Johyun Gallery, the leading gallery in Busan, Korea that has been championing Korean artists for nearly four decades, will present Origin, Emergence, Return, a special exhibition at Rockefeller Center that celebrates modern and contemporary Korean art through the works of Park Seo Bo, Lee Bae, and Jin Meyerson – each a leading artistic voice of his generation and beyond. Origin, Emergence, Return will be on view from June 8 to July 26, 2023 at the Rink Level Gallery at Rockefeller Center. Lee Bae’s 26-foot site-specific sculpture of stacked charcoals will be on view at the Channel Gardens.

All three artists investigate and challenge the notions of abstraction through unique materials – Park with hanji (traditional Korean paper), Lee with charcoal, and Meyerson with CG (computer graphics) and AR (augmented reality). The exhibition begins with early to present works by post-war master Park Seo Bo (b. 1931), the founder of Dansaekhwa and a defining figure of contemporary Korean art; followed by the works of Lee Bae (b. 1956), whose charcoal-based works embody such themes as life and death and presence and absence; and concludes with works by Jin Meyerson (b. 1972), whose practice integrates CG technology into painting and addresses issues of displacement and diaspora. As part of the exhibition, Lee will also unveil his large-scale site-specific outdoor sculpture of stacked charcoals at the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center, becoming the first Korean artist to exhibit at the Gardens.

Origin, Emergence, Return is presented as part of Rockefeller Center’s celebration of Korean culture and heritage which will be held this July. New Yorkers will be invited to engage with Korean cuisine, fashion, art, music, and more at the Center this summer. The celebration will culminate in a week of festivities which will be held from July 19 to 23 and will include special events, offerings, and pop-ups in collaboration with retailers at Rockefeller Center.

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