UPCOMING TALK
From POW Camp to Muralist: The Untold Story of Lee Qoede
Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 6:30pm
Join Korean art historian and curator Jinyoung Jin as she reveals the fascinating life and art of Lee Qoede (1913–1965), a groundbreaking twentieth-century Korean painter shaped by the turbulent ideological battles of postliberation Korea. From surviving three years in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Korean War to defecting to North Korea in 1953, Lee’s journey and artistry reflect a profound resilience. Jin will delve into his impactful contributions to twentieth-century social realism, uncovering the surprising and powerful influence of Mexican muralism on his work.
To learn more and register, click here.
Sculpted Voices: Kyungmin Park & Jinsik Yoo
May 8 – July 31, 2025
Opening Reception: May 8, 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
Artist Talk Video Release: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Through figurative sculpture, two Korean-born artists transcend language and cultural barriers to tell their personal stories and express emotions that resonate universally. By sharing their unique perspectives and introspection, they offer alternative interpretations and an opportunity for a more comprehensive understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Kyungmin Park’s artistic vision was inspired by her experience as an immigrant in the U.S., where she had to learn a new language and customs. This process of adaptation reminded her of the experience of being a child, which led her to explore a childlike state, characterized by freedom, creativity, and the ability to embrace new experiences without restraint. Park’s ceramic sculptures often feature childlike figures with expressive faces that convey a range of human emotions and experiences. Amorphous forms symbolize the boundless imagination of childhood, while the lines and colors represent the societal expectations and constraints of adulthood.
Jinsik Yoo works with clay to create abstract representations of bodily forms, sculptures that embody the layered nature of existence. Through his artistic practices, Yoo expands, alters, intensifies, and ambiguates features so that his sculptures resonate beyond the physical and depict social, emotional, and psychological complexity. Ambiguity in his sculptures challenges viewers to engage with the art on a deeper level, prompting them to ask questions about themselves and their own inner worlds. Yoo’s artistic inquiry centers less on offering definitive conclusions and more on exploratory thinking and questioning.
To learn more, click here.
PAST ASIA WEEK NEW YORK EXHIBITION
Cho In Ho | In the Manner of Magnificence
January 23 – April 18, 2025
Opening Reception: January 23, 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
In the tradition of ink painting, the genre of landscape presents a view of nature that may appear simply descriptive. However, landscape is more than mere representation but an encompassment of all things of this word of different meanings, dimensions, and concepts, and an expression of an individual artist.
While firmly rooted in tradition, Cho In Ho reinterprets and reiterates the landscape from multiple and moving perspectives. Painting the recognizable locations in present-day Korea using only muk (black ink), Cho reconstructs and transforms what he learned from nature, offering a visual journey through space and time.
To learn more, click here.
PAST TALKS AVAILABLE TO VIEW ONLINE
Artist Talk: Hayoon Jay Lee
October 29, 2024
In the modern tradition of abstract art, artists look beyond what we physically see. Using color, shape, line, and texture, they express strong emotional content without constraints of representation.
Hayoon Jay Lee uses rice as object, motif, metaphor and visceral biomorphic forms, meticulously and meditatively arranging individual grains of rice into a surface with modeling paste to create physical and emotional topographies.
In this Artist Talk, Lee will be in a conversation with art critic Seph Rodney about her art and career. View the video online through this link.
Artist Talk: Annette Hur Video Release
October 15, 2024
In the modern tradition of abstract art, artists look beyond what we physically see. Using color, shape, line, and texture, they express strong emotional content without constraints of representation. With her bold colors and brushstroke, Annette Hur deliberately positions her paintings in between abstraction and figuration, dealing with the conflicts of the real lived experience and how her body remembers and processes it. View the video online through this link.
“Anchoring to nothing, my ever-flowing identity as an immigrant female in the United States created the journey to investigate my self-perception, longing and belonging. The urge to release myself from the past traumas conflicts with the yearning for home and the loved ones who are no longer with me. This collision between reality, dreams, and desires resonates through layers of violent hues of colors and boundless yet determined brushstrokes. Water-in nature- as a universally symbolic capricious element, operates as a metaphor for perpetual journeys and reflecting the passing of time.”
