Work samples

  • What it could be
    What it could be

About SeungTack

Baltimore City
SeungTack Lim was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1986. He studied at Gachon University (BFA, 2012) in Korea and attained a Post Baccalaureate in Fine Arts at Maryland institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently is an MFA candidate at Maryland institute College of Art's Rinehart School of Sculpture. He has had several exhibitions in Korea and the United States and was awarded a Junk Art prize in 2012 in Seoul. He had a solo show in July 2016 for his drawing and sculpture in Seoul. … more

What it could be / It could be better than ../ It wants to be a ../


People take things at face value-they believe what they see. This happens in the art world, too.
  • What it could be
    What it could be
    Medium: Scrap wood & Shellac & Paint & Fry Pan & Traffic Sign & Clock & Pillow & Rust Paint Dimensions: 67x41x92.5(in) Date: 2016 Description: People take things at face value-they believe what they see. This happens in the art world, too. I start this piece with a chair. When I add shelves, even I can’t recognize whether the work is a chair, a shelf or some kind of architectural object. Observing no structural principles, I add scrap wood and consumer waste wherever I want. I mix some colors, which become unclear and ugly, in accordance with my intention that art doesn’t have to be beautiful or colorful. I am curious about normal people’s reactions when they encounter an ugly shapeless work. The scrap wood is reborn when I paint it. The unexpected happens when things don’t function “properly.” By not fixing my objects to each other, they can be oriented in various ways in order to depart from any standard pattern. The audience can participate by moving them anywhere they want.
  • What it could be-detail shot
    What it could be-detail shot
    What it could be-detail shot

What it could be? (series)


I, personally, like the situation which is unexpected, because it causes people to pause and then pay attention. This work series seeks to transfer the expected to the unexpected.
  • What it could be?-installation view
    What it could be?-installation view
    Medium: Photo & Acrylic & Clock & Receipt & Chinese Ink Dimensions: (Chair & Table)- 44x61(cm) , 17x24(in) / (The_Face)- 40x40(cm) , 16x16(in)/ (Lion’s Back)- 48x43(cm) , 19x17(in) / (Frame)- 58x50(cm) , 23x20(in) / (Toilet)-34x24(cm) , 13x9.5(in) / (No rules)- 30x23(cm) , 12x9(in) / This is not a label- 11.5x6.5(cm) , 4.5x2.5(in) / (clock)- 25x25(cm) , 10x10(in) Date: 2016 Description: I, personally, like the situation which is unexpected, because it causes people to pause and then pay attention. This work series seeks to transfer the expected to the unexpected. Some pieces represent functions alone and some ignite the audience’s imagination. A familiar thing changes at some parts in unexpected ways, emphasizing that there are no fixed rules especially in the art world. Anything can be everything.
  • The _ Face
    The _ Face
    The _ Face -detail shot
  • This is not a label
    This is not a label
    This is not a label- detail shot
  • Lion's Back
    Lion's Back
    Lion's Back -detail shot
  • Break the rules
    Break the rules
    Break the rules - detail shot
  • Frame
    Frame
    Frame -detail shot
  • Chair & Table
    Chair & Table
    Chair & Table - detail shot
  • Toilet
    Toilet
    Toilet - Detail shot
  • It could be anything.
    It could be anything.
    It could be anything - detail shot

Blind Spot

A chair is an everyday ordinary object that we use every day. These chairs can be seen as a simulacrum art piece to people's common misconception. I want to experiment people's thinking when they encounter art work in a gallery.
  • Blind Spot
    Blind Spot
    A chair is an everyday ordinary object that we use every day. These chairs can be seen as a simulacrum art piece according to people’s common misconception. I want to experiment people’s thinking when they encounter art work in a gallery.
  • What is the Art piece?
    What is the Art piece?
    Medium: Wood, Mixed Media Dimensions: 16x16x37(in) (each chair) Date: 2016 Description: A chair is an everyday ordinary object that we use every day. I bought three identical factory-made chairs. I made a chair identical to each factory-made chair. Chair “A” was made in an artistic way, that is, either as abstract chair or a realistic representation of a chair. Materials, shape and size does not matter. I used as many materials as possible, and of course the chair can be colorful or not. At least chair “A” can be seen as a chair. For chair “B”, I imitated another of the factory chairs, so that it is almost 90% identical. It can be a chair that people can sit on. (That is, it will play the role of a chair.) Then, I will ask people what is a chair and what is an art piece. For chair “C”, I brought two identical factory-made chairs and insisted that I made one of the two. People may suspect that assertion, but I keep insisting that I made that one. These three pairs of chair can be seen as a simulacrum art piece according to people’s common misconception. I want to experiment people’s thinking when they encounter art work in a gallery.
  • Illusion of Material
    Illusion of Material
    Medium: Wood, Rust Paint Dimensions: 16x16x37(in) Date: 2016 Description: The audience sees art according to its own knowledge of what is. There is a chair made of rusty steel—a surface made famous by Richard Serra-- but actually it is not made of steel. Its surface appears to be rusty paint but it is actually made of wood. Viewers accept this chair as art because of their ingrained acceptance of rusty steel surfaces in contemporary sculpture.
  • The Role of Art
    The Role of Art
    Medium: Wood, Stanchion post, chair Dimensions: installation- 50x43x51(in) Date: 2016 Description: There is a miserable chair, which is broken and cracked and cannot play a role as a normal chair. But, a red velvet rope stanchion around that chair and a pedestal under the chair transform that trivial chair into an incredible one. The audience would regard that chair as an art work not because of its nature as a chair but because it is framed by a red velvet rope and a pedestal.

Collage: 60 People Drawing


Collaboration with others for improving scribble work.
  • Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.02)
    Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.02)
    Medium: Acrylic & wire & thread Dimensions: Drawing-137x64(in) / Sculpture-130x43x90(in) Date: 2014 Description: I collected 60 graduate students’ scribbles at an Art school as a way to get inspiration from their drawings. I asked the Art school students to draw whatever they liked without a specific explanation beforehand and used their scribbles as the source of this work. It is a new scribble based on connecting the students’ lines. Each two dimensional line was color coded to match the three dimensional wire.
  • Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.02)-detail shot
    Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.02)-detail shot
    Title: Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.02)-detail shot Medium: Acrylic & wire & thread Dimensions: Drawing-137x64(in) / Sculpture-130x43x90(in) Date: 2014 Description: -
  • Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.01)
    Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.01)
    Medium: Wire Dimensions: Sculpture-124x41x86(in) Date: 2014 Description: I was curious about kindergarten students’ pure scribbles. Moreover, I tried to find out the difference between their lines and mine. I used their drawings as a tool for my work and created three different large drawings and 3 layers of wire sculptures based on the students’ scribbles.
  • Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.01)
    Collage: 60 People Drawing (ver.01)
    Medium: Acrylic Dimensions: Drawing- 132x158(in) Date: 2014 Description: I was curious about kindergarten students’ pure scribbles. Moreover, I tried to find out the difference between their lines and mine. I used their drawings as a tool for my work and created three different large drawings and 3 layers of wire sculptures based on the students’ scribbles.

Judge By Infer_Double-Take series

I am making art based on blind spots in order to expose the illusions and preconceptions they may contain, and encourage people to take a second look.
  • Double-Take serires
    Double-Take serires
    We are busy. We see things as we walk past. We judge what they are very quickly, by inference. We don’t need to think about them. They’re already behind us. But every object, every word, is significant. What if things that people think are obvious aren’t as we imagine? What if we could really be aware of everything we’re taking for granted?
  • Judge By Infer
    Judge By Infer
    Medium: Magazines Dimensions: Magazine-31x17(in) Date: 2015
  • Double-Take(Ver.01) - No Peeing
    Double-Take(Ver.01) - No Peeing
    Medium: Redesigned Traffic Sign, Standing Floor sign Dimensions: 22.6x12.2x15.1(in) Date: 2015 Description: As an international student who constantly confronts cultural peculiarities, many images I regularly encounter feel unnatural and perplexing to me. What others take for granted, what they neglect or gloss over, is obvious to me. In response, I make art based on these blind spots in order to expose the illusions or prejudices they may contain. Ultimately, I encourage viewers to take a second look.
  • Double-Take(Ver.03) - Top
    Double-Take(Ver.03) - Top
    Medium: Redesigned Traffic Sign, Sign Post, Sign Post Base Dimensions: 124x23.5x14.5(in) Date: 2015 Description: As an international student who constantly confronts cultural peculiarities, many images I regularly encounter feel unnatural and perplexing to me. What others take for granted, what they neglect or gloss over, is obvious to me. In response, I make art based on these blind spots in order to expose the illusions or prejudices they may contain. Ultimately, I encourage viewers to take a second look.
  • Double-Take(Ver.04) - Long way Go Back
    Double-Take(Ver.04) - Long way Go Back
    Medium: Redesigned Traffic Sign, Sign Post, Sign Post Base Dimensions: 76x28x14.5(in) Date: 2015 Description: As an international student who constantly confronts cultural peculiarities, many images I regularly encounter feel unnatural and perplexing to me. What others take for granted, what they neglect or gloss over, is obvious to me. In response, I make art based on these blind spots in order to expose the illusions or prejudices they may contain. Ultimately, I encourage viewers to take a second look.
  • Double-Take(Ver.06) – No Dumpling
    Double-Take(Ver.06) – No Dumpling
    Medium: Redesigned Traffic Sign Dimensions: 12x17(in) Date: 2016 Description: As an international student who constantly confronts cultural peculiarities, many images I regularly encounter feel unnatural and perplexing to me. What others take for granted, what they neglect or gloss over, is obvious to me. In response, I make art based on these blind spots in order to expose the illusions or prejudices they may contain. Ultimately, I encourage viewers to take a second look.

Myself


I wanted to express more about myself through works.
  • Inner Self Portrait
    Inner Self Portrait
    Medium: Mixed media Dimensions: Installation-67x38x102(in) / Each canvas- 5x7(in) Date: 2014 Description: I expressed more about myself through work. I expressed my daily mood, behavior and reaction to a new culture by making diary documents. I changed drawing materials every single day and did not have any limitations. I painted and drew many different kinds of scribbles and lines which included diagrams, scribbles, and texts in various languages. I collected 70 days of drawings and made sculptures by using real objects which were also depicted on canvases.
  • My Sentences
    My Sentences
    Medium: Maker & oil bar & pastel & charcoal Dimensions: 125x59(in) Date: 2014 Description: This work is based on the emotional experience I have had while being in America: feelings of alienation as well as those from my dreams. Also, I incorporated statements from professors and students used in critiques of my work including their opinions of what makes art good. This would be the first activity of my day on a daily basis. I drew and wrote down sentences alternating between English and Korean every other day. This work can be seen as an expression of myself in the liberating form of scribbles.

Receipts

Receipt can be represented for myself.
  • Finding My Signature
    Finding My Signature
    Medium: Receipt & Marker Dimensions: 57x35.5(in) Date: 2015 Description: I used these receipts for practicing to find my real signature. Most people do not look carefully receipts, but these can be someone’s journal. Behind a lot of autographs, there are many receipts and people could interest in my taste by looking them slowly.
  • Receipt drawing ver.01
    Receipt drawing ver.01
    Medium: Mixed Media Dimensions: 47x36(in) Date: 2015 Description: I wanted to show the viewer about myself through this work. I used receipts for representing myself to others. Receipt means about my food taste, cloth taste or course of my life and so on. People can expect what kind of person I am by looking this work.
  • Receipt drawing ver.02
    Receipt drawing ver.02
    Medium: Mixed Media Dimensions: 38x36(in) Date: 2015 Description: I wanted to show the audience about myself through this work. I used receipts for representing myself to others. Receipt means about my food taste, cloth taste or course of my life and so on. People can expect what kind of person I am by looking this work.
  • Penny and penny laid up will be many.
    Penny and penny laid up will be many.
    Medium: Receipt & Wood & Water Facet Dimensions: 23x15x20(in) Date: 2015 Description: I used a lot of receipts to criticise the culture of consumption. This work’s title is “ Penny and penny laid up will be many.” which is a Korean proverb using for this situation. It did not take a long time to collect that many receipts. It delivers my belief in the old saying, without counting the money will be spent like using water without any hesitation.
  • Caveat Emptor! (Buyer Beware!)
    Caveat Emptor! (Buyer Beware!)
    Medium: Redesigned Receipt Dimensions: (left to right) 18x21 / 8.5x24 / 11.5x24 (in) & 3.5x4.2 / 3.13x8.8 / 3.13x6.6 Date: 2015 Description: I used receipts to satirize value of fast food, cigarette and expensive goods.
  • Caveat Emptor! (Buyer Beware!)_installation
    Caveat Emptor! (Buyer Beware!)_installation
    installation shot for Caveat Emptor! (Buyer Beware!) work.

Scribble

I love to scribble. When I scribble, I feel like I am manifesting the creative impulses of my unconscious. In almost every other aspect of my life, I am confronted with rules, limitations, and concrete obstacles. For this reasons-to escape the confines of my everyday reality-I often turn to sculpture because it is a medium where I can liberate my inner feelings of spontaneity, boundlessness, and elasticity. By channeling these limitless emotions through the controlled process of sculpting, I can consciously represent my perspective freely and break the mold of self-representation in novel ways and forms. Art is the channel through which I examine, make sense of, reflect on, and delve both more deeply into myself and connect genuinely with the material and human worlds.
  • Action Scribbling
    Action Scribbling
    Medium: Light painting Dimensions: Variable dimension Date: 2013 Description: In this light painting work, my physical presence is observable in my shadow on the wall behind the light painting. Framed by two light rods, this piece is a self-portrait taken in the act of my artistic process. It’s alive in that I am present and fully involved in the moment of making my light painting.
  • The Result of My Spirits
    The Result of My Spirits
    Medium: Acrylic & Chinese ink Dimensions: Left each- 87x31(in) / Right- 34x47(in) Date: 2014 Description: I wanted to draw whatever was on my mind on a large paper in a liberated way. While I was drawing these, I danced, sang and whistled to maximize the sense of freedom.
  • Scribble-Sketch
    Scribble-Sketch
    Medium: Pencil & pen Dimensions: 7x10(in)-8pages & 19x25(in) Date: 2012~2013 Description: Taken together, these drawings represent an aesthetic that is ubiquitous throughout my entire portfolio. I believe my oeuvre is concentrated in scribbles evolving into figures that, whether they remain two-dimensional on paper or three or-four dimensional sculptures, invite ambiguity, inventive interpretation, and thoughtful engagement for the observer and myself, for that matter.
  • Scribble
    Scribble
    Medium: Iron &Hanji (traditional Korean paper) Dimensions: 30x15x14(in) Date: 2012 Description: I decided to “color in” selected areas of the bending plane that emerged once. I’d bent the linear wire seen in this piece. I chose bold colors, allocated them equally, and tried to show how they could coexist side-by side – and how areas of sameness can emerge on a surface of considerable complexity.
  • Scribble-Color
    Scribble-Color
    Medium: Mixed media Dimensions: Left-18x12x13(in)/Right-10x7x14(in) Date: 2014/2013 Description: I like the way that the artist, Hundertwasser, used his color for his works. He is one of my favorite artist who used powerful and impressive colors. I just wanted to apply his color style to my drawing sculpture to see how they matched each other.
  • Scribble
    Scribble
    Medium: Mixed media Dimensions: 35x23x71(in) Date: 2011 Description: In this piece, I sought to use a familiar mix of colors every child learns first: red and green and blue and yellow. I used yellow to attract observers’ eyes to the center, and to my surprise I obtained the opposite result: people tend to look away from the yellow quickly, as though it is too shiny. I reserved a few solid regions on the surface, and sought to populate the rest of the surface with something more lifelike. So I created a “print” effect, in order to invoke the feeling of a crowded, chaotic street grid, and I drew it on the remaining areas of the surface.
  • Scribble
    Scribble
    Medium: Marble Dimensions: 10x13x25(in) Date: 2011 Description: In this piece, I wanted to play on the rigidity of marble as a material by creating something fluid and filled with movement. The piece is a contradiction. Rather than adhering to a specific “script” in the creative process, I let the form guide me; as the lines formed, I followed them. In this way the process itself was, too, a contradiction: such an onerous task executed with such insouciance.
  • Water 1& Water 2
    Water 1& Water 2
    Medium: Stainless steel & compressed flower & PVC pipe Dimensions: 21x28x5(in), 40x24x18(in) Date: 2013 Description: I believe viewers often experience the recognition of something familiar – water, coming out of a spout. Not the continuous flow of water, but a moment during that flowing. Captured like a polaroid snapshot, and then stripped down to its essence.
  • The Smoke
    The Smoke
    Medium: Stainless steel &wood Dimensions: 46x27x56(in) Date: 2013 Description: The form of smoke is embodied in irregular organic lines.