Chun Kwang young was born in Hongchun, South Korea in 1944, and moved to the US in the early 1970s to study at the Philadelphia College of Art. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism, he worked for decades making large oil paintings that explored the interactions of light and color. However, feeling like he was rehashing the ideas of the American painters that came before him, Chun grew disheartened and eventually moved back to Korea. He was in search of a way of working that allowed him to explore his formal interests through, as he calls it, a “Korean sensibility.”

Some years later, he found it: In a statement about the “Aggregations” works.‌
Since then, mulberry paper has been essential to Chun’s work. Sourced from a plant native to Asia and used for a variety of commercial purposes, the material harkens back to the artist’s home country, while its durable pliability lends itself to formal experimentation.