Almost a Body: Not Quite a Thing
May 16-23, 2026
"Almost a Body: Not Quite a Thing" is an exhibition curated by the 2025-2026 ICRC residents at the University of Kansas, Sunyoung Park and Seuil Chung."Almost a Body: Not Quite a Thing" brings together work from two studio courses, Botanical Form in Clay and Abstract Forms, led by Sunyoung Park and Seuil Chung. Each course approaches form through distinct processes and lines of inquiry rooted in clay-based practice. While the works emerge from different contexts, they share an interest in shapes that resist fixed definition, hovering between body, object, and other states of becoming.
The exhibition proposes a space where objects approach bodies without fully arriving, and where meaning emerges through relation, proximity, and difference.
The Interdisciplinary Ceramic Research Center (ICRC) is a laboratory for individuals and teams across disciplines to experiment with traditional and cutting-edge approaches to the manipulation of clay. The ICRC residency program launched in 2020 and offers creative individuals space to work in a dynamic interdisciplinary studio site.
SunYoung Park
SunYoung Park (b. 1990, South Korea) explores the fragile and imperfect beauty of human connection through ceramics and mixed media, weaving surrealist gestures and borderlands into her sculptural language. Her work navigates emotional terrains where personal memory and collective longing merge into symbolic form. Park holds BFA and MFA degrees from Hongik University in Seoul and an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has participated in residencies at Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Charlotte Street Foundation, and the Wassaic Project, and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Biennale, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Interdisciplinary Ceramic Research Center (ICRC) at the University of Kansas.
Seuil Chung
Seuil Chung is a multidisciplinary artist working in ceramics, sculpture, and video whose practice explores identity, play, and transformation through surreal and narrative forms. Blending humor, pop culture, and personal mythology, Chung’s work investigates the tension between sincerity and absurdity, inviting reflection on vulnerability, cultural hybridity, and emotional authenticity in contemporary life.Chung earned an MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2021) and a BFA in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2019). They have presented solo exhibitions at institutions including Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago (Magic Show, 2024), Concept Art Gallery in Pittsburgh (I Love You, 2023), KINK Contemporary in Cleveland (Mouse Hunt, 2022), and the University of Akron’s Projects Gallery (Baby Shark, 2022).
Exhibition images of "Almost a Body: Not Quite a Thing," a student and faculty exhibition curated by 2025-2026 ICRC residents Sunyoung Park and Seuil Chung.
KU students, teachers to show off form-defying ceramics at Off-Site Art Gallery exhibition
Written by Wulfe Wulfemeyer for The Lawrence Times
