GALERIE MARIA WETTERGREN are delighted to invite you to a Korean cocktail to celebrate the opening of Silver Shadows, the exhibition by South Korean artist Hyejeong Ko, on Thursday, September 3, from 5 to 8 pm, in the presence of the artist.
Winner of the Boghossian Foundation Prize in 2025 and the Homo Faber Prize in 2024, Hyejeong Ko is today considered one of the leading figures in contemporary silversmithing. Her works are notably held in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.
Hyejeong Ko creates extraordinary sterling silver sculptures inspired by the natural landscapes of her native Jeju Island. Dandelions, pebbles, sea urchins and the movement of water inform her work, in which she seeks not so much to reproduce nature as to capture its inner dynamics, echoing the Taoist principle of Wu Wei — harmony with the natural flow of things. Through her remarkable mastery of micro-welding and the shifting reflections of silver, she transforms the material into sculptures of almost unreal lightness and grace. Their subtle nuances under changing light recall the delicate gradations of ink found in Asian painting.
