Solo

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibtions

Song Burnsoo's solo exhibitions trace six decades of artistic evolution, from his first presentation at Daejeon Cultural Center in 1960 to his 2024 show at SongArt Gallery in Seoul. Landmark solo presentations include Pantomime of 50 Years at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Gwacheon, 40 Years of Burnsoo Song at Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, and exhibitions at Gallery Hyundai, Gana Gallery, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, and Garboushian Gallery in Los Angeles.

2020 – Present

2024 — Epic of the Night Sky, SongArt Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2022 — Know Yourself, Gallery Baton, Seoul, Korea

2021 — Song Burnsoo Special Exhibition: A Compass, Daedam Museum, Damyang, Korea

Gallery installation view of Burnsoo Song exhibition — small blue abstract works in horizontal sequence, white gallery walls

SONG, BURNSOO

Possibility 024-EI, EII, EVI, EX, 2024

Object painting, mulberry paper relief on canvas with thorn elements

Presented in Possibility Series: Special Survey Exhibition at Blue Baton, Gallery Baton, Seoul, from April 25 to May 25, 2024. The exhibition extended Song's lifelong meditation on the thorn, reframing it as a unit of cosmos, individual stars, constellations, and clusters drawn from the night sky above his studio in the forest at Yongin.

SONG, BURNSOO

Possibility 022 series, 2022

Object painting, mulberry paper relief with thorn elements on canvas

Presented in Know Yourself, Song Burnsoo's first solo exhibition with Gallery Baton, Seoul, from August 23 to September 24, 2022. The exhibition introduced a body of new work centered on the thorn, Song's persona over half a century. Here the symbolism extends beyond suffering and atonement into a meditation on cosmos, where each thorn becomes a star, a constellation, a unit of the infinite.

A woman walking in an art gallery with white walls. On the left, a green canvas hangs on the wall, and on the right, two beige panels display small colorful cone-shaped sculptures with shadows.

2010 – 2019

2017 — Song Burnsoo: Pantomime of 50 Years, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea

2013 — Song Burnsoo, Garboushian Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2000 – 2009

2007 — 40 Years of Burnsoo Song, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

2006 — Song Burnsoo, Seo Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2004 — Song Burnsoo, Baiksang Memorial Hall, Seoul, Korea

2003 — Song Burnsoo, Museum of Sukdam, Yongin, Korea

2001 — Song Burnsoo, Museum of Maga (now Moon Art Grounds), Yongin, Korea

Handwritten signature of Burnsoo Song (Song Burn Soo / 송번수), Korean artist

1990 – 1999

1994 — Song Burnsoo, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

1992 — Song Burnsoo, Gana Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1991 — Song Burnsoo, Choi Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Burnsoo Song, fiber art detail — branch, seeds and leaves on textured grey ground, tapestry

SONG, BURNSOO

Black Thorn with Green Leafs, 1990

Acrylic on handmade mulberry paper relief

Presented at Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, from March 16 to April 20, 2013. One of Song's earliest works in mulberry paper relief, Black Thorn with Green Leafs marks the moment the thorn fully became his singular language. The work stands at the threshold between natural observation and spiritual allegory, where the organic form of the thorn begins its long journey from botanical fact to existential symbol.

1980 – 1989

1989 — Song Burnsoo, Chosun Ilbo Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1985 — Song Burnsoo, Seoul Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1983 — Song Burnsoo, Yeh Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1982 — Song Burnsoo, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1979 — Song Burnsoo, The Korean Culture & Arts Foundation Fine Art Center, Seoul, Korea

1978 — Song Burnsoo, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea

1977 — Song Burnsoo, Stockholm Cultural Center, Stockholm, Sweden

1975 — Song Burnsoo, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea

1974 — Song Burnsoo, Myungdong Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1972 — Song Burnsoo, Goethe Institute, Seoul, Korea

1960 — Song Burnsoo, Daejeon Cultural Center, Daejeon, Korea

1960 – 1979

Burnsoo Song artwork — three keys on blue background, series number 52343, mixed media

SONG, BURNSOO

Pantomime I, II, III, 1971

Serigraph on paper

Presented at the First Contemporary Prints Grand Prix Exhibition, Myeong-dong Gallery, Seoul, October 14 to 20, 1971, organized under the sponsorship of the Asia Foundation and Kyunghyang Shinmun. Among Song's landmark early prints, the Pantomime series established his reputation as a leading voice in Korean experimental printmaking at the start of his career.

Group

Exhibitions

Song Burnsoo's work has been presented alongside leading figures in Korean and international contemporary art at institutions worldwide. Selected exhibitions include Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2023), Metamorphoses: The Art of Woven Tapestry at the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, 98 Comparaison L'Art Actuel in Paris, and presentations at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn.

Burnsoo Song artwork — black illustration of a house form, graphic print on white

2020 – Present

2024 — 45cm, Chapter II, Seoul, Korea

2023 — Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2022 — Indexing the Nature: From Near and Far Away, Gallery Baton at No.9 Cork Street, London, UK

2020 — In Lieu of Higher Ground, Gallery Baton, Seoul, Korea

Exhibition view featuring works by Burnsoo Song alongside a large pink lips sculpture installation, mixed media contemporary exhibition

SONG, BURNSOO

Take Cover I, II, III, IV, V, 1974

Serigraph on paper, five sheets 103 × 103 cm each. Collection of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Exhibited in Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2023

2010 – 2019

2016 — Story Blossoms in Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea

2016 — The 130th Anniversary of Korea-France Diplomatic Relations, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

Gallery interior with Burnsoo Song tapestry depicting flames at centre, fiber art installation, white gallery walls

SONG, BURNSOO

In Lieu of Higher Ground, 2020 Gallery Baton, Seoul

Works by Song Burnsoo, Park Suk Won, and Park Jang Nyun

Courtesy Gallery Baton3

2000 – 2009

2005 — Metamorphoses: The Art of Woven Tapestry, Past and Present, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

2005 — Textile in Future Expression, Contemporary Art Space Osaka, Osaka, Japan

2003 — Leading Artist, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

2001 — International Tapestry Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

2000 — Transformation and Development of Modern Printing Arts, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea

1990 – 1999

1999 — Beyond the Sea: Song Burnsoo and Fukumoto Shigeki, Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Itami Craft Center, Osaka, Japan

1999 — Flight through Trace and Touch, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea

1998 — 98 Comparaison L'Art Actuel, Eiffel-Brandly, Paris, France

1996 — Development of Korean Modernism, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

1994 — Intellectual Presentation, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea

1980 – 1989

1988 — Korean Contemporary Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

1987 — International Impact, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

1980 — Korean & German Artists, Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany

1960 – 1979

1975 — The 3rd Indépendants, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

1975 — The 1st Ecole de Séoul, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea