Suyeon Na is a Korean-born artist based in New York. She completed her BFA in Seoul and her MFA at the Pratt Institute in New York. Her mixed-media paintings and collages on paper focus on exploring powerful female archetypes and symbolic meanings of the female body in folklore. By merging her mythological imagery with patterns and colors in contemporary fashion and media, she visualizes a dreamlike, synthetic reality that incorporates art, craft and design. Her work has been widely exhibited at numerous venues throughout the US, Korea, Japan and India. She has also been awarded multiple grants and studio residencies in programs such as the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, the Vermont Studio Center and the Chashama Workspace Program.
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“My work centers on the interaction of female psychology with the fluctuating contemporary world, using mythological figures and symbols. I am drawn to the transformative power of visual storytelling. By weaving my own personal mythology into my work, I investigate the psychology of self that revolves around changes in personal, social and cultural environments. The images in my work mirror dreams, fairytales and fantasies that are closely linked to our subconscious and animalistic instincts. I explore powerful female archetypes and symbolic meanings of the female body. I consider their diverse expressions in the history of art and culture from the classic to the contemporary, ranging from ancient folktales to movies, games and animation. I recreate these archetypes and the symbolism of the female form in a cryptic space filled with patterns and images on paper and textiles. By cutting, pasting and drawing, I deconstruct and reconstruct the existing images and patterns in various contexts, such as women’s clothing, upholstery and quilting fabric as well as accessory and cosmetics advertisements, which attempt to arouse consumer desires and manifest lifestyles in contemporary society. By employing these female prototypes and natural forms, which hold sway over the human psyche, with artifacts of today’s world, I examine who we have become and where we are now.”
