Swatch Faces 2022: Hoyoon Shin

Korean artist Hoyoon Shin creates delicate paper sculptures that appear to alternately solidify and disappear when viewed from different angles. Made from hand-cut, urethane-coated strips of paper connected by paper joints, the intricate sculptures display amazing strength and fragility, with a fluid opacity that changes dynamically according to perspective. Hoyoon works with fragile materials such as paper, representing the delicate, vulnerable nature of the human individual, and turns them into strong sculptures highlighting the connectedness of the whole. In addition to the political and social conditions that pervade Korean society and the rest of the world today, Hoyoon’s artwork is also inspired by Buddhism and the philosophy of emptiness and the void. His major collections include the Lester Marks Collection (USA), Crown Haitai Collection (Korea), Jianye Housing Group (China), Gwangju Museum of Art (Korea), National Assembly Building (Korea), and Doseonsa Temple (Korea).