YAERIN PYUN
ARTIST STATEMENT
Through observing the subtle, often unnoticed details of my surroundings, I reconstruct nature in a way that feels both familiar and unfamiliar. My practice is rooted in the idea that small and ordinary things can carry emotional resonance and it seeks to commemorate what is fading by preserving it through ceramics.
Inspired by my familiar natural heritage in South Korea, my work often features weathered stones, moss, flowers, and snow-covered landscapes. I am interested in natural elements because I believe that the ever-changing nature of elements reflects human life. The fact that everything changes doesn't make things valueless or meaningless; rather, it reminds us that each moment of existence is precious and significant.
I believe that by observing and contemplating even the most ordinary objects, one can connect with a universal sense of life. This perspective suggests that the essence of being lies not in appearance, but in the process through which emotions, experiences, and thoughts accumulate and transform.
In this context, ceramics in my practice capture the forms of rocks shaped by erosion, compression, solidification, and weathering, serving both as a record of the fragile and fleeting lives of organic beings and as an invisible archive where emotions and memories are condensed. The traces of transformation and disappearance that emerge in the process of translating nature into ceramics reveal both presence and absence. Through this, what is fading is commemorated, and the process of change in existence is materialized.
I continually explore dualities such as life and death, beauty and transience, and temporality and permanence, weaving narratives that reflect the shared trajectories of nature and human life. Seemingly solid and unchanging rocks with filled interiors are transformed into delicate forms with hollow spaces, and the softness and transience symbolized by moss, flowers, and grass are represented using a material that is hard and lasting.
This transformation of materiality and symbolism encourages a defamiliarized view of familiar objects in everyday life and blurs the fixed meanings usually attached to them. It suggests that beauty and meaning can be found in the small, often overlooked presences we pass by, and that a deep sense of connection in life can be found in the everyday margins.
CV
EDUCATION:
2023 MA, Royal College of Art, Ceramics and Glass, London, UK
2019 BFA, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Ceramic Arts and Design, Seoul, South Korea
SELECTED AWARDS:
2025 Ceramics Now Magazine 15-Year Anniversary Edition Open Call, Selected Artist
2025 6th Triennial of Kogei, Finalist, Kanazawa, Japan
2025 63rd Premio Faenza Prize, Monica Biserni Prize, Faenza, Italy
2024 The 1st Seoul Yoolizzy Craft Awards, Finalist, Seoul, South Korea
2023 FRANZ Rising Star Scholarship, Winner, Taipei, Taiwan
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2025 Poem for Ephemeral Moments, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2024 Landscape Between the End and Beginning, Studio Pottery London, London, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2025
Design Miami, Pride Park, Miami Beach, US
Salon Art & Design, Park Ave Armory, New York, US
6th Triennial of Kogei, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Tabled, Charles Burnand Gallery, London, UK
PAD London, Berkeley Sq, London, UK
Fine Art Asia, HKCEC, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Design Miami <Illuminated : A Spotlight on Korean Design>, DDP, Seoul, South Korea
63rd Premio Faenza, International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy
Objects of Permanence, Charles Burnand Gallery, London, UK
Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Taiwan
Landscape of Materials, Cromwell Place, London, UK
2024
Crayon, Hyangwoon, Seoul, South Korea
The Language of Craft, The Korean Cultural Center Shanghai, Shanghai, China
The Language of Craft, Museum of Wu, Suzhou, China
The 1st Seoul Yoolizzy Craft Award Exhibition, Seoul Museum of Craft Art, Seoul, South Korea
Korea Craft Week Exhibition, Mugyewon, Seoul, South Korea
The Wind From The East, Eton College, Berkshire, UK
2023
Hubbub, Bermondsey Project Space, London, UK
London Design Festival, Charles Burnand Gallery, London, UK
Royal College of Art Degree Show, RCA Battersea Campus, London, UK
Inside Me, Ttukseom Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
RCA WIP Show, RCA Battersea Campus, London, UK
Publications:
Ceramics Now Magazine, 15-Year Anniversary Edition, 2025 - Featured Artist
Asian Art Contemporary, December 2025 - Featured Artist
Picker by Team. Seohwa, July 2025 - Featured Artist (Video Interview)
Country Living, July 2025 - Featured Artist
Craft Culture Magazine, Issue No.64, 2024 - Featured Artist
Collections:
International Museum of Ceramics, Charles Burnand Gallery