Installation view of 《Transmutation》, 2026. Courtesy of NOON CONTEMPORARY.

NOON CONTEMPORARY presents 《Transmutation》, a group exhibition featuring Byungho Lee, Chansong Kim, and Choi Jiyoung, on view through November 1, 2026. Bringing together eleven works—five sculptures and six two-dimensional works—the exhibition explores how the human form acquires a new sense of presence through different materials and processes of making.
 
Here, the notion of the “body” extends beyond human anatomy to encompass the form, volume, surface, and density of the materials that constitute an artwork. Viewers may initially recognize a human figure or a fragment of the body, yet it is resin and plaster, paint and canvas, or clay that gives the image its physical existence. Beginning with familiar bodily forms, the exhibition invites closer attention to their materials and physical properties.


Byungho Lee, Eccentric Abattis, 2023, color plaster on sculpture, 88 × 71 × 58 cm.

Byungho Lee captures the human body through 3D scanning, then fragments and transforms it through digital modeling. He 3D-prints the resulting form in PLA resin and applies a thin layer of colored plaster to its surface, adding color and texture. In this process, familiar bodily proportions and structures are disrupted, allowing traces of the human figure to coexist with unfamiliar sculptural masses. His sculptures reveal how form and surface change as the body is translated into data and then materialized anew.


Chansong Kim, Leaning, Overlapping, 2022, oil on canvas, 91 × 91 cm.

Chansong Kim enlarges and crops parts of the body within the picture plane. With fewer visual cues through which to identify the body as a whole, viewers encounter fields of color and contours reminiscent of skin, alongside traces of accumulated and flowing paint. Brushstrokes construct bodily forms while also revealing the thickness and movement of the paint itself. The image of the body and the physical substance of painting overlap within a single canvas.


Choi Jiyoung, Immersion, 2011, terracotta, 17 × 63 × 26 cm.

Choi Jiyoung models and shapes clay to express the posture and balance of the human figure. These relatively recognizable bodily forms retain traces of the artist’s hands, the clay’s granular texture, and surfaces hardened through firing. Terracotta serves both as a medium for representing the body and as a material that determines the sculpture’s weight, texture, and presence. Viewers recognize a human body while also sensing the physical qualities of the clay that sustains its form.
 
Although the three artists approach the human figure differently, their works suggest that an artwork cannot be understood solely through the figure it represents. By inviting viewers to shift their attention between image and material, 《Transmutation》 asks what we recognize as a body and how an artwork acquires a body of its own.
 
 
 
Exhibition Information
 
Title: 《Transmutation》
Artists: Byungho Lee, Chansong Kim, Choi Jiyoung
Dates: October 1–November 1, 2026
Venue: NOON CONTEMPORARY
Address: 72 Sowol-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea
Inquiries: +82-2-6958-7172
Website: https://www.nooncontemporary.com