Seung-Woo Back

In his Utopia series, South Korean photographer Seung-Woo Back transforms North Korean propaganda into a reconstructed photographic world that is arguably more authentic than its antecedent. Featuring monumental architecture intended to impart the grandeur of Pyongyang, the postcards the artist collects and digitally distorts bear an ideological motif, one he enhances to uncanny effect through the manipulation of color and shape. Indirectly referencing Russian Constructivism, Back accentuates the vertical composition of buildings, repeating elements within their structures and elongating sections exaggeratedly. His artificial palette, with which he blots out entire backgrounds with swaths of solid color, mimics propaganda posters. The resulting photographs are patently unrealistic and devoid of all human presence, dystopian landscapes that throw into sharp relief the pretenses of the ruling party. In subverting the regime’s own imagery, Back visually heightens the oppressive and domineering totality of the self-professed socialist state.

Seung-Woo Back completed his MA in Fine Art and Theory from the Middlesex University, London, UK (2005), and both his M.F.A. (2002) and BFA (2000) in Photography from Chung Ang University, Seoul, Korea (2000). He has held solo exhibitions at Art sonje Center, Seoul, Korea (2011), Doosan Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2010), Gana Art New York, NY (2009), Foil Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2007), Gana Beaubourg Gallery, Paris, France (2006). His works are held in the collections of the Portfolio foundation, Edinburg, England, UK; The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA.