Even the most discerning eyes might initially have mistaken Choi Byungso’s recent four-part drawing, Untitled, 2019, for a monochrome painting. Filled to the brim with markings in ballpoint-pen ink and graphite, the work’s surface shimmered ever so faintly under the dim light, embodying the sensuous gestures of dansaekhwa. Yet the support is not canvas or even hanji, the traditional handmade Korean paper utilized by some of Choi’s contemporaries. Instead, the chosen medium is folded newsprint; other works by the artist are made with actual newspapers.

Banal as newspaper may be, in the age of