This piece was selected for our 2026 Fore Edge Fair online artist book sale. If you're interested in keeping up with acquisition opportunities through our Fore Edge initiative, sign up for the Fore Edge newsletter here.
If placing an online order is not possible for your organization, please send a purchase order to aschiferl@mnbookarts.org and we will hold your items and follow up with an invoice. We request payment within 30 days of receipt.
“The Buried World does not stop.
Somewhere a house I was never
inside is inside of me.
I sealed from inside,
but I live in the hollowed door.
With the knowledge that
persists in the body
even when the mind
has been trained to forget it.
What is inherited does not ask
whether I wanted it.
No one has asked a permission
to arrive or leave.
The hollowed shape of me left by
multiple workds,
pass through stopping.
The self I was before I learned
to become someone else.
The buried world does not stop.
My artistic practice exists in the threshold between visible and invisible worlds, investigating liminal spaces where cultural exchange, cosmology, and spiritual tradition converge. Through painting, print, drawing and immersive installation, I create visual cartographies of the unseen, transforming cosmological symbols and ancient spiritual iconography into contemporary explorations of our place in the universe.
I am drawn to the uncertain space between worlds, between languages, between the self I was and the self I have become. Born in Korea and living in the United States, I have spent years navigating the quiet erosion that diaspora demands: the slow surrendering of personal taste, cultural instinct, and interior knowing to survive within a culture not built for you. My practice is my way of descending into that loss — not to mourn it permanently, but to retrieve what has been quietly left behind.
At the heart of my work lies a fundamental inquiry into humanity's evolving relationship with the unknown. I trace the metamorphosis of spiritual iconography across visual languages throughout ancient history, asking essential questions: How have our belief systems transformed from primordial shamanism, totemism, and animism into contemporary understanding? How has our species' insatiable curiosity about invisible realms developed through millennia of cultural exchange, cosmological discovery, and sacred ceremony?” - Leekyung Kang
12.5” x 12.5” Folded 25” x 21” unfolded
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
This piece was selected for our 2026 Fore Edge Fair online artist book sale. If you're interested in keeping up with acquisition opportunities through our Fore Edge initiative, sign up for the Fore Edge newsletter here.
If placing an online order is not possible for your organization, please send a purchase order to aschiferl@mnbookarts.org and we will hold your items and follow up with an invoice. We request payment within 30 days of receipt.
“The Buried World does not stop.
Somewhere a house I was never
inside is inside of me.
I sealed from inside,
but I live in the hollowed door.
With the knowledge that
persists in the body
even when the mind
has been trained to forget it.
What is inherited does not ask
whether I wanted it.
No one has asked a permission
to arrive or leave.
The hollowed shape of me left by
multiple workds,
pass through stopping.
The self I was before I learned
to become someone else.
The buried world does not stop.
My artistic practice exists in the threshold between visible and invisible worlds, investigating liminal spaces where cultural exchange, cosmology, and spiritual tradition converge. Through painting, print, drawing and immersive installation, I create visual cartographies of the unseen, transforming cosmological symbols and ancient spiritual iconography into contemporary explorations of our place in the universe.
I am drawn to the uncertain space between worlds, between languages, between the self I was and the self I have become. Born in Korea and living in the United States, I have spent years navigating the quiet erosion that diaspora demands: the slow surrendering of personal taste, cultural instinct, and interior knowing to survive within a culture not built for you. My practice is my way of descending into that loss — not to mourn it permanently, but to retrieve what has been quietly left behind.
At the heart of my work lies a fundamental inquiry into humanity's evolving relationship with the unknown. I trace the metamorphosis of spiritual iconography across visual languages throughout ancient history, asking essential questions: How have our belief systems transformed from primordial shamanism, totemism, and animism into contemporary understanding? How has our species' insatiable curiosity about invisible realms developed through millennia of cultural exchange, cosmological discovery, and sacred ceremony?” - Leekyung Kang
12.5” x 12.5” Folded 25” x 21” unfolded
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
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