"Many of my artistic breakthroughs at STPI came thanks to crowd-sourced problem solving, such as the use of gelatin-based paper for my thread drawings, which is one of the great advantages of working in a print shop. Together, we arrive at an answer that no one would have arrived at individually."
– Do Ho Suh
Do Ho Suh (b. 1962, Seoul, South Korea, based in London, United Kingdom) works with drawing, sculpture and film to explore how space is mediated, inhabited and remembered. He confronts its fluid and psychological character across various categories—domestic and public, physical and immaterial, mobile and fixed—to examine ideas of selfhood, belonging and home.
Suh’s works are often autobiographical, such as renowned life-size sculptures of his former residences, constructed with translucent fabric and suspended for viewers to meander through. In a more intimate scale, Suh meticulously recreates household items like switches, plugs and door handles in the form of pastel rubbings on paper. These works point to Suh’s preoccupation with how bodies relate to and interact with the built environment, suggesting that our surroundings shape us just as much as we shape them.
Suh obtained a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, New York in 1994, and his MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 1997. His work is in several major collections including 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Notable solo exhibitions include The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House (2025), Tate Modern, London; Speculations (2024), Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Tracing Time (2024), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Do Ho Suh (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; 348 West 22nd Street (2019), Los Angeles County Museum of Art,; Robin Hood Gardens (2019), Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Do Ho Suh (2018) Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Korridor (2018) ARoS, Aarhus; and One (2018), The Brooklyn Museum, New York. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including Everyday Life (2013), 4th Asian Art Biennial, Taichung; If you were to live here… (2013) 5th Auckland Triennial; Roundtable (2012), 9th Gwangju Biennale; Touched (2010), 6th Liverpool Biennial; Poetic Justice (2003), 8th Istanbul Biennial; APT4 (2002), Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane; and (The World May Be) Fantastic (2002), 13th Biennale of Sydney. Suh represented Korea at Plateau of Humankind (2001), 49th Venice Biennale, Venice.
Suh has had a long relationship with STPI, resulting in multiple residencies in 2009, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024. His 2013 residency culminated in the exhibition New Works (2015).
