New Horizons

By Suzanne Révy and Elin Spring

Did our obsession start with their cars, back in the 90’s? Or more recently, with the cosmetics boom at Sephora, television shows like Squid Game or the explosion of K-Pop music? Korean art and culture have flourished during the last three decades, so it was bound to find its way into museums such as our very own MFA in Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. The zeitgeist was in force as the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA planned New Horizons: Korean Contemporary Photography curated by Joann Junga Yang, unaware of those other shows. Here, seven Korean photographers offer their interpretations of universal themes of belonging, memory and love. On view through June 29th, 2025, there will be a reception and related events on Friday, May 9th and Saturday May 10th. 

“Portrait 8” by Jiyeon Sung, from the series Portrait, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Portrait 11” by Jiyeon Sung, from the series Portrait, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“A Falcon’s Last Flight Shattered in Ice” by Sun Hi Zo, from the series Frozen Gaze, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Frozen Gaze by Sun Hi Zo, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

The scale of prints varies from Jiyeon Sung’s deeply intimate portraits of the backs of her sitters to Sun Hi Zo’s totemic birds frozen in ice. Sung’s figures, whose faces are turned away from the camera, invite viewers into their psychological space through posture, hand gesture, clothing choices and a warm palette of reds. Their scale is that of framed family pictures placed on a mantle or piano, offering comfort in their familiarity. In contrast, Sun Hi Zo’s oversized images of birds in ice are abstract and expressive. I’ll confess, I was unsure what they were at first with their giant beaks and twisted feathers preserved in ice, but as I took them in, the essence of each bird became clear. We learn that Sun Hi Zo’s subjects were all “road kill“ and she yearned to safeguard their corporeal remains as a means to memorialize her recently departed father. With a relatively monochromatic palette, the sheer size and number of them are at once jarring and somehow serene, much like death itself. 

“Heejung and Jaeyoo in the Reeds” 2013, by Ok Hyun Ahn, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Juyeon and Taehyun at Sunset” 2014, by Ok Hyun Ahn, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Cyclops and Angel #7” by Anna Lim, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Cyclops and Angel #9” by Anna Lim, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Like Sun Hi Zo’s larger-than-life, ice-encased birds, Ok Hyun Ahn’s substantial portraits are metaphors for an idea. Her embracing couples explore the intangible gulf between an idealized expression of love and its true complexities. The stylized entwining of each couple is familiar, yet contrived, creating visual ambiguity. Rather than expressing authentic longing, the portraits deliver a visceral punch through their sense of emotional and visual disconnection, channeled in these formally clothed couples, staged in mis-matched environments with artificial lighting. On the other hand, Anna Lim probes a more anonymous sense of desire in a group of documentary photographs showing a camera club’s nude model sessions. The model can be found in landscapes, industrial areas or parks and beaches. Lim deftly frames images to suggest where the obscured models are in relation to the photographers, who are also discreetly hidden. A voyeur photographing other voyeurs with both humor and pathos. 

“Good bye Strangers #9” by Hyundoo Park, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Goodbye Strangers #8” by Hyundoo Park, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Sugar 2” by Seongyoun Koi, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Orchid Folding Screen” by Seonyoung Koo, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

Also outsized, Hyundoo Park’s conceptual images of people conquering the heights of structures and glaciers serve as an appreciation for the challenges we face personally and environmentally. For example, a doctor and patient can be seen among the crevices of a giant icy mountain. Figures dressed to match the primary colors of a building cling to its exterior as residents peer out, hinting at feelings of anxiety and anonymity experienced while living in massive apartment blocks. Both pictures raise questions about how we live, work and function in vast systems that feel out of our control. Similarly, Seongyoun Koo’s sculptures of glassware, medallions and necklaces are, in fact, richly colored confections that eventually melt under the heat of a photographers lamps. Her six orchid images meant for a folding screen are quite striking, but upon close inspection, viewers will see that the leaves are made from plastic; these materials, plastic and sugar, are, of course, unhealthy for the planet and the human body, but there is a thrill at seeing an intersection between sculpture and photography. Both Park and Koo engage in a dialog of mutability, impermanence and the vicissitudes of climate change and human existence. 

“Chaekgado 37” by Soosik Lim, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Chaekado 334 (detail)” by Sossik Kim, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy

Soosik Lim’s tactile cloth prints of books feel altogether more permanent despite the stitches and seams of each image’s construction. Books and bookshelves function as a kind of portrait of a reader and these pictures transmit pleasure akin to reading and re-reading a great big book. In the Founders Gallery, Timothy Hyunso Lee’s mixed media Imprints convey his sense of a wavering and transient immigrant identity. 

From the series Imprints by Timothy Hyunsoo Lee, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Special Programming includes:

In-Person Reception with some of the Artists on Friday, May 9th from 6:00 – 8:00pm.

In-Person Artist Panel: Sun Hi Zo & Soosik Lim in conversation with exhibit curator Joanne Junga Yang on Saturday, May 10th from 2:30 – 4:00pm.

In-Person Event: Korean Cultural Night: Korean Cultural Society of Boston presents an evening of culture, music and festivities at the Griffin Museum on Saturday, May 10th from 5:30 – 7:30pm.

For more information: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/koreancontemporary25/