In Diaspora: Korean Artists in 1970s New York

Myong Hi Kim, Tchah Sup Kim, Il Lee, Choong Sup Lim

This exhibition highlights six Korean artists who navigated the complex cultural landscape of New York during the 1970s. Arriving in the United States meant engaging with prominent movements like conceptual art and American Minimalism, which prompted these artists to reconsider their own heritage. Rather than choosing between their backgrounds and their new environment, they forged distinct visual languages that captured the reality of living between two worlds.

For several of these creators, this cultural translation took shape through repetitive processes and unconventional materials. Il Lee abandoned the traditional paintbrush when he moved to New York in the 1970s, choosing the standard ballpoint pen instead. By layering thousands of ink lines, he generated massive abstract fields that record the physical labor of his artistic process. Similarly influenced by American Minimalism, Woong Kim embraced a meticulous routine of layering paper and fabric with pencil, oil paint, and natural pigments. His method of repeated overpainting serves as an accumulation of experience, allowing subtle textures to emerge over time.

The physical environment of the city also offered a way to process feelings of dislocation. Choong Sup Lim gathered ordinary discarded objects from the urban expanse of New York, recombining them into complex installations. This practice, which he called monochromatic thinking, allowed him to bridge the gap between his rural youth and modern civilization. Myong Hi Kim also turned to reclaimed items, selecting found blackboards as the foundation for her detailed pastel and chalk drawings. Because blackboards are inherently tied to cycles of use and erasure, they perfectly illustrate the immigrant experience of deferred settlement and the continual search for stability.

Finally, the experience of the diaspora encouraged a profound reflection on personal and national history. Studying in a foreign country actually deepened Tchah Sup Kim's understanding of his Korean identity. During the 1970s, he pivoted toward mythic expressionist painting, seeking an alternative to Western rationalism by blending science and mythology. Po Kim, who arrived in New York earlier in 1955, initially used the bold energy of Abstract Expressionism to process the trauma he experienced in postwar Korea. By the 1970s, however, he shifted his focus to quiet observational drawing, treating the act of seeing everyday objects as a deeply spiritual practice.

Together, these works demonstrate how the practical and emotional realities of displacement can fuel extraordinary artistic innovation. By blending the sensibilities of their homeland with the structural approaches of their new city, these six artists transformed the diaspora into a site of profound creative discovery.