On July 9, 2025, *The Washington Post* art critic Mark Jenkins praised the exhibition 《Soaring (Narsha)》at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C. as “a bold yet deeply rooted show,” offering a meaningful reflection on how identity and art intersect in a multicultural society.
 
Organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Han-Mee Artists Association of Greater Washington, the exhibition draws its title from the archaic Korean word *Narsha*, meaning “to fly,” inspired by a 1447 epic poem—one of the first literary works written in Hangul. Rather than anchoring itself in tradition, the show delves into the layered identities and aesthetic sensibilities of Korean American artists navigating life between two cultures.
 
Curated by Professor Jung-Sil Lee of George Washington University, the exhibition features works by 31 Korean American artists working across painting, sculpture, and installation.


 
Bridging Tradition and Modernity, Korea and America

Minsun Oh Mun’s piece Dragon layers Korean cultural motifs with symbols such as the U.S. Capitol and the Statue of Liberty within the Hangul character for “dragon,” highlighting a nuanced coexistence of the two cultures.

Yumi Hogan merges the compositional structure of Korean landscape painting with vibrant, American-inspired color sensibilities, expanding the genre’s visual language.
 
Kyujin Lee juxtaposes European fairy tale characters within Korean architectural settings. Her piece Disquiet Unveiled features the Little Mermaid and Little Red Riding Hood bisected by a zipper-like vertical axis—symbolically opening and closing divergent cultural narratives.


 
Material Play Between Painting and Sculpture

Sunhee Kim Jung offers a quiet study of flora, evoking Georgia O’Keeffe’s stillness through a flat yet intimate depiction.

Kisoon J. Griffith paints uninhabited Western garments like shirts and pants with haunting stillness, emphasizing the absence of their former wearers.

Yeong-Hi Paik flattens mountains while giving dimensional form to clouds, collapsing the boundaries between painting and sculpture.

Eunmee Chung combines the shape of traditional Korean socks with three-dimensional lacquered stars, visually clashing red and white to signify the tension between tradition and modernity.

Joo Kim’s Longing employs silk thread and steel mesh to create a red, cascading sculpture—rendering emotional longing into embroidered form.
 

 
Cultural Echoes and Religious Symbolism in Contemporary Language

In-soon Shin’s The Fantasy of Arirang V translates Korea’s folk song ‘Arirang’ into visual form, combining traditional mulberry paper with a hard-edged, Western graphic aesthetic.

Jean Jinho Kim’s Unfurling, an eight-foot aluminum sculpture, draws on the biblical metaphor of the mustard seed, translating religious themes into bold abstraction using industrial materials.

SuLi (Sooyoung Lee) arranges fifteen identically shaped crocheted plastic hemispheres in varying colors. Her work rejects cultural specificity in favor of formal abstraction.

Komelia Hongja Okim’s Marching Forward fuses bronze and copper into a sculptural torch, symbolically linking European Constructivism with Taoist philosophy.

Tae D. Kim-James creates a life-size nude male figure from bio-plastic, incorporating themes of queer identity and contemporary social critique. The figure wears only a real backpack—melding humor with subtext.


 
The Exhibition’s Significance

《Soaring (Narsha)》deftly navigates themes of tension, reconciliation, and hybridity through the lens of Korean American experience. Here, tradition is not erased but transformed; culture holds its roots while extending outward.
 
As *The Washington Post* puts it, “Cross-cultural art can explore many paths while retaining its original essence. ‘Soaring’ may be venturesome, but it’s also well-grounded.”
 
The exhibition remains open to the public free of charge through August 10, 2025, at the Katzen Arts Center, American University Museum in Washington, D.C.