Born in 1949 in Jeon-Ju, South Korea, Sung-Hee Cho is a sought-after contemporary artist known for blending the traditional Korean sensibility and inspirations of her childhood in her works The artist showed an early inclination towards childhood and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea She followed this up with a Master's degree from Ewha Women's University After relocating to the US in 1980, she attended the Pratt Institute of Art in New York City and the Art Institute in Chicago The artist started her career with figurative works and evolved her aesthetic vocabulary to execute mesmerising abstract collage works, which have become her signature style

A common decorative feature of traditional Korean houses, the Asian mulberry paper, also known as Hanji, plays a central and integral role in her art through which she weaves her intimate narrative with the sublime aesthetic of nature

“I paint to find a way to the root of beauty It is understood that there is no greater beauty than infinite nature Therefore, I use the flower as a symbol to get closer to that essence I am in ecstasy when colouring a white canvas covered in Hanji, enchanted like walking on a road, fully covered in cherry blossom However, I cannot fully express the wonder seen in my imagination while trapped in the limits of the human mind Today, I still travel through the world inside my canvas in search of perfect beauty,” says the artist of her inspiration from nature translated to her sublime creations

For her creations divided into monochromatic and polychromatic pieces, Cho employs a meticulous collage technique that involves cutting each Hanji paper by hand, layering them with oil paint, and then integrating them to compose a canvas with a three-dimensional surface With each of them bearing more than ten thousand paper petals, works by Sung-Hee, in a way, emanate a sense of calm emerging from the chaos of the co