‘Meditation: Myth and Memory’ examines recollection, improvisation and Korean cultural identity

Gallery Hyundai is presenting Korean American sculptor John Pai’s solo exhibition “Meditation: Myth and Memory” at its New York project space through Nov. 28.

Pai constructs his sculptures by welding short, slender lengths of steel wire one at a time. Dense clusters of metal rise, narrow and eventually extend into open space, creating what the artist describes as drawings in space.

The exhibition includes works from his major “Heaven and Earth” series, created in 2024, as well as two sections from the 1997 triptych “Entropy’s Sirens,” shown publicly for the first time. Additional sculptures and drawings are also on view.

Memory provides the exhibition’s central framework. Pai has compared it to an expanded womb at the centre of human experience—an active presence that can be unsettling, surprising and seemingly alive.

In the “Heaven and Earth” works, a point develops into a line and then into a larger structure. The welded wire does not remain confined within the sculpture but reaches towards the surrounding empty space.

Pai, who has played several instruments and listened to jazz throughout his life, relates this working process to musical improvisation. The sculptures combine accumulated technical control with irregular movement, curiosity and humour.

Born in Seoul in 1937, Pai spent part of his childhood in Ilsan before moving to the United States in 1949. He joined Pratt Institute’s faculty in 1965 as its youngest professor and helped develop an interdisciplinary curriculum. The institution awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2024.

Pai has also spoken about the growing presence of Korean culture in his practice. Rather than directly reproducing rituals or recorded traditions, he approaches cultural memory through instinctive and subconscious forms.

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