artist statement
Inspired by the movement of tall grasses swaying in the breeze, she sought to interpret their beauty and emotive qualities such as grace, fragility, resilience and endurance by employing very thin steel wire.
Line creates movement through direction, space, volume, and texture in her works. By intuitively manipulating the physical and visual characteristics of fine metal wire, she explores various delicate structures interplaying between positive and negative spaces while creating volume, textures, space, colour, light, and shadow in these forms. Black, Silver and gold colours were employed to express the tenaciousness and graciousness of the beauty of nature. She hopes that these pieces speak to the beauty of endurance and harmonious survival in their environment.
artist biography
Kye-Yeon Son was born in South Korea and earned a BFA degree in Applied Art in 1979 at Seoul National University, Korea and a MFA in Jewellery Design and Silversmithing in 1984 at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Son started teaching in 1995 full time where she contributed to the development of the current NSCAD jewellery design and metalsmithing program. She has also been invited as visiting artist for lectures and workshops nationally and internationally.
As a recipient of the most prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award, a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, 2011, LOEWE FOUNDATION CRAFT PRIZE Finalist, 2019, and the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal, 2022, she has exhibited her works in numerous solo shows and group exhibitions in public and commercial galleries across Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, and Korea. In addition, her work has also garnered numerous awards from multiple organizations including the Canada Council for the Arts; the Metal Arts Guild; NICHE, a leading publication promoting fine craft art and galleries. Since 2000, she has also been a member of the Royal Academy of Arts.
From earlier “Wishing Vessel” to recent “Innatus Forma” Metal Artist Kye-Yeon Son shares her personal journey to find a way to visualize emotive qualities such as wishes, memory, loss, and beauty in endurance in her vessels and jewellery.
