Immerse yourself in the large-scale sculptural work and playful shapes of Korean-New Zealand artist Seung Yul Oh,  described by the Guardian UK as  ‘One of the rising stars of the Asian art market’.

While Oh’s interactive inflatables may be the highlight for younger audiences, MOAMOA also features video, painting and performance. His Oddooki, commissioned by Te Papa in 2009, is described as ‘a playful collection of egg-shaped birds that rock and chime’.  MOAMOA, Korean for ‘gather gather’ or ‘gather together’, is an exhibition strongly shaped by the nature of Oh’s practice, especially its persistent sense of rejuvenation in which nothing is allowed to simply sit still or be quiet.

Born in  Seoul in 1981, Seung Yul Oh gained a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2005. He achieved early attention with an exhibition in which he deep fried all his paintings. An on-going performance/video work, The Ability To Blow Themselves Up, captures participants blowing up balloons until the point of explosion. 

In 2011, Seung Yul Oh was the second recipient of the Harriet Friedlander Residency to live and work in New York. Oh currently divides his time between Auckland and Seoul.

MOAMOA is the first survey exhibition of his work and is a joint project between Dunedin Public Art Gallery and City Gallery Wellington. 

*image (left)
Courtesy of the artist and One and J. Gallery, Seoul