A World of Transparent Breath: Meeting Primordial Life in Shin Su-seong’s Animal Art
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
Artist Shin Su-seong, who is described as having a developmental disability, has quietly built a distinctive practice by drawing animals—1,525 species as of December 2025—often visiting zoos and aquariums since childhood. For him, animals provided a safe, nonjudgmental way to learn connection when direct eye contact with people was difficult. His solo show “Standing Under the Thicket” (Gallery1, Seoul, Dec 6–30) groups about 200 works to reframe animals not as taxonomic categories but as relational beings: “families,” “collectors,” “wise ones,” and more. Shin paints simply and intuitively, capturing form and life-temperature through line and color rather than decoration. Each work lists the species name in Korean, Japanese, and English—a personal record of having truly seen the subject. Installations include whale paintings with deep-sea soundscapes and a “Noah’s Ark” piece that upends visual hierarchies by having different animals gaze back at viewers, prompting reflection on human–animal parity and ecological responsibility. Overall, the exhibition seeks to revive our lost sensory connection with nature (scientists call an organism’s perceptual world “Umwelt”) and to remind viewers that drawing can be an expression of love—rebuilding a shared, breathing world where humans are companions among many lives.
