Kwon Dae Sup | Artist Interview

December 17, 2021
Kwon Dae-Sup is a Korean artist known for his contemporary renditions of moon jars, a traditional form of Korean porcelain named after their round shape.
Kwon Dae-Sup discovered ceramics in 1978, when he saw a moon jar at an antique shop in Seoul. Then a painting student at Hongik University, the artist decided to pursue ceramics and moved to Japan following his graduation in 1979. There, he studied under the potter Ogasawara Chōshun IX.
Kwon has said that he was drawn to the simplicity of the moon jar, saying its shape, without any decoration, is 'the most modern, most minimal, and the most perfect abstraction.'
Since his return to Korea in the mid-1980s, Kwon has lived and worked in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, where the official kilns of the former Joseon dynasty remain. Paying attention to traditional procedures, he began creating his own porcelain ceramics by collecting and studying leftover shards from the kilns.