Sculptor Shin Jae-hwan melds stone and glass in solo exhibition

'Lyric of Life' sculpture show opens at Noh Gallery in Seoul

Artist combines contrasting materials to forge distinctive sculptural language

Shin Jae-hwan's "Lyric of Life." [Noh Gallery]

Hard and opaque stone, delicate and transparent glass — two opposing materials layered together to evoke the birth of life and the emotions stirring within the human interior.

Sculptor Shin Jae-hwan, who pushes abstract aesthetics to their limits by combining stone and glass, opens his solo exhibition "Lyric of Life" at Noh Gallery in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Thursday.

Shin spent more than two decades working exclusively in stone sculpture before turning to glass in 2017, broadening his artistic practice through sustained research into the medium. By experimenting with the fusion of the two materials, he has built a distinctive sculptural vocabulary.

The physical properties of each material are central to his work. He bonds layers of glass and stone, then cuts, carves and polishes the resulting forms into organic shapes. Works such as "Lyric of Life" and "Toward That Place" preserve the inherent character of each dissimilar material while drawing them into harmony, giving rise to entirely new forms.

The contrasting qualities of the materials — light against dark, transparent against opaque — carry an implicit commentary on human duality. Through them, Shin explores the complexity of inner emotion and the erosion of innocence.

Shin Jae-hwan's "Life — Affinity 3." [Noh Gallery]

The exhibition also introduces a new body of flat glass paintings composed of varying colors, divisions and densities. The series "Fragrance of Life" and "Life — Affinity" bring together vibrantly colored glass fragments in irregular forms to produce abstract imagery. Taken together, the works trace the full arc of Shin's evolution — from traditional three-dimensional stone sculpture, through hybrid stone-and-glass forms, to flat pictorial works.

In his artist's statement, Shin wrote that he "decomposes and reinterprets images drawn from close observation of stone, realizing a search for identity through the medium of glass," adding that he sought "to construct the nature and workings of matter into sculptural form and thereby endow it with vitality."

Shin majored in sculpture at Sangmyung University, studied environmental sculpture at the graduate school of the University of Seoul, and completed a doctoral program in glass art at Namseoul University. He studied under Jeon Noe-jin, a master of contemporary Korean stone sculpture, and served six years as the founding president of the Korea Contemporary Stone Sculpture Association.

The exhibition runs through Nov. 26.

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