Seunghwui Koo

Seunghwui Koo is a South Korean artist who lives and works in New York City. She creates unique mixed media works and sculptures that combine the pig’s head with the human body, exploring the symbolism of pigs in Eastern and Western cultures.

Eastern and Western cultures

Seunghwui Koo is interested in the symbolism of the pig in the cultures that have shaped her. In Korea, it is traditional to celebrate new endeavours with a pig’s head in the centre of the room, and money is put into its mouth. In Eastern cultures, pigs symbolise wealth and good fortune, whereas in Western culture they represent greed.

Mixed media ‘piggies’

Seunghwui Koo trained in sculpture and works in resin, plaster, clay and mixed media to create the small ‘piggies’ in her works. Some of her works can contain as many as 12,000 handmade pig sculptures that create a textured surface. She uses bright colours and paints satiric images on these ‘piggies’ to create a whimsical atmosphere, but at the same time they represent a careful, sometimes critical commentary on modern society.

National success

Seunghwui Koo has exhibited widely across the USA, on both coasts, and in her native South Korea. She has exhibited in museums such as the Newark Museum and the Monmouth Museum and at art fairs, including Art New York and Art Context Miami.