After living in Japan for nine years, Si On(Hyon Gyon) moved to New York City in 2013 and began her indefinite residency, supported by SHIN GALLERY, Residencies Unlimited and Pioneer Works. With this change in environment, her practice and method have radically shifted transforming her approach into one guided by more abstract, more intuitive imagery. Abstraction conditioned by the response of diverse materials such as beads, gold leaf, pottery shards, feathers, wax, and encaustic now guide Si On (Hyon Gyon) in very different directions than the work of her last major series, which centered on the figure of a Korean shaman. Si On (Hyon Gyon)is currently exploring and experimenting with new ways to expand her practice: video and diverse painting media, allowing the city to impress itself on her through its textures and surfaces.

Lately, Si On (Hyon Gyon)'s works have retained a sculptural element, creating a niche form of art that dwells between two-dimensional and three-dimensional states. The expressive visages that appear throughout her works, seem more passionate, vigorously attempting to escape from the canvas and burst into our world. For Hyon Gyon, the idea of shamanism is a driving force to her artistic practice, where the ritualistic performances are like a primitive version of the psychoanalytic cathartic method. Si On (Hyon Gyon) believes that the practice of art is therapeutic, creating works that encompass universal transcendental energies. Her series of abstract, monochromatic works mimics the sculptural undertones, but conveys emotion through her fluid motions and confluent textures.

Si On (b.1979) is based in New York, U.S. She received her B.A. from Mokwon University in Korea and her M.A. and PhD from Kyoto City University of Arts in Japan. She had one-person and group exhibitions at the Museum of Kyoto; the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; Carnegie Art Museum, and Shin Gallery, New York. Hyon Gyon’s work is included in, the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, the Kyoto City University of Arts, and the Takahashi Collection, among others. She has received several fellowships and awards, including the Asao Kato International Scholarship, the Kyoto Cultural Award and the Tokyo Wonder Wall Competition Prize.