Hyun-Sook Song’s solo show at Sprüth Magers, New York, her first in the US, showcases her paintings that result from this specific set-up, absolute physical control and a particular kind of meditative focus. Taking long, slow, deep breaths, she readies herself for the flow of methodical movements that translate into carefully placed, distinct brushstrokes. Hyun-Sook Song’s singular style and technique that blends the ancient medium of egg tempera with deliberate lines and forms that draw on East Asian calligraphy have come to define her decades-long practice.

Song’s pictorial world has been shaped by the memories of her rural upbringing in South Korea, and yet her objects are decidedly detached from context. Take, for example, the pole obscured by diaphanous curtains of white paint in Brushstrokes-Diagram (2024); it floats in a liminal space, reminding us of the elusiveness of images and the fragility of the material world. As with most of Song’s works, the painting both indicates and comments on its own conditions, with its thin veil of wide brushstrokes parting in one place to show the primed canvas. Moments of deliberate omission serve to highlight the center of interest: the mark of the brush.

The title of a work such as 7 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke (2023), which shows a wooden pole concealed by a gradation of color, underlines the immediate connection between object and sign. The placement of each mark is defined in preliminary studies, and paintings are never reworked; she rids herself of unsuccessful attempts by wiping them clean and re-grounding the canvas to begin anew.