explosive urgency of Western Art Brut or Neo-Expressionism, Oh’s world remains profoundly still. His gestures do not erupt; they breathe. Within their restraint lies an unmistakable Eastern contemplative depth — a silence that invites inward reflection rather than confrontation.
Material is central to his practice. The repeated layering and incision of paint transforms the canvas into a tactile landscape. Each abrasion reveals earlier states, suggesting that time itself is embedded within the surface. The work resists aesthetic dogma. It chooses spontaneity over perfection, essence over refinement. In an age dominated by material excess, Oh’s isolated figures embody a subtle critique. They stand fragile yet enduring — reminders of a humanity at risk of losing its inner child. His paintings ask not for regression, but for recovery: the rediscovery of a primal clarity long obscured by modern noise.
Oh, Seyeol borrows the eyes of a child to record, through the quiet arrangement of numbers, a wisdom adults have forgotten.
CV | Oh, Seyeol
Oh, Seyeol
b. 1945 | Seoul, Korea
Education
1974 M.F.A. Graduate School of Arts, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea
1969 B.F.A. in Painting, Seorabeol Art College (now Chung-Ang University), Seoul, Korea
Solo Exhibitions
2025
Oh Se-Yeol: Since 1965, Gallery Joeun, Seoul, South Korea
2024
5 3 10, Gallery X2, Seoul, South Korea
Oh Se-Yeol, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
2023
Oh Se-Yeol, Nama Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Oh Se-Yeol, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
2021
Islands of Metaphor, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2020
Beyond Memory, Shinsegae Gallery Daegu, Daegu, South Korea
Ingenuous Genius, Galerie Vazieux, Paris, France
2018
Oh Se-Yeol: UNTITLED, Art Center KU, Daejeon, South Korea
2017
Oh Se-Yeol: The Innocent Eye, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Haeden Museum, Incheon, South Korea
Oh Se-Yeol: Implicit Semiotics, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2016
Layers of Memory, Hakgojae Gallery, Shanghai, China
Art Issue Projects, Taipei, Taiwan
Layers of Memory, Pontone Gallery, London, UK
Layers of Memory, Korean Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium
Layers of Memory, Korean Cultural Center, Paris, France
2015
Oh Se-Yeol - New Works, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France
2008
Wellside Gallery (Samtuh Gallery), Seoul, South Korea
And many others
Group Exhibitions
2024
Galleries Art Fair (Gallery Focus), Seoul, South Korea
2023
Kiaf Seoul (Gallery Joeun), Seoul, South Korea
Galleries Art Fair (Gallery Focus), Seoul, South Korea
2022
Kiaf Seoul (Hakgojae Gallery), Seoul, South Korea
Kiaf Seoul Plus (Gallery Joeun), Seoul, South Korea
Oh Seyeol & Kim Young-ri Duo Exhibition, ART CHOSUN SPACE, Seoul, South Korea
Art Busan (Gallery Joeun), Busan, South Korea
BAMA (SM Fine Art Gallery), Busan, South Korea
Seen Unseen: Oh Seyeol & Yoo Geun-taek, Showum Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2021
New Acquisitions 2017-2020: Connected Worlds, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon, South Korea
SOLO SHOW: Bok-Deok-Bang, Hakgojae Gallery, South Korea
Art Miami, Miami, USA
2020
Art Paris (Galerie Vazieux), Paris, France
2019
Art Basel Hong Kong (Hakgojae Gallery), Hong Kong
Art Brussels (Hakgojae Gallery), Brussels, Belgium
2018
Art Basel Hong Kong (Hakgojae Gallery), Hong Kong
Art Central (Gallery Joeun), Hong Kong
2017
LA Art Show (SM Fine Art Gallery), Los Angeles, USA
2016
Art Paris (Galerie Baudoin Lebon), Paris, France
2015
Figurative and Awareness, Art Issue Projects, Taipei, Taiwan
2014
Form as Thought: Rediscovery of Drawing, Museum SAN, Wonju, South Korea
2013
Oh Seyeol & Yang Qian Duo Exhibition, Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2012
Art Toronto (Wellside Gallery), Toronto, Canada
KIAF (Wellside Gallery), Seoul, South Korea
2011
Art.Fair21 (Messe für Moderne und Aktuelle Kunst), Cologne, Germany
KIAF (Wellside Gallery), Seoul, South Korea
Korea Art Show, New York, USA
2010
Oh Seyeol & Baron Fischer Duo Exhibition, Seomi Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2007
Unconsciousness, Doobang Contemporary Space, Taipei, Taiwan
• 2007 Oh Seyeol & Yoo Jong-ho Duo Exhibition, Wellside Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2006
Melbourne Art Fair (Wellside Gallery), Melbourne, Australia
And many others
Awards
1976
Grand Prize, The 3rd Korea Art Grand Exhibition (Hankook Ilbo)
1972
Gold Prize, Figurative Art Competition
1969
Silver Prize, Figurative Art Competition
And many others
List of Works
Untitled
90.9×72.7cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
145.5×112cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
90.9×72.7cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
145×112cm, Oil on canvas, 2018
Untitled
130.3×97cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
130.3×97cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
160×130.5cm, Oil on canvas, 2021
Untitled
116.7×91cm, Oil on canvas, 2022
Untitled
91×73cm, Oil on canvas, 1987
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