From South Korea, Do-Ho Suh came to the United States in 1991. He is known for his meticulously crafted sculptures and installations. One of his first pieces was an installation, Some/One, that earned international attention. Created from about 100,000 military dog tags, the work is room size and was featured both at the Philip Morris branch of the Whitney Museum and at the 49th Venice Biennale. He relates this installation to his three-year mandatory service in the South Korean army where he was trained as an infantryman and hated it. From his New York studio, he said in 2002: "It was grueling. It was probably the most difficult period for me, physically and psychologically."

In appearance and manners, Suh is conservative, with short cut hair and dressed neatly in shirts and loose fitting pants. He is married to Claire Lyu, who teaches French Literature at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

He started his artistic training in the footsteps of his father, Se-Ok-Suk, a recognized South Korean painter, and graduated from Seoul National University in 1987 with a bachelor's and master's degrees in Oriental painting. After emigrating to the United States, he earned a bachelor's degree in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a master's degree in sculpture from Yale University.

He made the transition from painting to sculpture when he first came to the United States as an expression of his concerns for survival and his relative position in unfamiliar space. His early works were about finding a relationship between his surroundings and himself. He also found sculpture a better way to communicate with a language new for him, which, in order for him to be understood, needed to be concise, clear, and impacting.

Source: ARTnews, January 2002, "A Soldier's Story" by Katie Clifford