Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Eun-Ha Paek’s sculptures give physical form to the artist’s inner narratives and personal history, while exploring broader themes of identity and human experience. Paek’s hybrid approach to ceramics is informed by her background in animation and film. Her attempts to roll increasingly smaller, tighter coils eventually led her to introduce 3D printing to her practice, enabling detail that would not be possible by hand. The resulting pieces, while finally static, are created through a process that in many ways mimics stop motion animation. Paek’s work, across media, investigates questions of identity through storytelling. Hints of recognizable references and motifs are present in her figures, but this host of characters is the unique product of a visual language developed to give shape to the artist’s internal dialogue.
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center has announced the 12 artists selected for the 2025 Arts/Industry residency program, including Brooklyn-based ceramic artist Eun-Ha Paek.
The Brooklyn-based ceramic artist Eun-Ha Paek’s pieces are defined by their renegade spirit. A recent work, a foot-high stoneware form, resembles a child’s stick-figure drawing, but with a Surrealist bent: Instead of a head, it has a blue-and-white delftware-style dinner plate; instead of eyes, there are painted butterflies. “I like combining serve ware with food shapes, as if elements of a meal had come together and were having a dinner party,” says Paek, who builds her works’ hollow extremities, including legs that look like hot dogs, with a machine called an extruder and molds other parts by hand before coating the finished forms with cobalt and iron oxide washes and glazes.
The new issue of Acne Paper is created around the idea of a house with a fantasy collection of furniture, art and objects. To furnish our imaginary house we have been searching through time and place for the unique: from the most interesting pieces by contemporary designers, to iconic items in the history of decorative arts, from surreal objets d’art, to ancient antiques and invaluable masterworks.
EUN-HA PAEK
Korean, b. 1974
EDUCATION
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Alters, HB381, New York, NY
Plumage, Stroll Garden, Los Angeles, CA
2023
Identity Parade, Nucleus Portland, Portland, OR
2022
Amalgam, HB381, New York, NY
2021
Eun-Ha Paek, Hostler Burrows, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Two, Too, Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY
2017
Eun-Ha Paek, Pascal Gallery, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ
2016
Between Worlds, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ
2015
A part of, a parting, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Postcards from Next Year, Ai Ai Gasa, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Living with Art and Design, The Ann Norton Sculpture Garden, West Palm Beach, FL
Narratives in Clay, County Hall Pottery, London, UK
2024
Aesthetic of Everyday Objects: The Cup, ATLA, Los Angeles, CA
Dream House, Stroll Garden, East Hampton, NY
Fusion and Flux, NCECA, Richmond, VA
Positive Exposure, Tag Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Vagabond Shoes, McBride Contemporain, Montreal, Canada
2023
In House, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY
Kayfabe, Guerrero Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Sense and Sensibility, Artport Kingston, Kingston, NY
The Lunar Project, Blatimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD
The Shape of Now, Todd Art Gallery, Nashville, TN
Twenty-fifth Anniversary, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
Well Cold, Moosey Gallery, London, UK
Where Land Meets Sea, Stroll Garden, East Hampton, NY
2022
Books and Things, Helen J. Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
CDA Potluck, CDA Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Duos, Peripheral Space
Full Spectrum, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Mise en Place, Friends Art Place, Arlington, VA
Modular Mosaic, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY
Weeds in the Woods, Headstone Gallery, Kingston, NY
2021
Friends of Marvin Gardens, Stanley’s, Los Angeles, CA
Kent State National Ceramics Invitational, KSU Downtown Gallery, Kent, OH
Soft Elegy, RSOAA, Brooklyn, NY
Through a Glass Darkly: Mirrors and Vanity, Friends Art Space, Arlington, VA
2020
Claytopian, Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Decameron Day 9, New Release Gallery, New York, NY
Emotionally Coded, LES Gallery at the Clemente, New York, NY
Human Expectations II, HUB-Robeson Galleries, Penn State, Philadelphia, PA
potLUCK, Jane Hartstook Gallery, New York, NY
Strange Days: Hit Pause, White Columns Online Exhibit, White Columns, New York, NY
2019
Bodega Imprimatur, Facets, Los Angeles, CA
Eun-Ha Paek and Rachel O’Meara, Sculpture Space NYC, Long Island City, NY
Making Ceramics in the Digital Age, DeKalb Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
New Artists Group Exhibition, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
Online Platform, Juried Show, Korean International Ceramic Biennale (KICB), Gyeonggido, South Korea
2018
Beyond the Brickyard, Juried by Kristen Morgin, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
Ceramics Now 2018, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY
Melted City 4, Yui Gallery, New York, NY
Design Miami/, Hostler Burrows, Miami, FL
2017
Archie Bray Resident Artists Exhibition, Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, Spokane, WA
Melted City 4, Blanc Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
Melted City 4 @RISD, ISB Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Resident Artists Exhibition, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
2015
50 Towers, Kikkerland, New York, NY
2014
Death By Art, Death by Audio, Brooklyn, NY
2013
It’s a Pink World, Rojo Bermelo, Mexico City, Mexico
2010
YouTube Play Guggenheim Biennial of Creative Video, Guggenheim Museum, New York, Bilbao, Berlin, and Venice
2009
First Look 2010 Emerging Artist Series, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ
2008
Once Upon a Time, Group Show, ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, NY
2007
Secret Clubhouse, Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, New York, NY
2005
Postcards from Poketo, Revolver Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004
Cute and Scary, Flux Factory, Queens, NY
2003
Cybelle’s Lovely, San Francisco, CA
2002
Modart’s Keep a Breast, Triple Five Soul, New York, NY
RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AWARDS
2024
Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort Grant, Asheville, NC
2023
Artist in Residence, Expressive Computation Lab, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Experimental Clay Grant, Expressive Computation Lab, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
2019
Resident, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan
2018
Sundaymorning@ekwc Grant, Oisterwijk, The Netherlands
Resident, European Keramic Work Centre, Sundaymorning@ekwc, Oisterwijk, The Netherlands
Summer Resident, Center for Contemporary Ceramics, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
2017
Rudy Autio Fund for Creative Initiatives, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
Windgate Scholar, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
Fellowship, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
Summer Resident, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
2014
Anna Siok Award, Greenwich House Pottery
2008
Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, Film/Video category
1995
Rhode Island School of Design Scholarship, David Rosenberg Memorial Scholarship Award
PUBLICATIONS
Singleton, Kate. Ceramics: Contemporary Artists Working in Clay. San Francisco: Chronicle
Books, 2016.
Slocombe, Mike. Max Hits. Rotovision, 2003.
Smith, Colin and Norma V. Toraya. New Masters of Photoshop. Wrox Press, 2001.
Wasserman, Mark. Rethink, Redesign, Reconstruct. HOW Books, 2004.
American Illustration, Vol. 24, 25, 27, 28
Curvy 3 Showcase. Australia. 2006.
Pictoplasma: Characters in Motion, Vol. 3. Berlin: Pictoplasma Publishing, 2010.
Pictoplasma: The Character Encyclopaedia. Berlin: Pictoplasma Publishing, 2006.
Society of Illustrators NY, Vol. 50
3×3 Illustration Annual, Vol. 6
SELECTED SCREENINGS
Broadcast:
Comedy Central
Sundance Channel
Democratic Republic of Congo
Film Festivals:
Sundance Online Film Festival
SXSW Film Festival
Pictoplasma, Germany
Playmedia, Korea
Krok International Film Festival, Ukraine
AnimaBasauri, Spain
International Film Festival Breda, Netherlands
Woodstock Film Festival
3DNA@Comicon, Italy
Sonar Barcelona
Art, Culture,Technology installation at 1996 Olympics
ResFest
OTHER
Adjunct professor, BFA Illustration, Parsons School of Design, 2020–current
Faculty, Greenwich House Pottery, NY, 2020–current
Faculty, doclay, NY, 2023
Guest lecturer, Ceramics, Pratt Institute, 2019
Guest lecturer, BFA Illustration, Parsons School of Design, 2019
Visiting artist, CSU Pottery, Colorado State University, 2019
Visiting critic, MFA Illustration, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2017, 2016, 2014
Guest lecturer, MFA Illustration, Fashion Institute of Technology, 2014, 2013
Guest lecturer, BFA Animation, Rhode Island School of Design, 2013, 2008
Guest lecturer, BFA Illustration, Rhode Island School of Design, 2004
