Project Statement

With movies like Crazy Rich Asians, Asian representation has recently become a hot topic in mainstream media, so it is hard not to notice the lack of representation when it is absent. As a result, we’ve seen a recent movement in industries trying to prove innocence by pushing for diversity. The art industry, however, is slow to follow. During my time in New York, it was actually difficult to find shows that presented works by Asian artists, let alone South Korean artists. If I wanted to see contemporary Korean works, I was limited to either Tina Kim or Doosan Gallery in Chelsea. While interacting with other people who worked in the art industry, I quickly realized that many of them treated all Asian works as one huge category, assuming that showing Chinese art works was providing Asian representation and, as a result, was enough. Many people expect the themes, motifs, and styles in East Asian works to be the same. However, this attitude is equivalent to saying that Dutch and French style paintings are the same because they are both from Europe. We can imagine how many people would gladly argue the opposite. As a Korean American who wants to work in the art market, I hope to see more push for diversity and for Asian art to be acknowledged on the same level as European and Western art. Hence, this project is a proposal for an exhibition that will explore the history of Korean Art from the early 1900s to present day.