Tina Kim, founder of the prestigious Tina Kim Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan, has spent the past decade transforming how Korean art is perceived and collected in the United States. As her gallery marks its 10th anniversary this year, Kim reflects on her journey of introducing Korean artists to New York's competitive art scene and expanding the global map of Korean contemporary art.
Kim's mission began with a deeply personal connection to Korean art history. Her gallery recently co-published and exhibited "The Making of Modern Korean Art: The Letters of Kim Tschang-yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan and Park Seo-bo," which features correspondence between four Korean masters from 1961 to 1982. One particularly striking letter, dated January 3, 1966, captures Kim Tschang-yeul's first impressions of New York: "Dear Seo-bo, I am sorry I have not written. New York is a brutal city. The buildings are so tall and they don't look like they were meant for people to live in. They look like cliffs where ghosts and evil spirits dwell."
The book, edited by Hongik University professor Chung Yeon-shim and Chong Do-ryun, chief curator at M+ in Hong Kong, offers unprecedented insight into the struggles of Korean artists navigating the international art world. The accompanying exhibition ran from May to June at Kim's Chelsea gallery, demonstrating her commitment to thorough research and documentation.
"In all the exhibitions I've organized in New York, I've always worked the same way," Kim explained during an August 28 interview in Seoul. "Preparing such materials was something I could do to help Korean artists be better researched and recognized abroad as they are relatively new here in the US." This meticulous approach has become Kim's trademark, ensuring that Korean artists receive the scholarly attention they deserve.
Kim established her gallery after contributing to the presentation of dansaekhwa at the 2014 Gwangju Biennale and the 2015 Venice Biennale, working alongside her mother, Lee Hyun-sook, founder of Seoul's renowned Kukje Gallery. Her strategic focus on museum placements has proven crucial to her artists' success. "Placing artists' works in museum collections was always my priority," she said. "Based in the US, I know how the system works, and when it came to presenting an unfamiliar artist to a museum, the curator's success depended on having well-prepared materials."
Despite growing up surrounded by Korean art, Kim's years living and studying in the United States left her with a persistent curiosity about Korean art's deeper historical context. "It was for the artists, but also for myself – putting those materials together was how I studied their work," she admitted. "I kept wondering why, in the 1970s, Korean artists suddenly abandoned what they had been doing and took new directions, wondering what was happening in Korea that made them change?"
Dansaekhwa, the Korean monochrome painting movement characterized by repetitive and meditative actions, emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s during a period of political repression and rapid modernization in Korea. While some critics argue that dansaekhwa's popularity has peaked, Kim maintains that the international market is barely a decade old, having gained significant recognition around the 2015 Venice Biennale.
"While dansaekhwa works have entered US museums, American collectors only recently began buying them," Kim observed. "With the usual five-year gap between New York and Los Angeles, interest in dansaekhwa is now growing across the country." For Kim, this represents only the beginning of Korean art's potential in the American market.
When Kim decided to establish her New York gallery, few Asian-run galleries were consistently presenting Asian artists, which motivated her to take on the challenge. The growing international attention to Korean art, particularly following events like the Gwangju Biennale, convinced her that creating an accessible research space for Asian art in New York was both necessary and viable.
"Having remained in Chelsea for a decade is something I'm proud of," Kim noted. "If you decide to enter a new market, you need to commit at least five years – it requires long-term investment." This commitment has allowed her to build the trust and credibility essential in the art world, where deals are often made with handshakes rather than contracts.
Beyond promoting dansaekhwa, Kim has expanded her focus to underrepresented voices in Korean art history. Her discovery of Korea's first-generation tapestry artist Lee Shin-ja was particularly significant, addressing a gap she noticed after years of presenting predominantly male dansaekhwa artists. "Lee is one of the few women in Korean art history – particularly in fields like craft or embroidery – who have been recognized as successful trailblazers," Kim explained.
Lee's groundbreaking work in Korean craft during the 1950s and 1960s challenged traditional perceptions of textile work as merely domestic labor. Kim's exhibition "Lee Shin-ja: Weaving the Dawn," which ran from August 22 to September 28, 2024, highlighted this pioneering artist's contributions to Korean contemporary art.
Kim has also championed diaspora artists, including Philippine-born Pacita Abad, who moved to the US in the 1970s and drew on her global journeys to explore how traditions both change and endure. Other artists in her program include Maia Ruth Lee, who arrived in New York in 2011 after living in Kathmandu and Seoul, exploring themes of dispersion, mobility, and rootlessness, and kinetic sculptural installation artist Lee Mi-re, whose exhibition "Open Wound" at Tate Modern as part of the Hyundai Commission concluded in March.
"Because I grew up in a family of gallerists, I always thought of this as my lifelong work," Kim reflected. "That means the relationships I build are for life, so I value being careful and thoughtful with them above all." This long-term perspective has enabled Kim to create lasting partnerships with artists and institutions, establishing her gallery as a crucial bridge between Korean art and the global contemporary art scene.
