Photo: Jack Sorokin
HYESEUNG SONG is the author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in July 2024. She is an American representational painter best known for large-scale figurative oil paintings and prints whose visual idioms toggle between resolution and fragmentation. Her work explores creativity, psychological incipience, and the life of the artist.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Song grew up in Texas and studied philosophy at Princeton and Harvard Universities. In her mid-twenties, she returned to her childhood passion of art, leaving academia to pursue painting at the Water Street Atelier, now the Grand Central Atelier, in New York City. After completing her studies in 2008, she was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant (again in 2011) and began to exhibit in New York.
Song is a devoted teacher and has instructed at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Queens Council on the Arts’ High School 2 Art School Program as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, during which time she was named among Baltimore Magazine’s “40 Under 40” for her work creating synergies between the science and art communities in that city. She often addresses high school and college audiences, and was a featured speaker at Princeton University at its TedX Conference in 2016 as well as at the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton’s Leadership Conference in 2021.
She has received residencies at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, the Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists in Brittany, France, Penland School of Arts and Craft, the Vermont Studio Center as well as others, and her work resides in private collections internationally.
Song lives in Brooklyn and upstate New York.
EDUCATION
Water Street Atelier (now the Grand Central Atelier), New York, NY, MFA-Equivalent, 2008
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA, Ph.D. Studies in Philosophy, 2004 (degree not completed)
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, J.D. Studies, 2003 (degree not completed)
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, B.A. in Philosophy, 2001
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo
“Modern Prometheus,” Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
“Frankenstein: Konfidential,” Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2018
“Frankenstein: Konfidential,” Gowanus Loft, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
Group
“SPRING/BREAK Art Show,” New York, NY, 2022
“Selected Works from the Klots Residency Program,” Abbaye Saint-Magloire de Léhon Gallery, Léhon, Brittany, France, 2022.
“New York Figurative Show,” Salmagundi Club, New York, NY, 2022
“The Body Politic,” JKR Gallery, Provo Utah, 2021
“6 x 9 Fundraiser,” Equity Gallery, New York, NY 2021
“Shades of Blue,” Portraits, Inc. Gallery, Birmingham, AL, 2021
“Shades of Blue,” DFN Gallery in collaboration with Equity Gallery, New York, NY 2021
“The Plein Air Collection,” Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2020
“New York,” 33 Contemporary, Curated by DFN Projects, online-exclusive on Artsy, 2020
“Painting the Figure Now,” Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI, 2020
“Equity Spring Flash,” Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2020
“It Could Be You: Portraiture in a Constructed World,” Portraits, Inc. Gallery, Birmingham, AL, 2020
“It Could Be You: Portraiture in a Constructed World,” Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
“First Impressions: Hyeseung Marriage-Song, Reisha Perlmutter and Mark Tennant, ” Paul Booth Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
“Forests of the Night,” Norwood Club, New York, NY, 2018
“28th Miniatures,” Abend Gallery, Denver, CO, 2018
"Blue: Selections from Vermont Studio Center," Vermont Studio Center Wolf Kahn Gallery, Johnson, VT, 2017
"Pay It Forward," Principle Gallery, Charleston, SC, 2014
"Small Works," Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA, 2013
"Lumière Fantastique: Brittany Shines in Baltimore," Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MA, 2013
"Hudson Valley Art Association 81st Annual Exhibition," Lyme Art Association, Old Lyme, CT, 2013
"Art Maryland," Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MA, 2012
"The Figure in American Art 2012," Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York, NY, 2012
"Paintworks," Gowanus Ballroom, Brooklyn, NY, 2011
"Selected Works from the Klots Residency Program" Abbaye Saint-Magloire de Léhon Gallery, Léhon, Brittany, France, 2011
"School 33 Art Center Studio Artist Biennial,” School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MA, 2011
"The Figure in American Art 2011," Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York, NY, 2011
"Hudson Valley Art Association 79th Annual Exhibition," National Arts Club, New York, NY, 2010
"Thirteenth Annual International Summer Salon," Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York, NY, 2010
"Princeton University Alumni and Student Show," Clark Muñoz Gallery, Princeton, NJ, 2010
"The Figure in American Art 2010," Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, New York, NY, 2010
“The Bosque Art Classic,” Bosque Conservatory Art Council, Clifton, TX, 2009
“The Collection of Lisa Sawlit,” Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Cape Cod, MA, 2009
“Jacob Collins and the Water Street Atelier,” Atlanta Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2008
“Jacob Collins and the Hudson River School for Landscape,” Kaaterskill Fine Arts Gallery, Hunter, NY, 2008
“Works by Selected Artists of the Hudson River School for Landscape: Silent Auction to Benefit the Thomas Moran Trust," Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY, 2008
“Artists of the Water Street Atelier,” Bendann Gallery, Lutherville, MA, 2008
“The Water Street Atelier, 2002-2007,” Meredith Long and Company, Houston, TX, 2008
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Peter Trippi, “Great Art Worldwide,” Fine Art Connoisseur, April 2021.
Todd M. Casey, The Art of the Still Life. Monacelli Press, 2020.
Peter Trippi, “It Could Be You: Portraiture in a Constructed World.” Fine Art Connoisseur, November 19, 2019.
Allison Malafronte, “In the Studio: with Hyeseung Marriage-Song.” Newington Cropsey Cultural Center, August 2019.
Smith, Andy, “Hyeseung Marriage-Song Honors Frankenstein, Golem Myth in Paintings.” Hi-Fructose Magazine, March 22, 2019.
Maidman, Daniel, “Modern Prometheus: Interview with Hyeseung Marriage-Song.” Hashtag Artmag, February 2019.
Charlotte Kent, “From Page to Canvas.” Artists Magazine, January/February 2019.
Barbara Gallo Farrell, “‘Frankenstein: Konfidential’ reimagines classic work as online serial novel,” Poughkeepsie Journal, October 3, 2018.
“Frankenstein Konfidential Art.” Jet Fuel Review, Fall 2018.
Nicolette Sblano, “Three Unusual New Art Exhibits Add Color to the Hudson Valley,” Hudson Valley Magazine, September 9, 2018.
Michael Woodson, “Three Meadows.” Artists Magazine, January/February 2018.
“40 Under 40.” Baltimore Magazine, October 31, 2013.
Gail Leggio, “Traditionalism Comes of Age.” American Arts Quarterly, Spring 2012, Volume 29 Number 2.
B. Boyd, “Reality Check: Baltimore Artist Hyeseung Marriage-Song Paints Portraits that Persuade,” Baltimore Fishbowl, April 5, 2012.
Los Angeles Review of Books, August 3, 2011.
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Awards
Baltimore Magazine’s 40 Under 40, 2013
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundations Grant (two-time award winner), 2011 and 2008
Residencies and Fellowships
Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists Residency, Brittany, France, 2022
The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency, Taos, NM, 2021
Arteles Creative Center, Haukijärvi, Finland, 2020 (cancelled due to Covid-19)
Penland School of Arts and Crafts, Falls Family Scholarship, 2018
Vermont Studio Center Residency and Scholarship, 2017
Vermont Studio Center Residency and the Civil Institute Fellowship and Stipend, 2013
Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists Residency, Brittany, France, 2011
School 33 Fellowship, Baltimore, MD, 2010-2012
Speaking Engagements
“Gently Does It Podcast” with John Dalton, 2021 (click here to listen)
“Leadership in the Balance: Navigating Culture and Well-being” with the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton, 2021
“Artists Equity Studio Break,” New York Artists Equity Association, 2020
“The Studio Podcast” with Danny Grant, 2018 (click here to listen)
“Why Art Should Engage the Inner Life,” TedX Princeton Conference, 2016 (click here to listen)
Curatorial Experience and Artistic Collaboration
“New York Figurative Show,”guest juror with Max Ginsburg, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY, 2022
“It Could Be You: Portraiture in a Constructed World,” curator, Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
Associate Curator of “Paint Works,” The Gowanus Ballroom, Brooklyn, New York, 2011