Jeenho Seo

Underdonk is pleased to present Reset, a solo show by Jeenho Seo.

The body is present, but not identifiable. There is an erasure of recognition. Clothes are shredded, bleached, cast into forms, removed of any semblance of their previous structure. Dismantled from their context as wearable objects, the clothes reappear in the form of the hyoid, the precarious bone that floats in the throat just below the jaw. In Foundation (2025) this bone, which provides structural support for language, is muted as it’s removed from its context within the body. The clothing components reappear again embedded into the molding on the wall. The fragments in white-shirt-frame (2023), melded together, adapt to the architecture but remain distinguishable.

How can we recognize ourselves when we are devoid of the external determinants that impact our psyche? Is it even possible to understand ourselves outside of the influences of our relationships to family, friends or peers; to the influences of society and culture?

Jeenho Seo investigates such questions of the self, being, floating, internality vs. externality. Seo asks, Where do my thoughts and decisions come from? Are they really mine in the first place? This analytical endeavor captures how the ego cycles through building itself up and destruction, a process that we see enacted in the video documentation of configure (2021) where clothes are shredded apart. The works in Reset are the manifestation of a rigorous process of dismantling and re-forming the self to ask if a “fundamental self” exists and if so, how do we find it?

Jeenho Seo (b. 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist exploring how individuality is shaped—and sometimes fractured—by social and cultural systems. Drawing on the symbolic meanings of everyday objects and imagery, Seo transforms introspective reflections into sculpture, installation, digital media, and painting. Often incorporating participatory elements like motion sensors, written prompts, and spatial interventions, his work invites viewers into the process of making and meaning. Seo is interested in investigating complex questions around how we form and express self-identity, sociocultural boundaries, and the way language informs our understanding of both.

Seo received a BFA in East Asian Painting and Sculpture from Hongik University in 2015 and an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale School of Art in 2021. He has exhibited at venues including Subtitled NYC (Brooklyn, NY), Below Grand (New York, NY), M 2 3 (New York, NY), Gallery H (Seoul, Korea), and Culture Station Seoul 284 (Seoul, Korea). His projects have also been realized in unconventional spaces such as construction sites (Pangyo 621, Korea), open fields, and public parks. Seo’s work was supported by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture in 2017.