A new, special exhibition focusing on modern and contemporary Korean art, including a 21-foot-tall sculpture outside — is now on display at the Rockefeller Center. The exhibition, the first celebration of Korean culture at the Rockefeller Center, is called “Origin, Emergence, Return” and explores three generations of Korean art from the 20th century to the present.
The exhibition, which opened on June 8, is part of the summer-long “Celebrate Korea at Rockefeller Center,” a celebration that will end with a week of festivities spotlighting Korean culture, art, cuisine, and fashion from July 19 to 23 at the Rockefeller Center. The Korean art exhibition and celebration comes on the heels of the Rockefeller’s annual “Mexico Week: Día De Muertos” at Rockefeller Center.
“Origin, Emergence, Return” features more than 70 works of art and showcases artwork from Korean artists Park Seo-Bo, Lee Bae, and Jin Meyerson. The three artists investigate and challenge the notions of abstraction through unique materials such as traditional Korean paper, called “hanji,” charcoal, computer graphics, and augmented reality. Some of the motifs expressed include life and death, presence and absence, and displacement and diaspora.
Lee Bae’s 21-foot sculpture, called “Issu du feu,” was installed at the Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens and is made of massive, stacked charcoals in the shape of tree trucks. The sculpture, on view until the exhibition’s closing, represents the “memory of disasters, while also creating a contrast to the surrounding skyscrapers.” The natural properties of the charcoal is meant to convey a “desire to purify what humans cannot solve.”
Johyun Gallery, a leading gallery in Busan, the second-largest city in Korea, also contributed several paintings to the exhibition by the Korean-German artist Jongsuk Yoon, which are now on display in the lobby of the Simon & Schuster Building at the Rockefeller Center. Yoon’s artwork, described as “mindscapes,” derive inspiration from Korea’s natural landscapes, as well as the Expressionist art movement, cave art, and Asian ink paintings.
The 10,000-square-foot exhibition space is designed by studioMDA in close partnership with Johyun Gallery, Tishman Speyer and the three artists, Park, Lee and Meyerson.
The exhibition is located on the Rink Level Gallery and can be viewed until July 26. The Rink Level Gallery at the Rockefeller Center is located at 610 5th Avenue. The gallery hours are from Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays are by appointment only.
