Mar 04, 2020

Choi So Young - Upcycling Artist

Choi So Young is a contemporary Korean artist who creates urban landscape compositions made from discarded/old denims found in second-hand shops. Every button, seam, pocket, and belt loop of the jeans find its place to depict a specific detail of a picture like a street, a window or a building. Particularly creative is the different shades of blue, bleached denim and reverse of the fabric that is applied in her artworks.

Born in 1980 in Busan, Korea, she went on to study art at Dong Eui University in Busan. Choi has exhibited at many esteemed Art fairs, including Art Miami Basel and Art Chicago. She continues to live and work in Korea.

Choi So Young often 'draws' her hometown of Busan, the second largest city of the Republic of Korea and its largest port. The sea and the mountains surrounding the city are surprisingly realistic. But the most fascinating are high-rise buildings and cramped quarters in the Asian style piled one over another. The works of Choi So Young are sold at auctions at staggering prices.

Her ingenious use of yellowed leather tags, bleach stains, and pocket liners to describe telephone poles, skies, or raised highway pillars offer an especially dynamic exploration of otherwise banal subject matter.