Bortolami is pleased to present Suspended Landscapes, an exhibition of new paintings by Seung Ah Paik (b. 1979 in Seoul, lives and works in Pittsburgh). In her first exhibition with the gallery, Paik expands upon her exploration of the physical and emotional geographies of the human form. Drawing upon traditional techniques of portrait painting from the late Joseon Dynasty in Korea, she creates contemporary compositions that subvert one’s own sense of embodiment through an uncanny, first-person perspective that mirrors how each of us perceives our corporeal selves. Through the meticulous and unflinching reproduction of the specificities of her own skin, Paik depicts body parts – intertwined hands, feet, limbs, breasts, and torsos – connected at unexpected and contorted angles. The resulting portraits exist as an antithesis to the highly filtered and manipulated concepts of physical beauty ubiquitous in everyday life, foregrounding the body as a living, cartographic archive.

Seung Ah Paik (b. 1979 Seoul, South Korea), lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA) studied Oriental painting at Seoul National University amd Fashion Design at Central Saint Martin’s before earning her Master of Fine Art in Painting from Goldsmiths in London. Her work is the subject of a solo exhibition on view now at the Rubell Museum in Miami through fall 2026.

Additional selected solo exhibitions include Gratin, New York (2025); Roy Gallery, Seoul (2024); Saatchi Gallery, London (2016); Hus Gallery, London (2014); Jubilee Gallery, Nagoya, Japan (2013); Luborimov-Easton, London (2013); and Noam Gallery, Seoul (2013). Her work is in the collections of the Rubell Museum, Miami and Woods Art Institute, Wentorf bei Hamburg, Germany.