Detail of fiber art by Burnsoo Song — red textile with gold leaf-like woven patterns

Song BurnSoo

Burnsoo Song, blue vertical tapestry with white jagged line and triangular forms, fiber art

Burnsoo Song, abstract artwork 1994 — large red circle with concentric forms, radiating green lines, woodblock print

A tall, narrow red textile with a central black jagged line and small yellow specks.

Burnsoo Song, black and white woodblock print — triangular forms in oval border, abstract composition

Burnsoo Song, woodblock print — rose on plate with knife, surrealist composition, black and white

Song

BurnSoo 송번수

Song BurnSoo is one of the most original and important artists to emerge from Korea in the past six decades. His work across fiber art, tapestry, printmaking, and spatial design has redefined the boundaries between craft and contemporary art, transforming thread, wood, and ink into works of extraordinary material power and emotional depth. For over sixty years, Song has created works that explore the inseparability of making and meaning, bridging Korean artistic tradition with the language of contemporary art on a global stage.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1960, Song's work has been shown at galleries, museums, and cultural institutions throughout the world. His work has been presented at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul and Gwacheon; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest; the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Gallery Hyundai, Seoul; Gana Gallery, Seoul; Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and Gallery Baton, Seoul and London. His work was the subject of a major retrospective, Pantomime of 50 Years, organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gwacheon in 2017. In 2023, his work was included in Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, a landmark exhibition that traveled from MMCA Seoul to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. His most recent solo exhibition, Epic of the Night Sky, was held at SongArt Gallery in Seoul in 2024.

Song is celebrated for his monumental woven tapestries, bold woodblock and screenprint works, and immersive spatial installations. His tapestries featuring cranes, Korean landscapes, and natural forms are recognized as masterworks of Korean fiber art. His prints, particularly his iconic rose series and chromatic abstractions, reveal an artist of rare range and intensity. His later works push toward the cosmological, with deep fields of color and explosive compositions that hold both intimate detail and infinite scale in a single frame.

Song Burnsoo has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his contributions to Korean and international art. In 2000, the Korean government decorated him with the Order of National Service Merit. In 1972, he received the Grand Prix at the 2nd Seoul International Print Biennale. In 2001, he was awarded the First Golden Fleece Prize in Budapest, Hungary, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian State. In 2002, he received the Grand Prize at the Lausanne-to-Beijing International Tapestry Art Biennale in China.