Space776 New York is pleased to present Blessings to Own, a solo exhibition by Korean artist Sunjoo Chung, on view from May 22 to June 4, 2025. This marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York, offering a nuanced exploration of materiality, memory, and the aesthetics of the everyday.
 

Working with mother-of-pearl, a material deeply embedded in traditional Korean decorative arts, Chung reimagines mundane, universally recognizable forms—such as candies and daily objects—through a contemporary lens. Her meticulous craftsmanship and conceptual approach elevate the ordinary, revealing an understated yet resonant form of beauty. By blending cultural references from both East and West, her work engages in a quiet dialogue between tradition and modernity, intimacy and spectacle.

At the heart of the exhibition is Chung’s Candy Series, in which she transfigures commonplace sweets into glistening, iridescent objects of contemplation. These works evoke a sense of nostalgia and sensory memory while challenging notions of value and permanence. Through her use of mother-of-pearl, a material traditionally associated with opulence and heirlooms, she infuses fleeting moments and trivial items with a sense of reverence and permanence.
 

“I see ordinariness as a kind of quiet boldness,” notes Chung. “In a world saturated by the pursuit of uniqueness and perfection—particularly through the lens of social media—I find meaning in the simple, often unnoticed moments that make up our lives.”
 

Blessings to Own invites viewers to reconsider the overlooked and rediscover joy in the familiar. With a meditative sensitivity and refined visual language, Sunjoo Chung's practice offers a poetic pause amid the noise of contemporary life.