Contributed by Ben Godward / Choong Sup Lim says that he doesn’t paint his sculptures but rather finds the color in the city. This might be the most important aspect of his show “Yard” (Madang) at Shin Gallery. Color as form – in this case, linen and detritus from the city – yields a pallet of neutrals. Linen, the substrate of painting with a capital P, takes a star turn here. Much of the show consists of raw linen, and it is as important in the sculptures as it is in the paintings.
For sculptures, Choong folds it, covers it, and even screws through it with the compulsive need to attach, but never without care and purpose. Bits of color, from wax or from nooks of the city he has encountered on his walks, occasionally adorn the linen. One rich found source is drywall mesh tape, which Choong deploys often. The tiny open grids of tape create layers of transparent color, a subtle green and blue seeming to emerge over time. Accumulations of tape also serve to enshrine various found objects as structure, including what is almost certainly a toilet seat. A large, flattish wall sculpture with little defining it boasts an unexpectedly beautiful edge of color that resolves into a paintbrush, of all things – the sculpture effectively becoming an extrusion of the brush’s stroke even if the brush itself initially arose as just a handy bit of building material that neatly completed the piece.
There are paintings in the show, some perhaps more aptly seen as combines as they float between object and image. Built-up wax drawing and layers enjoy equal weight, though at times they are obscured by oddly deliberate swaths of grey or beige or plaster mimicking roadwork or buffs of graffiti. The city is Choong’s house, the streets its courtyard, the work an ode to all of it. Choong was born and raised in South Korea, but he is fascinated by Western philosophy. The first time I met him he called me John Dewey and correctly labeled me a pragmatist. While Wolfgang Laib and other Western artists look to use Western aesthetics to illuminate Eastern philosophy, Choong does the reverse.
9 x 6.5 x 3 inches (22.9 x 16.5 x 7.6 centimeters)
The pureness of his thought and execution seems to matter more to him than the pureness of the work’s materiality. His empathic skill plants the same priority in Western viewers. He can complete thoughts with any mere scrap and edit an otherwise nondescript smear of paint to an essence that advances the specific composition he has in mind. A durational aspect is there, but it is integrated and not foregrounded; pieces seem to have simply become rather than to have been consciously created. In the middle room is a tiny clock recording only seconds as it holds a shank of beautiful, dried weed for us to ponder. Like the show overall: it offers a quiet moment to appreciate the subtlety and complexity of Choong’s chosen city.
“Choong Sup Lim: Yard,” Shin Gallery, 322 Grand Street, New York, NY. Through February 21, 2026.
About the author: Ben Godward is a Brooklyn-based sculptor.
