“Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home,” 2013–2022, Graphite on mulberry paper, stainless steel wires, LED lighting, 534 × 866 × 802.5 cm, Installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, 2022
South Korean artist Do Ho Suh is returning home. A comprehensive exhibition of his four decades of artistic output has recently opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). On view now through February 9, 2027, the eponymous show is his largest to date. It features over 500 of his works spanning his entire career, allowing visitors to examine both the breadth of his portfolio and the ever-present themes in the various forms they’ve taken throughout the many years.
Suh is best known for his “fabric architecture” installations, in which he recreates spaces like his previous New York City apartment. The pieces are crafted from translucent fabric, allowing visitors to see through the architectural structure. In this way, the works are like an apparition—so real but also light enough that they could seemingly disappear at any moment.
The ghostly effect of the fabric architecture is in keeping with the larger themes of Suh’s work, which questions dualities: individual and community, home and displacement, and memory and identity. His oeuvre is informed by growing up in Seoul and living in the U.S. and Europe, and the toll that relocation has on someone. It changes not only where they live, but also their relationships and can even allow for reinvention. Home, in this case, is not a fixed building, but it is an intangible space that holds memory and experience, enriched by travel. It exists beyond any single place or culture.
Suh’s exhibition begins in a corridor leading up to galleries three, four, and five in the MMCA. In Gallery 3, visitors are greeted by Small Gate (2017), a reconstruction of the gate to the hanok (a traditional Korean house) where Suh once lived. This gallery also showcases about 200 drawings that go beyond record-keeping to “chart the artist’s creative domain.”
Gallery 4 focuses on Rubbing/Loving, which is a body of work that remembers places. To capture them, Suh pressed hanji (traditional Korean paper) against a surface and rubbed it with graphite or colored pencils. The paper was then assembled into a three-dimensional form. The work captures both the surface texture and represents the physical act of remembrance.
Gallery 5 displays the type of works for which Suh is best known, including Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul (2024), which is a reconstruction of his current London apartment along with architectural elements—door handles, outlets, and switches—from the many other homes he has lived in.
Parts of the exhibition will be on display elsewhere. From December 18, 2026, through March 28, 2027, Suh’s iconic work Apartment A, Unit 2, Corridor, and Staircase, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA (2012) will be on view in the Seoul Box. It’s the first time the work’s complete set of units is being shown together in a single place.
Do Ho Suh is now on view through February 9, 2027. Visit the MMCA to learn more and get your tickets.
South Korean artist Do Ho Suh is returning home.
“Nest/s,” 2024, Polyester and stainless steel, 410.1 x 2,148.7 × 375.4 cm
A comprehensive exhibition of his four decades of artistic output has recently opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA).
“Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul,” 2024, Polyester and stainless steel, 455 × 1,237 × 575 cm
“Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul,” 2024, Polyester and stainless steel, 455 × 1,237 × 575 cm
On view now through February 9, 2027, the eponymous show is his largest to date.
“Apartment A, Corridors and Staircases, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA(Kanazawa Version),” 2012 Polyester and stainless steel, Apt A: 690 × 430 × 245 cm; Corridors and Staircases: 1,328 × 179 × 1,175 cm
It features over 500 of his works spanning his entire career, allowing visitors to examine both the breadth of his portfolio and the ever-present themes in the various forms they’ve taken throughout the many years.
“Room 516/516-I/516-II,” 1994–1995 Muslin and zippers, 266.7 x 213.4 x 365.8 cm
Suh is best known for his “fabric architecture” installations, in which he recreates spaces like his previous New York City apartment…
“Haunting Home,” 2019, Thread embedded in STPI handmade cotton paper, 131.5 x 167 cm
… but his work comprises drawings, garments, and more.
“Memory of Love (collaboration with RE;CODE),” 2026, Wool and nylon clothing, 93 x 45 x 30 cm
