I'm ready to walk into the fire kiln Pottery, the founder of Towheon, holds a retrospective exhibition of Lee Jong-nung
Nov 30, 2025
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Lee Jong-nung, 67, will hold a solo exhibition 'MUNDUS-Light in the East' at Tongin Gallery in Jongno-gu, Seoul from Dec. 3-7.
'MUNDUS' means the world, the universe' in Latin, and 'The Light from the East' symbolizes the spirit and vitality of the East that his art has transmitted toward mankind.
Created by Lee Jong-nung, '痕' is a reckless and inexhaustible creative method that seeks to capture the breath of life and the traces of fire left on the surface of the earth. He rejects artificial decoration or perfection and leaves the remnants of the universe in the soil, leaving the traces of the coexistence of nature and humans.
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For the past 40 years, Lee Jong-nung has preached the modern essence of Korean ceramics by staging invitations in major cities around the world, including New York, Washington, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Russia.
His work has been praised by media and curators around the world as a `space philosopher who has created natural and human breath with soil and aged it with fire in the chest,' and 'Tohun' is now evolving into a tool to communicate philosophical language beyond the boundaries of aesthetics that the world pays attention to.
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To him, ceramics (陶瓷) are not just crafts, but a human universe that embraces the philosophy of existence and 'empty and filled'.
For decades he has been making empty bowls. And he called the space that had been emptying and filling for a long time "Universe". And finally he says.
"Now, I'm ready to walk into the kiln."
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▶ What about writer Lee Jong-nung?
The artist, who is evaluated as a "porcelain artist who freely expresses his desire for creation regardless of any faction or genre", started a full-fledged soil class in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, the mecca of Korean ceramics, from his fourth year of college.
From 1990 to 1993, when we were somewhat familiar with our ceramic culture, instead of going to art graduate school, we experienced the flow of northern and southern cultures for three years, including Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand, and Mongolia, as well as the Silk Road.
The artist became more interested in the history of Korean and Japanese ceramics in 1986 when he kicked the wheel as a potter of Shim Dang-gil, a master of Kagoshima Satzuma Yaki who moved to Japan during the Imjin War in KBS-NHK co-production 'How can I forget my hometown'.
In the process, writer Lee Jong-nung faced an unexpected tragedy as a potter and almost gave up his potter's life. In Japan, a potter lost a finger in the middle of his right hand due to an unexpected accident during a pottery class. However, the artist overcame the fate of finger amputation with more passion and hotter effort and finally opened his own pottery world.
As a result of experiencing not only Japan but also China's famous tea producers, Unnam (Shishuan Banna, Menghai), Myeongyo (Geonyo, Gilju, Gyeongdeokjin, etc.), and continuing research on ceramic culture in three East Asian countries, he became an international writer.
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In addition to being selected as Korea's representative writer at the Busan Asian Games that year and holding an invitation exhibition for pottery, the 2002 KBS-NHK Joint World Cup Promotion Documentary 'Start to the East' informed the world of the excellence of Korean ceramics and contributed to cultural exchanges between Korea and Japan.
In 2004, KBS World Ceramic Documentary Part 6 'Pottery' revealed the secret of pottery that even those touching the soil were curious about for the first time in the world in a kiln designed by him, surprising not only ordinary viewers but also experts.
Lee Jong-nung held a special white porcelain moon jar exhibition at the British Museum in September 2007, attracting the world's attention once again, and the Tokyo and Osaka exhibitions in Japan, where he presented a series of moon jars linking the lineage of white moon jars that seemed elegant and embracing the world, were enough to attract the attention of Japanese broadcasters.
The 2013-14 L.A. and New York exhibitions attracted the interest and interest of many mainstream American people, art experts, and museum officials, which led to the 2015 Washington, D.C. exhibition.
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Writer Choi In-ho said "Rather than being a potter, he has a face as a creator who creates a life. Mr. Jisan has the fierceness of not tolerating his lies and the true light of not knowing the lies, so he will burn his body and become a valuable craftsman of this era who can achieve a light in a Buddhist temple" he left a comment.
In an interview with KBS during the Tokyo exhibition in 2010, Kato Kojo, who is praised as "Japan's Living Ceramic Human National Treasure", praised his work, saying, "Jisan's work is powerful and has the charm of showing simplicity and innocence at the same time."
On the opening day of the 2015 Washington, DC exhibition, Dr. Paul Taylor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, a world-renowned museum, said "The wide world of works that transcends tradition and modernity is fresh and unique. In particular, the mural of the Toheun pottery is a new attempt to break away from the existing ceramic appearance, praising the artist's creative sense."
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Jisan's pottery exhibition, which is held for the first time in the Middle East, was praised by many cultural and diplomatic officials, royalty, and others, who were fascinated by the unique earthwork of Jisan. It gave a fresh shock to Middle Easterners who were not familiar with pottery culture and played a part in cultural diplomacy between the two countries.
In 2022, the exhibition was successfully completed by BTS for music and Lee Jong-nung for ceramics at the 'Wish for Busan Expo 2030' event.
He is passionate about a space series that shows a new wave of life by borrowing the crudeness and color of the earth's scars from the mystery of the universe, which he has always admired. "A potter is not my job, but my companion to the end of me," he says. As such, Lee Jong-nung is constantly competing with himself in order to create his own world of soil.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
