Despite being categorically aligned with figurative painting, Kang Seok Ho's work did not leave much room for narrative. His method of tapping the brush in thin paint and building up layers strives toward abstraction, the act of making and thinking becoming a singular act. Beyond his artistic practice, he was a furniture collector, writer, and curator, where his curatorial practice often questioned if a Korean aesthetic exists in painting by Korean artists. He often used his own writing as introductory text for his own solo and curated exhibitions. Not separating his daily life and art, he led meetings to interact with fellow artists on the subjects of painting, books, music, hiking, and fishing. Kang's first retrospective, “seok ho kang: 3 Minutes of Happiness” (2022-2023) was held at the Seoul Museum of Art in the first year after his untimely death.

GET UP SERIES
“Get Up” series was initially prompted by a drawing Kang did in 1999 of his friend’s sweater while sitting across from each other at a cafe, these works are based on photos Kang took, then cut, re-angled, and enlarged on the canvas. Kang excluded narrative features such as a person’s face and the surrounding background, and focused rather on formal details such as color, pattern, texture, and wrinkles of fabric as they move along the curves of the body, creating a unique visual language. The back of a woman with long curly hair reminiscent of a waterfall in a valley, or the focus on depicting color and texture of fabric like a “dry bamboo leaf” all reveal Kang’s attitude that closely mimics the philosophy of traditional Asian landscape painters.