After studying sculpture at Kyungnam University in South Korea, Seungsoo moves to France in 2006,. He obtains a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris in 2007.
That same year, he begins working with the Swedish figurative sculptor Gudmar Olovson (1936-2017). Working alongside him for 10 years, he develops a different approach to sculpture, one that was less academic and more wholehearted. Seungsoo has a passion for the writings of Freud, Lacan and Kant, alongside the Buddhist and Confucian thought in which he has been immersed since childhood.
His artistic universe is shaped by abstract artists such as Pierre Soulages, Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko, as well as sculptors like Antony Gromeley and, of course, Gudmar Olovson.
A multi-talented artist, Seungsoo Baek draws characters in ink on paper, sculpts and creates installations. After stretching and preparing his canvas he uses different mediums : polystyrene, acrylic or elastomer. "You have to keep searching, keep trying to be born again and again, so that one day you can get somewhere. The original shade was "black", which I like because it has something "neutral" about it. My intention is that you should approach my work without any particular expectations, that you should simply let yourself be impregnated by a sensation. The colours and nuances come later".
The originality of Seungsoo's work comes first and foremost from its diversity: drawing, sculpture, painting; but also from the polystyrene material - always black - which he burns, cuts and slices to give relief to his canvases. From his culture in the Far East, he has retained the tireless repetition of the same gesture: "I like to make countless drafts, then observe them until I see an idea appear, something new". This contemporary, light and flexible material might seem to be at odds with an idea of ancestral workmanship, but it is the fruit of Seungsoo research and multiple influences.
Seungsoo Baek was born in Busan, Korea, in 1979. He has lived and worked in Paris since 2006.