Exhibition Information

MIE YIM Motolov
2023 Oil on canvas 182.9 x 152.4 cm
(Source = Lehmann Maupin)

KEN GUN MIN 1922 Western Avenue
2023 Oil, Korean pigment, silk embroidery thread, beads, crystals 284.5 x 162.6 cm
(Source = Lehmann Maupin)

HYUN NAHM Irem
2022 Epoxy resin, pigment, cement, fiberglass, stainless steel and polystyrene 228 x 59 x 52 cm
(Source = Lehmann Maupin)

GUIMI YOU Green Lake
2023 Oil on linen 180 x 305 cm
(Source = Lehmann Maupin)

			Lehmann Maupin Seoul presents Wonderland, a group exhibition curated by Tae Um. Wonderland unites works by Guimi You, Hyun Nahm, Ken Gun Min, and Mie Yim—four Korean-born artists based in the United States or Korea. The show takes its title from Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice in Wonderland, which describes a fantastic “wonderland” of anthropomorphic creatures. Inspired by the tale, Wonderland synthesizes work by artists of diverse ages, genders, and regions who, in their own distinctive ways, depict imagined contemporary landscapes. In doing so, the artists explore universal questions about what an ideal world might look like. 

In Wonderland, painting and sculpture unfold in brilliant compositions, gesturing towards a futuristic utopia saturated with vivid color. The works on view are deeply invested in nostalgic reminiscence, drawing viewers into contact with intangible memory—something forgotten and vanished that one longs to remember. Transcending temporal and spatial boundaries, Wonderland evokes the mysterious and familiar at once. 

Guimi You portrays recollections of early memories and daily life. While she resided in both the eastern and western United States after leaving Korea and completing her studies in London, the artist experienced feelings of isolation and disconnectedness as an immigrant, woman, and mother of a child. She turned to painting to overcome this challenging moment. Inspired by surrealist painters and her son’s picture books, You’s compositions employ delicate colors and soft hazy tones, eliciting dreamy, transportive, and otherworldly qualities. Her figures transport viewers to mysterious places, exuding a sense of anonymity and imbuing the spaces depicted with both personal and universal significance.

Alongside paintings, Hyun Nahm’s sculpture offers sharp insight into envisioned space in modern society. The artist considers miniascape, an Eastern concept that links an object to the essence of landscape. To explore miniascape in the context of the contemporary world, Hyun uses industrial materials including polystyrene, epoxy, fiberglass, and cement. Hyun employs a negative casting process, or what he refers to as “mining.” He drills holes into polystyrene blocks and pours his materials into the cavities or “caves.” Once the materials have dried and hardened, he melts the polystyrene and removes it, resulting in formed objects created by the chemical reactions of his materials—the works take amorphous form, their fractured surfaces and fluorescent colors hinting at urban ruins from an apocalyptic future.

Wonderland also features Ken Gun Min’s sumptuous and vibrant paintings that devise fantastical idylls filled with longing, melancholy, and euphoria. The artist was born in Seoul and has lived in San Francisco, Zurich, Berlin, and Los Angeles, imbuing his work with a multicultural perspective that navigates something marginalized and obscured beneath the surface. An immigrant, Min creates cross-cultural compositions by incorporating lesser-known histories with illustrations from the Bible and ancient mythologies; materially, he combines Korean pigments and western-style oil paints and embroidery on the picture plane. Select works on view also gather the artist’s early recollections of growing up in Korea in the late 1980s. And yet, the artist remains culturally boundless, conjuring otherworldly, fantasy-like imagery that contests issues of race, gender, and sexuality.

The essence of New York-based artist Mie Yim's work lies in constant flux—an inarticulable, perpetual movement at the boundary where figuration and abstraction collide. Layers of lavish and prolific imagery suggest anthropomorphic creatures or mutations of the organic network, buzzing with luscious color. Her often-fragmented figures recall the artist’s childhood memories and fantasies. According to Yim, her paintings begin with emotional and spatial memory, attempting to give form to some of these recollections. Having lived a peripatetic life—migrating abruptly from Korea to Hawaii, then frequently changing residences in the US as a teenager—the artist’s diasporic experience serves as the basis for such fragmented mobility. In Wonderland, Yim presents new work she developed during the pandemic that blends figuration with abstraction, juxtaposing cute, sugar-colored creatures with an underlying sense of horror.

Across the exhibition, artworks both converge and conflict in a non-verbal collision. The works on view encompass diverse narratives of diasporic experience, gesturing towards a universal discourse beyond the region of Korea. The exhibitions’ unique dialogue also explores the boundaries between the visual languages of figuration and abstraction, experiments with new materials, and questions established artistic tradition. Together, the artists in Wonderland pursue the utopian and dystopian possibilities offered by their material and conceptual collisions.

About the Artists

Guimi You (b. 1985, Seoul, Korea; lives and works in Seoul) received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Seoul National University in 2008 and 2011. She also attended the Royal College of Art, London to receive her M.A. in 2014. Solo exhibitions of You’s work have been organized at Make Room, Los Angeles, CA (2023 and 2021) and Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY (2020 and 2018). Her works have been featured in various group exhibitions, including PRESENT 23’ Building the Scatland Collection, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (2023); X PINK 101, X Museum, Beijing, China (2023); Machines of Desire, Simon Lee, London, United Kingdom (2022); Through a Glass, Darkly, Carl Kostyál, Milan, Italy (2022); and Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami's Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (2022).

Hyun Nahm (b. 1990, Goyang, Korea; lives and works in Goyang) received his B.F.A. from Hongik University in 2016 and M.F.A. from Seoul National University of Science and Technology in 2022. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at Atelier Hermès, Seoul, Korea (2021); Instant Roof, Seoul, Korea (2021); and ArtSpace Hyeong & Shift, Seoul, Korea (2020). He has been featured in various group exhibitions, including The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2023); off-site, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea (2023); Waiting Room, Suchi, Seoul, Korea (2022); We, on the Rising Wave, Busan Biennale 2022, Busan, Korea (2022); Cloud Walkers, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2022); Two Tu, P21 & Whistle, Seoul, Korea (2022); Opening Ceremony, YPC Space, Seoul, Korea (2022); You Never Saw It, Gallery Kiche, Seoul, Korea (2021); Geometric Organicism, Dorok, Seoul, Korea (2020); Faces, Museum of Art Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea (2019); Hiji’s House, Audio Visual Pavilion, Seoul, Korea (2018); Looped Layers, B1-F3, Archive Bomm, Seoul, Korea (2017); short story long – rainy season, Willing N Dealing, Seoul, Korea (2015); and Pink Business: Choice, Seendosi, Dasoyou, Seoul, Korea (2015).

Ken Gun Min (b. 1976, Seoul, Korea; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received a B.F.A. from Hongik University in 2000 and his M.F.A. from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA in 2006. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at MCA Denver, Denver, CO (2024, forthcoming); Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA (2023 and 2022); K Contemporary, Denver, CO (2022 and 2020); Gae Po Project Space, Seoul, Korea (2018); and Westmoreland Project, Los Angeles, CA (2017). Select group exhibitions featuring his works include People of the Otherworld: Ken Kiff in Dialogue, Albertz Benda, New York, NY (2023); Who is your master, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Strings of Desire, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA (2023); i know you are, but what am i? (De)Framing Identity and the Body, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT (2022); Storm Before the Calm, Praz-Delvallade, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Sparkle In, Fade Out, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (2020); 36 Paintings, Harper’s Gallery, East Hampton, NY (2020); and In This Together: Embracing Diversity at Castelli Art Space, Castelli Art Space, Los Angeles, CA (2018).

Mie Yim (b. 1963, Seoul, Korea; lives and works in New York, NY) received a B.F.A from Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA in 1986. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Art Gallery, Pace University, New York, NY (2023); Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Inna Art Space, Hangzhou, China (2023); Olympia Gallery, New York, NY (2023 and 2021); Scott Miller Projects, Birmingham, AL (2022); Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT (2022); Galeria Mascota, CDMX, Mexico (2022); Villa Magdalena, San Sebastian, Spain (2021); Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA (2020); the Durst Foundation, New York, NY (2019); Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, NY (2009); Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2004); and Galerie in Arco, Turin, Italy (2004). Recent group exhibitions featuring her work include Dreamscape Estuary, Unit London, London, United Kingdom (2023); Polyreality, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2023); Cathartic Creatures, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2023); Deep! Down! Inside!, Hales Gallery, New York, NY (2023); philosophicalinvestigations, Platform Project Space, Brooklyn, NY (2023); Notions, Canada Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Danse Macabre, Samuele Visentin, London, United Kingdom (2022); Preternatural, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA (2022); Visual Unpredictability, Patrick Parrish Gallery, New York, NY (2021); and Dodecagon, Olympia Gallery, New York, NY (2021). Yim has been awarded grants and fellowships, including the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Residency, New York, NY (2023) and Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2020).

About the Curator 

Tae Um is a curator, writer, and the founder of Creative Resource, an art agency, based in New York and Seoul. Um received a B.F.A from Korea National University of Arts and an M.A from Christie’s Education, New York. For the last 3 years, Um has written an art column called ‘Art Letter from NYC’ for Seoul Economy Daily and has collaborated with numerous art fairs, such as The Preview Art Fair, Hwarang Art Festival, Diaf and has been a Kiaf (Korea International Art Fair) media content partner since 2021.