Category: Exhibition

Exhibition extended through February 26, 2021

The Korea Society presents Soonchoel Byun: Eternal Family, his first solo exhibition in New York in two decades. In his Eternal Family series, Byun imagines and digitally creates a reunion between family members separated by the Korean War. Created with utmost sensitivity and respect for the personal and historical tragedy, Byun’s art is a poignant reminder of the devastating consequences of the war that still remains today.

Soonchoel Byun (b. 1969) studied at the School of Visual Art in New York, and he has exhibited widely since then. Known for his vivid portraits of people from diverse backgrounds, Byun presents a candid yet sincere depiction of contemporary Korean life as it evolves with time.

The Korea Society Gallery will be closed December 12, 2020 – January 3, 2021.

Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), our gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org. All visitors will be required to wear a mask as well as complete the safety questionnaire upon arrival.

Soonchoel Byun
Eternal Family

September 8 – February 26, 2021

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: (M-F) 10 AM – 4:30 PM by appointment

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

Internationally acclaimed artist Ik-Joong Kang’s new site-specific installation “Floating Dreams to the Moon” premiers at the Korea Society. This solo exhibition will feature several new paintings by the artist as well as an installation of objects and over 6,000 drawings from Korean War refugees.

Kang’s artistic practice provides a platform for humanity’s aspirations for achieving what appears to be impossible. Just as Korean moon-jars are made from two precarious halves united to form a whole, Kang’s paintings emphasizes how moon jars represent the potential of the Korean peninsula to reunite. Orchestrating the collection, replication, and display of Korean refugee drawings, Kang transforms these individual works to form his sculptures that polishes another facet of this cultural longing for home, accomplishing personal as well as political reunions.

Born in Cheongju and raised in Seoul, Kang moved to New York in 1984 where he lives today while working internationally. Kang was awarded a special Merit Prize in the Venice Biennale and his work is held in major public and private collections world-wide.

Gallery Slide

Of Interest: Artist Talk: Ik-Joong Kang with Dr. Katherine Anne Paul
May 15, 2020 | 6:30 PM

Ik-Joong Kang
Moon Jar/Longing for Home

January 16 – May 21, 2020

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: (M-F) 10 AM – 4:30 PM by appointment

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

Reception and Panel Discussion on Contemporary Photography in Korea: Thursday, November 14, 2019 | 6 PM

The Korea Society is pleased to present Better Days, a solo exhibition featuring the photography of Korean artist Seunggu Kim.

Better Days is a series of photographs depicting what the artist describes as “Korean spectacles.” South Korea’s rapid development in the last 50 years has caused a lot of social ironies and incongruities, one of them being long working hours with very short period of break. Due to lack of time to travel, many Koreans end up spending holidays mostly around their hometown. The leisure places around Seoul and its suburbs try to entertain their customers by creating events and environments with increasing novelty, and the result is often an interesting blend of nature and artifice.

Using his camera to show the balance between unnatural elements and our own acclimation to the social ironies, Seunggu Kim describes and poses a question about our lifestyle and how we live.

Seunggu Kim graduated from Department of Photography, Sangmyung University in 2007 and received an M.F.A from the School of Visual Arts, Korea National University of Arts in 2012. He had five solo exhibitions in Seoul and had participated in numerous group exhibitions all over the world, including: Aperture Gallery, New York; Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing; Somerset House, London; 72 Gallery, Tokyo; and Filter Space, Chicago. He was the Grand Prix Winner, 2019 Tokyo International Photography Competition, and was named Ones to Watch by British Journal of Photography.

Gallery Hours: M-F 10 AM-4 PM Appointment Necessary

Seunggu Kim
Better Days

October 3-December 18, 2019

Reception and Panel Discussion on Contemporary Photography in Korea: Thursday, November 14, 2019 | 6 PM

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: 10 AM – 4:30 PM by appointment

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

As an early member of the Dansaekhwa art movement, Suh Seung-Won (b. 1941) presents the theoretical basis for Korean modernism. For over 50 years, Suh has expressed his aesthetic views on the simultaneity of time and space through his exploration of interactions between geometric patterns and backgrounds.

Suh’s firm investment into this aesthetic philosophy and the consistency of his artwork over the past 50 years is a remarkable feat of consistency, maintaining relevance in a dialogue of temporary aesthetics constantly in flux.

According to Suh, “simultaneity enables the unseen to be seen, ensuring that what is happening in the world of nirvana or ‘beyond dark’ could be represented through me.” Around 1990, the rigid geometric forms found in Suh’s previous work began to disappear, creating new depths of space composed of smoothly overlapping rectangular forms. This new approach expanded on the artist’s exploration of visible and invisible reality by creating canvases which appear monochrome from a distance, but upon closer examination are revealed to be composed of a variety of colors.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Donghwa Cultural Foundation.

Suh Seung Won: Simultaneity

February 7 – April 19, 2019

Closed: Monday, March 4 to Wednesday, March 6 for renovation.

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, February 7, 2019

Gallery Reception | 6 PM
Gallery Talk with Kyunghee Pyun | 6:30 PM

A Korean Master of Monochrome Painting
50 Years of Challenges by Suh Seung-Won

One of the most significant masters of Dansaekhwa will be honored in his solo exhibition held at the Korea Society. This talk summarizes artistic innovations and challenges of Suh Seung-Won’s half a century career. Sequences of brush strokes and layers of paint accumulate time and space the way archaeological sediments are formulated throughout centuries. Focusing on his signature series of Simultaneity, the talk highlights aesthetic and philosophical backgrounds of Suh’s vision.

 About the Speaker

Kyunghee Pyun, Ph.D.
Kyunghee Pyun is an Assistant Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Her scholarship focuses on history of collecting, reception of Asian art, diaspora of Asian artists, and Asian American visual culture. She was a Leon Levy fellow in the Center for the History of Collecting at the Frick Collection and works on a book project entitled Discerning Languages for Exotic: Collecting Asian Art. Her new book, Fashion, Identity, Power in Modern Asia focuses on modernized dress in the early 20th-century Asia and was just published by the Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

As an independent curator, she has collaborated with Asian American artists in New York since 2013. Her recent projects were the Violated Bodies: New Languages for Justice and Humanity held at The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Postmodernism and Aesthetics: Collide or Steer at the Korean Cultural Center, New York, both held in 2018.

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: 10 AM – 4:30 PM by appointment

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

October 12 – November 20, 2018 | 

Kwang Young Chun is a Korean artist best known for his acclaimed Aggregation series, which features wall-embracing three-dimensional sculptures of triangular forms wrapped in traditional Korean mulberry paper, hanji. The small, individual triangles are grouped together and arranged by the artist to form harmonious works of art. Inspired by childhood memories, the artist continues to use consistent materials and techniques to preserve his cultural heritage.

Kwang Young Chun: Aggregation will be displayed at The Korea Society gallery from October 12 to November 20.

Chun’s solo exhibition will also be showcased at the Brooklyn Museum from November 16 to July 2019.

This exhibition is curated by Sunny Shin.

KWANG YOUNG CHUN: AGGREGATION Opening Reception

Friday, October 12, 2018 | 6 PM

Artist Talk & Closing Reception

Thursday, November 15, 2018 | 12 PM

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: M-Th: 10 AM – 4:30 PM | F: 10 AM – 2:30 PM | by appointment

In observance of the Veterans Day, the Korea Society’s office will be closed on Monday, November 11, 2018

For more information, please contact Yoonjin (YJ) Choi or call (212) 759-7525 / Ext#307.

May 31 – August 10, 2018 | 

Lee Ungno (1904-1989) was among the most influential Asian contemporary painters of the twentieth century. Driven by a yearning for peace and unity amidst times of tumultuous violence, Lee conceived a contemporary form of art unique to Korean culture and history. As a member of the Parisian avant-garde, Lee introduced modern abstract art practices to the traditional forms of Korean art, creating a new style of contemporary painting tempered with Eastern ideologies. Deeply impassioned by the social movements of democratization in 1980s Korea, Lee’s “People” series aspired to illustrate the movement of the masses and their united march towards peace. His works from 1980 to his death in 1989 emphasize this recurring theme, with the image of crowds becoming a symbol of the rise of Korean people and democracy.

Master Series: Lee Ungno will be displayed in The Korea Society Gallery from May 31 to August 10, 2018.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Donghwa Cultural Foundation and Gana Art.

LEE UNGNO: EN MASSE

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: M-Th: 10 AM – 4:30 PM | F: 10 AM – 2:30 PM | by appointment

For more information, please contact Yoonjin (YJ) Choi or call (212) 759-7525 / Ext#307.

Ham Sup (b. 1942) has worked with hanji, traditional Korean paper made from the bark of mulberry trees, as his primary medium for over 30 years. Hanji is well known in Korea as a prized material for cultural and religious purposes, and has been an integral part of Korean daily life for centuries. While the traces of Korean history are immediately apparent in the medium and colors of his work, Ham’s unique artistic process reflects the visions of a true modern artist who effectively combines tradition and modern abstraction, celebrating dreams of Korea in both its past and future.

Born and raised in the Gangwon provincial capital, Chunchon, a rural area known for its natural beauty, Sup Ham has participated in numerous exhibitions at internationally renowned venues, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul), Hyundai Art Gallery (Seoul), and the Museum for Asiatische Kunst (Berlin), and collections including the Rockefeller Foundation (USA), Boeringer Collection (Germany), and Foundation Juan Marche (Spain).

Professor Kyunghee Pyun discusses the process of Hanji making with regards to sustainability and ecosystem of a Korean artisanal tradition. She also presents Ham Sup’s unique art making with Hanji to emphasize his innovative process that touched upon the cultural heritage of Korea. 

This exhibition participated in “Asia Week 2018” and it will run until April 12, 2018.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Dongwha Cultural Foundation.

Ham Sup: Paper Dreams

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Gallery Reception | 6 PM
Gallery Talk with Kyunghee Pyun | 6:30 PM

Kyunghee Pyun, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History of Art, Fashion Institute of Technology; Founder and Executive Director of the Bamboo Canvas

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: 10 AM – 4:30 PM by appointment

For more information, please contact Jahee Yu, Art Exhibition Coordinator or call 212-792-7923.