Yongrae KWON

Kwon Yongrae (b. 1964)

Stainless Steel  The Cold and the Warm

Stainless steel is the primary material in Kwon Yongrae’s artistic practice. It is cold, precise, and pure—qualities that the artist not only accepts but embraces. For Kwon, this metal embodies an urban, contemporary, and intellectual sensibility. Paradoxically, he chooses this cold material to express heat.

The process begins with mirror-finishing sheets of stainless steel. Through this treatment, the surface takes on an even colder and more crystalline clarity, becoming a perfect mirror. These sheets are then cut into individual units. Each unit is hammered by hand—over long, repetitive hours. The once-sharp reflections fracture under the rhythm of hammering, scattering light in new directions. And in that moment, the light begins to dance. It is a moment that repeats endlessly, as thousands of units are slowly, painstakingly prepared. To the artist, these stainless steel fragments are not merely material—they are pigments, thick with potential. When affixed one by one onto a canvas, the cold, metallic rigidity vanishes. In its place, a glowing, almost ecstatic illusion emerges. Like the smoldering brilliance of a setting sun, the material is transformed into image. And in this transformation, Kwon’s work reveals itself to be, at its core, a form of painting. The act of placing each steel unit onto the canvas brings the artist the same joy and fulfillment as drawing a single, ink-drenched brushstroke on traditional rice paper. As the ink bleeds into the fiber, so do these metallic strokes spread and blend, carrying with them a richness—a sensuality—that holds light within. Each work becomes not only an image, but a vessel for light, crafted through meditative labor and poetic vision.