User:Parkhans/SUKUPARK

Suck-Woo Park (박석우); also known as Suku Park (born 1947), is a Korean contemporary ceramic artist and a council member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).

Early life and education
Suku Park was born in Seoul 1947 and attended the Fine Arts College of the Seoul National University in Korea (1966-1970) before moving to Stockholm, Sweden in 1974 to graduate from the Swedish State School of Arts & Design (Konstfack).

Work
In early 1980s Suku Park was the art director for Pentik Novus and lived with his family in Posio, Finland. In Posio he worked from 1984-1987 and has since his international career returned to Posio in 2011. In 1984 Suku Park moved his studio and his family to Espoo, and later in 1997 was one of the first members of Onoma (The Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists in Fiskars).

Suku Park's international career began from Posio and he has since exhibited in multiple countries with collections amongst others in National Museum in Stockholm, Museum of Painting & Sculpture in Istanbul and Musée Ariana in Geneva. Suku Park was a professor at Sangmyung University in Seoul, South Korea from early 2000 and has since moved back to Finland and Lapland where he lives and works.

On Posio and living in Finland affecting his work, Suku Park stated that "My language of form and expression is not Korean, but a reaction inside myself to form things with my own hands in order to give an object its own character. When I'm designing I'm thinking function, but I'm thinking humour too". He continues that his works is influenced by the environment and was fascinated with Posio and the focus he could have there.

Suku Park is the council member of IAC in Geneva, Switzerland, member of Konsthantverkarna, Stockholm, Sweden, Ceramic Group Kuusi, Finland.

Exhibitions
Suku Park's selected solo exhibitions include Anthony Shaw Gallery, London, UK (1978), Lotte Gallery, Seoul, Korea (1980), Retretti Art Center, Retretti, Finland (1985), Illums Bolighus, Copenhagen, Denmark (1985), Norway Design Center, Oslo, Norway (1985), Konsthantverkarna, Stockholm, Sweden (1986, 1989), Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, US (1990), Mikimoto Art Hall, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan (1989, 1992), SSamjigil Seoul, Korea, Gallery Park Ryusook Seoul, Korea, Reuchinhaus, Pforzheim, Germany and Gallerie Marian Heller Sandhausen, Germany and Mokkumto Gallery, Seoul, Korea, Tong-in Gallery, New York City, US.

Collections
Suku Park's contemporary ceramic art pieces are collected at

The Scotland National Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland

The Victoria & Albert Museum, London,UK

The British Crafts Council, London, UK

National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

National Museum Of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

Malmö Museum, Malmo, Sweden

Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden

Museum Of Painting & Sculpture, Istanbul, Turkey

Musee Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland

Museum Of Decorative Art, Prague, Czech Republic

Museum Of International Ceramics, Bechyne, Czech Republic

Museum Of Porcelain, Loket, Czech Republic

Iris Collection, Porvoo, Finland

Coffee Cup Museum, Posio, Finland

Youngone Plaza, Seoul, Korea

Total Museum, Seoul, Korea

Daeyoo Cultural Foundation, Korea

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada

Ceramic & Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Canada