Nature’s Breath by Kye-Yeon Son

Artist list

Kye-Yeon Son

"Elegant, calm, dynamic, restrained power, intense and quiet – all these terms have been used to describe the work of Kye Yeon Son."
- Susan Hanrahan, executive director, Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council

Born in South Korea, after earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in Seoul and a master’s of fine arts from the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Kye-Seon Son eventually turned to jewellery and metalwork. Fascinated by metal, she wished to understand, manipulate and hammer it, while becoming familiar with the elements that form it. During the several years that Son spent in Montreal, Lois Etherington Betteridge, the renowned Canadian metalsmith, became her mentor, after which she was invited by Pamela Ritchie, teacher and head of the Craft division at NSCAD University, to teach at that institution. Twenty years later, Son continues to teach with enthusiasm and dedication, conveying to students her love of metalwork. Kye-Yeon Son won the 2011 Saidye Bronfman Award, one of the prestigious Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts!

 "The inherent physical characteristics of fine steel wire allow me to explore various delicate structures interplaying positive and negative spaces while creating volume, textures, space, colour, light and shadow in vessels and jewellery." Kye-Yeon Son.

The body of work presented at the gallery brings together sculptures and brooches made from metallic wire, which the artist meticulously solders together to create forms and volumes inspired by the Nova Scotia  winterscapes around her. Paradoxically, in spite of the great precision and patience required by this technique, Son’s approach to movement and gesture resembles that of a painter. Looking at Son’s delicately enamelled creations, the viewer no longer sees meticulous and painstaking effort, but instead, experiences a moment of reflection and serenity about the rhythms of life.