Sun-Nam Manuel (선남) Wins 2024 Audain Travel Award
Sun-Nam Manuel in his live-work studio in September, 2024. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)
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The artist and fourth-year Visual Arts student will use the prize to travel to the mountains of South Korea to paint en plein air.
Artist and fourth-year Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) Visual Arts student Sun-Nam Manuel (선남) (BFA 2025) is the recipient of a 2024 Audain Travel Award.
Sun-Nam, who works under the art name Wol-Un (월운), says he received the news via email while driving with his family during a visit to his hometown of Seattle, Wash.
“I was expecting a note confirming my submission, and I was like, hold on, wait a second, and I started screaming from the back seat,” he says from his live-work studio. “I was super happy. I was honoured.”
The prestigious Audain Travel Award provides $7,500 annually to young artists enrolled in a full-time fine-arts program at the undergraduate or graduate level to encourage travel to view art. Sun-Nam is the only undergraduate student among the 2024 recipients.
Past recipients include Caitlin ffrench (MFA 2024), Khim Hipol (BFA 2022), Erick Jantzen (BFA 2021) and Esteban Pérez (MFA 2021).
From Sun-Nam Manuel, My World in Ink, 2024, at the Postmark Centre for the Arts in Auburn, Wash. Ink on Xuan Rice Paper, 19” x 58” each. (Images courtesy Sun-Nam Manuel)
Sun-Nam notes he owes his recognition in part to Khim Hipol, who encouraged him to advocate for himself and reach out to professors for advice and support.
He also expressed enduring gratitude to artist and ECU faculty member Genevieve de Leon, who nominated him for the award and offered guidance throughout the process.
“I owe her such a great deal,” he says. “She was there for me on evenings and weekends, and her commitment made it about something bigger than me. It became about honouring somebody else’s belief in me.”
Sun-Nam will use the award to travel for five weeks in the mountains of South Korea. His recent work has focused on traditional Korean calligraphy and ink painting. He notes his trip will place him directly in the footsteps of generations of practitioners.
“There are certain mountain ranges in Korea that hold a lot of cultural and historical value. Certain plants as well,” he says. “I’ll be bringing paper and inks and brushes directly into the mountains and hiking up there and painting what I see.”
From Sun-Nam's Under Moonlight series. (Images courtesy Sun-Nam Manuel)
As a youth, Sun-Nam’s first foray into art involved photography. He gained a fair bit of exposure, but quickly realized the practice was negatively affecting his mental health. Sun-Nam had struggled with depression since childhood and was hospitalized numerous times throughout his adolescence.
“At some point I could no longer tell what was catharsis and what was self-exploitation,” he says. “How much could I get away with hurting myself and then saying, well, I’m being productive; it’s for art? So, when I transferred to Emily Carr, I thought, this is an opportunity to try something new.”
He initially began oil painting and drawing with charcoal but found the materials “directed themselves” toward heavier subject matter.
“No matter what I tried, everything I made had sombre undertones,” he says. “Like if I tried to paint flowers, the narrative became a funeral, or if I drew a face, suddenly tears formed under the eyes.”
During a trip to see his sister in California, he visited the LA County Museum of Art and encountered an exhibition of monumental ink paintings by renowned artist Park Dae Sung.
“I thought, that’s what I want to do,” he recalls. “I don’t know how. I know nothing about ink, I know nothing about calligraphy, but I must do this.”
Sun-Nam maintains a variety of handmade, traditional brushes. Each brush tip is made with a specific material in a unique shape for use in different applications, such as ink painting or writing calligraphy. (Photos by Perrin Grauer)
He immediately surrounded himself with brushes and ink and found his relationship to art — and to himself — transformed.
“It was the first time that I was working from a place of love,” he says. “I felt like I had finally been liberated from contributing to the net sadness of the world. I was able to create what I hoped for in life rather than be haunted by what I was running from.”
After graduation, Sun-Nam plans to pursue a master’s degree in London, UK. In the meantime, he is content to work with flowing ink and listen to the rain at his studio window.
“I am so much more at peace than I’ve ever had the privilege of being. And that’s partly because I don’t know what’s going to come next,” he says. “I think if you can get to a place where you’re content, that’s the only thing that matters. That’s what’s important. Because life is okay, even at its worst. We find beautiful moments and that makes it worthwhile.”
Visit Sun-Nam’s website to see more of his work.
