Shim Moon-Seup – Harnessed From Nature

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In dialogue with the 61st Venice Biennale,
Shim Moonseup: Nature Sculpts unfolds at Ca’
Faccanon (calle delle Acque, 30124 Venezia VE),
the historic former post-office building near
the Rialto Bridge, from 9 May to 22 November
2026. The exhibition traces the artist’s sculptural
continuum through twenty eight works—painting,
sculpture, and installation—drawn from his major
series. Each piece marks a decisive moment
within more than five decades of practice, from
his debut at the 1973 Paris Biennale to new
works completed in 2025.
Shim Moonseup has achieved
international recognition through over thirty solo
exhibitions in leading cities worldwide. Emerging
from the late-1960s Korean Avant-Garde (AG)
movement, he advanced the radical notion of
“anti-sculpture,” a concept that resonated with
contemporaneous currents such as Mono-ha,
Arte Povera, and Land Art. As the first Korean
artist invited to exhibit in Paris’s Jardin du
Palais-Royal, Shim presented his works alongside
Daniel Buren and Niki de Saint Phalle, imprinting
Korean contemporary sculpture upon the global
consciousness.
Throughout the 1970s he participated

in the Paris Biennale three times in succession,
later extending his presence to the São Paulo
Biennale(1975), Sydney Biennale (1976), and
Venice Biennale (1995, 2001). His artistic stature
was further affirmed by the Excellence Prize at
the 2nd Henry Moore Grand Prize Exhibition
(Japan, 1981). In 2007, the French Republic
recognized his lifelong contribution with the
Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Shim’s trajectory demonstrates
how an artistic language grounded in Eastern
philosophical contemplation can expand
into a universal aesthetic discourse. Over
time, his creative axis has shifted from the
anthropocentric to the eco-centric, relocating
the source of art from human agency to nature
itself. The artist perceives within the prima
materia—earth, stone, wood, light, and water—
a latent current of prima energeia, the formative
energy that animates all matter.
Here, nature ceases to be a passive

material. It becomes an autonomous, self-
generating presence. Shim positions himself not

as a maker but as a condition setter, one who
establishes the minimal circumstances through
which nature may reveal its own formative