Tina Kim Gallery will present《Our Spring》, a solo exhibition of the late Suki Seokyeong Kang (1977–2025), from March 12 through April 25, 2026.

Marking the first anniversary of the artist’s untimely passing, the exhibition serves both as a memorial and as a tribute to her singular artistic vision. Bringing together major sculptural and two-dimensional works from the last decade of her life, the presentation will introduce select works from Kang’s most significant series to New York audiences for the first time. Following her critically acclaimed exhibitions at Leeum Museum of Art (2023) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2025), the exhibition reaffirms the enduring relevance and international resonance of her practice.

For Kang, art was a method of measuring how an individual inhabits the world. This inquiry was deeply rooted in the Korean concept of ’jari’—a term denoting “place,” “seat,” or “territory.” Initially trained in traditional Korean painting, Kang moved beyond the static representation of landscape, transforming it into a lived experience defined by bodily presence and equilibrium. Working with industrial materials such as steel and aluminum alongside silk, thread, and hanji (Korean mulberry paper), she developed a sculptural vocabulary grounded in the limits of her own physicality. The scale of her works was often determined by what she could lift, carry, or embrace. As a result, her objects resist monumentality, instead functioning as tender extensions of human motion, balance, and mutual dependence.

At the center of the exhibition is the installation Mountain–hours, an immersive work comprising aluminum mobiles accompanied by recordings of poems inspired by the sculptures and recited in Korean by the artist. Suspended at varying heights or gently brushing the floor, the mobiles rotate in response to subtle air currents within the gallery. Constructed from bent and hammered aluminum, their textured surfaces catch and refract light, evoking mountain ridges or the brushwork of ink painting translated into three-dimensional form.

The exhibition also includes major works from Kang’s ‘Jeong–step’ and ‘Mora–nuha’ series. The Jeong–step works draw upon the grid structure of “Jeongganbo”, a fifteenth-century Korean musical notation system in which each square represents a unit of time and pitch. In Kang’s practice, the grid becomes both a spatial and social structuring device.
 
Translated into sculptural formations that lean against, hinge on, or protrude from the wall, these works articulate rhythm and duration through material form. Delicate silk threads mounted within wooden frames bring together the sensibility of traditional Korean painting with architectural precision. For Kang, the grid was not a rigid constraint but a flexible instrument—an abstract score for organizing movement, narrative, and void.

The ‘Mora–nuha’ series condenses time into material substance. Derived from the linguistic term “mora”, meaning a unit smaller than a syllable, each work represents a discrete measure of temporal experience. Created in her studio in Seoul’s Nuha neighborhood, these works consist of layered gouache and dust on acrylic panels, incorporating the physical residue of her daily painting practice. The surfaces function as repositories of accumulated time, bearing the invisible weight of duration. Conceptually, they are closely related to Kang’s signature ‘mat’ works.

Across her practice, Kang consistently investigated the tension between autonomy and interdependence. Her works examine the precarious yet generative balance required to stand alone while acknowledging the necessity of leaning on others. Beginning from the minimum spatial unit assigned to the individual, her sculptural language expands toward relational structures and shared space.
 
 
 
About the Artist
 
Suki Seokyeong Kang (1977, Seoul – 2025, Seoul) developed a research-driven practice spanning painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance, through which she investigated the notion of ’jari’—the “place,” “seat,” or “territory” an individual occupies within society—and its spatial and social implications. Her work begins from a sculptural inquiry into how the body positions itself within the world and sustains equilibrium inside it.
 
Grounded in her training in traditional Korean painting, Kang reconfigured elements from Korean art history and music—particularly the grid structure of “Jeongganbo”, a fifteenth-century Korean musical notation system—into spatial and social structuring devices. In “Jeongganbo”, each square functions as a unit of time and pitch, organizing rhythm visually.
 
In Kang’s work, this grid is translated into three-dimensional formations that lean against, hinge upon, balance against, or protrude from the wall. These structures exist as sculptural units within the exhibition space while also being activated through video and performance, where they intersect with bodily movement and gesture.
 
Kang further incorporated “hwamunseok”—woven sedge mats traditionally used in Korean court dances and crafted by Korean artisans—into her practice, symbolically presenting the minimum space allotted to an individual within society. Units such as grids, seats, and mats multiply and accumulate to form a complex visual score. As these notations proliferate, Kang configures them into compositions that suggest the possibility of collective consciousness emerging from individual action.
 
The juxtaposition of industrial materials—steel and aluminum—with traditional materials such as silk, thread, hanji (Korean mulberry paper), and woven mats operates beyond simple material contrast. It becomes a means of articulating the accumulation of time, memory, and labor. Repetition and accumulation, balance and tension, constitute core structural principles throughout her practice.
 
Rather than pursuing monumental scale, Kang proposed spatial environments grounded in bodily proportion and experiential perception. In doing so, she redefined sculptural space not as monument but as a relational field structured through embodied presence.

Suki Seokyeong Kang received her BFA and MFA in Oriental Painting from Ewha Womans University and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London. In 2018, she was awarded the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel, and her prize-winning works were acquired by Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.
 
She held solo exhibitions at Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2019–2020), Mudam Luxembourg (2018), and ICA Philadelphia (2018), among others. Her work was featured in the 2019 Venice Biennale, the 2018 Shanghai Biennale, the 2018 Gwangju Biennale, and the 2018 Liverpool Biennial. In 2024, the Leeum Museum of Art presented her work in the exhibition《Willow Drum Oriole》.
 
Beginning from the minimum spatial unit assigned to the individual, Kang’s practice explored how that unit might expand into relational and collective structures. Through the conceptual framework of ’jari’, her sculptural language intersected body and space, time and society, deepening contemporary discourse on relational existence and the social dimensions of form.

About Tina Kim Gallery

Founded in 2001 and based in New York, Tina Kim Gallery has played a pivotal role in introducing Korean and Asian contemporary art to an international audience. The gallery has been instrumental in advancing the global recognition of Korean art, presenting exhibitions that bridge historical movements such as Dansaekhwa with contemporary practices.
 
Through sustained collaborations with major institutions and long-term curatorial research, the gallery supports the development and international visibility of its artists. Kang’s exhibition at Tina Kim Gallery situates her practice within a broader global discourse, reaffirming the transnational relevance of her sculptural language.
 
 

Exhibition Information
 
Exhibition Title:《Our Spring》
Artist: Suki Seokyeong Kang (1977–2025)
Dates: March 12 – April 25, 2026
Venue: Tina Kim Gallery
Address: 525 West 21st Street, New York, NY
Website: https://www.tinakimgallery.com