Eun-Ha Paek

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Eun-Ha Paek in her studio in Brooklyn, 2024. Photo by Helmi Korhonen. Courtesy of Hostler Burrows

Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Eun-Ha Paek’s sculptures give physical form to the artist’s inner narratives and personal history, while exploring broader themes of identity and human experience. Paek’s hybrid approach to ceramics is informed by her background in animation and film. Her attempts to roll increasingly smaller, tighter coils eventually led her to introduce 3D printing to her practice, enabling detail that would not be possible by hand. The resulting pieces, while finally static, are created through a process that in many ways mimics stop motion animation. Paek’s work, across media, investigates questions of identity through storytelling. Hints of recognizable references and motifs are present in her figures, but this host of characters is the unique product of a visual language developed to give shape to the artist’s internal dialogue.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1974, Paek currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she has also been a guest lecturer. Paek’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, and she is the recipient of several awards and grants including the Windgate Scholarship and Rudy Autio Grant from the Archie Bray Foundation. Paek’s animated films have screened in the Guggenheim Museum, Sundance Film Festival, and venues around the world. She has been a guest lecturer at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a visiting critic at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and she currently serves on the faculty at Parsons School of Design/The New School.

Eun-Ha Paek, Pied Piper, 2025. Glazed stoneware. 17″ H x 15.5″ W x 9.5” D. Photo by Joe Kramm. Courtesy of Hostler Burrows

Eun-Ha Paek, Duck Lips Redux, 2024. 3D printed glazed stoneware. 17.5″ H x 14″ W x 8” D. Photo by Joe Kramm. Courtesy of Hostler Burrows

Eun-Ha Paek, Mongmong Mountain, 2025. Glazed stoneware, gold leaf. 17″ H x 22″ W x 16”D. Photo by Joe Kramm. Courtesy of Hostler Burrows