Born in Changhung, South Korea, Sungsook Setton moved to Germany at the age of twenty to pursue her childhood dream of painting. Working with oils and watercolor, she studied with Prof. Jederman of Berliner Kunst Academy and supported herself with a job as a nurse in a Berlin O.R. She later returned to Korea, where, training with Korean and Chinese masters, she discovered her own roots in the ancient art of East Asian brush painting. Five years later, she moved to Oxford, England where she studied at the Open College of Art. There she was exposed to two influential artists: Paul Chan, a brush painter, and Mu Yang, a calligrapher. After six years in the U.K., she returned to Korea where she studied with Isik Min, who helped infuse her artwork with the East Asian tradition of Literati painting. She soon moved to the United States where she was conferred the Bachelor of Studio Arts degree by Stony Brook University.

Through her experiences with both Eastern and Western art, Sungsook has developed an original style which draws from both traditions. Her landscapes are decidedly Western, but are created using traditional Eastern materials. By drawing on the wisdom of East Asian Masters (Literati) while exploring new ways of expressing her surroundings, Sungsook harmonizes both cultural influences in a unique blend of East-meets-West. Through a few subtle brush strokes on rice paper, the essential nature of her subjects are depicted with the most minimalist of approaches.

Exhibited in many solo and group shows, Sungsook’s work has been seen in New York, Washington D. C., Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Minnesota, Maryland and Oxford, U.K. She is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the “Best of Show” award at the National Juried Exhibition of the Sumi-e Society of America, Inc. Her works are housed in various collections of private and public institutions, including Stony Brook University and the Natural History Museum in Oxford, England.

Sungsook now lives in Setauket, New York. She maintains a private studio in Setauket, and also instructs at the China Institute of Manhattan, the Wang Center at Stony Brook University, and the Art League of Long Island. She has extensive involvement in Art Education and her program is listed with arts in Education for BOCES and SCOPE.

My work falls into three categories:

First I strive to inherit the spirit of the East Asian masters that I have studied with, by emulating their strokes and inktones. In doing that, I feel certain connections with my own roots.

Second, I seek to apply these powerful brush strokes to depict what I see in my surroundings. In other words I try to draw on the wisdom of the East Asian Masters in exploring new ways of expressing western themes and giving them life. By doing that I want to develop a harmony between two very disparate traditions.

Third, I feel more and more attracted to a minimalist approach which represents a search for the essential nature of things.

Maybe one day I will end up painting single strokes on the white expanses of my rice paper.