In celebration of its 55th anniversary, Gallery Hyundai presents 55 YEARS: A Legacy of Modern & Contemporary Korean Art, a landmark exhibition that revisits the gallery’s pivotal role in shaping the narrative of Korean modern and contemporary art. The exhibition unfolds in two parts, with Part I on view from April 4 through May 15, 2025, across both Gallery Hyundai (14 Samcheong-ro) and its original venue Hyundai Hwarang (8 Samcheong-ro).

Founded on April 4, 1970, as Hyundai Hwarang in Insadong, Gallery Hyundai has been a steadfast presence in Korea’s art ecosystem. Over five decades, the gallery has fostered the creative development of full-time artists and introduced their work to a global audience, collectors, and major cultural institutions. This exhibition celebrates the legacy of those artists and offers a sweeping view of Korea’s artistic evolution from postwar modernism to the experimental edge of contemporary practice.

Hyundai Hwarang showcases figurative painters who rose to national prominence, including Park Soo-Keun, Lee Jung Seob, Chun Kyungja, and Kim Whanki—artists whose works reflect a deeply rooted sense of Korean identity developed through naturalist and representational traditions. These painters, many of whom navigated the cultural shift from colonial occupation to postwar reconstruction, are presented as the foundation of Korea’s 20th-century visual language.

In the 1970s, when Oriental ink painting dominated the art scene, founding director Park Myung Ja initiated exhibitions that emphasized Western-style painting. She also published Hwarangji, the first art magazine by a Korean commercial gallery, playing a crucial role in introducing contemporary art to wider audiences. This cultural leadership contributed to the popularization of Western painting in Korea and helped establish the status of artists now considered national icons.

At Gallery Hyundai’s main building, Part I also features a core group of experimental and diaspora artists—figures such as Nam June Paik, Lee Kang So, Quac Insik, and Tchah-Sup Kim—whose boundary-pushing practices were central to the acclaimed international exhibition Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, which toured Seoul, New York, and Los Angeles from 2023 to 2024.

This component of the exhibition is deeply tied to the curatorial vision of HyungTeh Do, the gallery’s second-generation director, who played a key role in foregrounding experimental Korean artists and building relationships with diaspora creators during his time in New York. Their works reflect a shared impulse toward redefining aesthetic norms while each constructing independent artistic universes—an enduring legacy of Korean modernity.

Through 55 YEARS: A Legacy of Modern & Contemporary Korean Art, Gallery Hyundai not only honors its institutional history but also invites viewers to reengage with the cultural, historical, and aesthetic frameworks that have shaped Korea’s artistic identity. The exhibition stands as both a retrospective and a forward-looking statement, marking a critical moment in the ongoing story of Korean art.

Sayart / Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com