Si On

Edel Assanti is delighted to present Si On: A Peace Brimful with Malice, the artist’s first solo show with the gallery and first in London since her acclaimed 2019 exhibition at Parasol Unit.

Si On's expressive practice materialises emotive and psychological states in forms ranging from hulking sculptures melted with a soldering iron to overbearing installations formed from swathes of second-hand clothing. A Peace Brimful with Malice centres Si On’s painting practice: four new works, which can be considered reticent self-portraits, in which the boundary between the individual and her surrounding plant ecology is dissolved.

The visual exotica closely relates to the carnivalesque; a time of merging when societal structures are abandoned and space is liberated. Si On draws on the ritualised celebration of the Day of the Dead - flowers play an integral role in these traditions and are offered to ancestors as a welcome back to Earth. The artist incorporates species tied to this day: pink cockscomb and chrysanthemum which are augmented with lilies and orchids more widely associated with the afterlife. Within the riot of colours, the layering of symbols of morbidity are warning and wisdom.

Si On (b.1979, South Korea) received her BA from Mokwon University in South Korea and received her MA and Ph.D. at Kyoto City University of Arts’ Graduate School of Arts. In 2023, Si On will exhibit at James Fuentes Gallery, New York, USA; T293, Rome, Italy and Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland. Recent solo exhibitions include Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2020); Parasol Unit, London, UK (2019); Pioneer Works, New York (2015); HAPS, Kyoto, Japan (2013); Kyoto Art Center, Japan (2011). Si On has participated in group exhibitions in institutions including BWA Wroclaw Galleries of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Poland (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art / Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej, Warsaw, Poland (2018); Carnegie Art Museum, Pittsburgh, USA, (2016); Batu Museum, New York (2015); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2015); Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA (2012) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2010). Her work is in the permanent collections of Brooklyn Museum, NY, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA; Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto Bank, and the Takahashi Collection in Japan. Si On lives and works in Krakow, Poland.