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Refraction/ Abstraction
Group Exhibition

Curated by Sigourney Schultz

Helen J Gallery is thrilled to present Refraction/Abstraction, a group exhibition featuring works by Yoon Jongju, Candice Joo, Minku Kim, Hyemin Lee, Alex Paik, Han Sungwoo, and Park YoungHa.

Park YoungHa
03_소품2호-1, 2023
Mixed Media
10¼ x 7⅛ in.

Alex Paik
Improvisation #2 from Partial Equilateral Triangle (Magenta), 2024
Gouache, paper

These seven artists responded to the troubled period following the Korean War (1950–53) by condensing the formal qualities of their post-industrial reality. The artists on view present varied responses to abstraction that reflect this legacy across the Korean American diaspora, engaging themes of community, the natural world, and collective memory.

Yoon Jongju’s meditative surfaces, arranged in sequential grids, abstract the linearity of time.

Candice Joo’s artificial landscape paintings contend with the natural world while creating space between the real and the virtual.

Minku Kim’s explorations into pictorial space compress space and time while referencing the rich colored panels of Korean hanbok.

Hyemin Lee uses fragments of discarded, traditional Korean garments to evoke forgotten memories through her works.

Alex Paik’s modular, paper-based wall installations explore perception, interdependence, and improvisation while engaging with the complexities of social dynamics.

Park YoungHa activates the surface of his paintings using a mixture of fine sand, gold dust, and stone powders, calling back to the traditional mud-plastered walls of rural Korean houses.

Han Sungwoo’s recent works take inspiration from landscapes between seasons and render these scenes abstract through rough, textured brushstrokes.

Sungwoo Han
fw.work no.10, 2021
oil on canvas
28⅝ x 23⅝ x 1⅝ in.
72.70 x 60.00 x 4.00 cm.’

Minku Kim
L.E.P. (Gator Swamp), 2019
Oil on Canvas Board
H 7 x W 5 in
12½ x 10½ in (framed)

Candice Joo
Love Reflection Twin Diptych, 2022
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
11¾ x 23⅝ x 1½ in.

(The Essence of Color: Yoon Jongju’s Monochrome Paintings)

Yoon Jongju is a Korean artist that focuses in painting canvases in layers of various hues to create monochromatic pieces.

Yoon Jongju
Cherish the Time - Line , 2022
Acrylic, medium on canvas
9 x 12½ in.

Yoon Jongju
Cherish the Time - Line , 2022
Acrylic, medium on canvas
9 x 12½ in.

Yoon Jongju
Cherish the TIme - Line, 2023
Acrylic, medium on canvas
23¾ x 38½ in.

After receiving her MFA in Painting at Keimyung University, she continues to create hues and the illusion of depth to obtain stacking color plates. As the colors are added and the paint in the corners is removed, boundaries are created. Yoon Jong-ju's color field abstract paintings are created employing medium starting with an acrylic base coat applied on the canvas ten to fifteen times. To achieve a distinct density and three-dimensional appearance, the paint pouring, shifting, and drying processes were repeated.

Yoon Jongju with one of her pieces

Yoon Jong-ju seeks to use art to communicate her own existence. The artworks have a feeling of timeliness because of the artist's iterative process.

“It's a minimal and maximal work, and it's a variation by multiplying and transforming several patterns” -Yoon Jongju

(Exploring Candice Joo’s Artificial Landscapes)

Candice Joo is a Korean American artist recognized for her creation of artificial landscapes composed of chains. Her works engage with the natural world, establishing a distinction between reality and the virtual.

Candice Joo working on one of her pieces

She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in architectural design from Parsons School of Design in 2006. She began her work at a New York architectural company before transitioning to the architectural construction sector in Seoul in 2008. During her tenure at an architecture firm, she encountered a series of motionless machinery while touring a chemical facility. These devices had intertwined metal pipes that evoked the human anatomy and seemed to possess a life force and vitality akin to that generated by the human body. These metal pipes mimicked her own look. She recognized that human reason is flawed and that the reflection she perceives in the mirror is a concept that can only be validated by others.

In 2015, she shifted to painting and sculpture to seek her creative expression.

Candice Joo
Resistance 06, 2019
Oil and acrylic on canvas
51 1/4 x 38 1/4 inches.

Candice Joo
Love Reflection 16, 2019
Oil and acrylic on canvas
63 3/4 x 51 1/4 inches.

Candice Joo
A Course of Direction 05, 2022
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
35¾ x 28⅝ x 1½ in.

Candice Joo
Twin Series_Stumbling on Happiness 01, 2022
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
28⅝ x 23⅞ x 1½ in.

Chains serve as a significant material for the artist to advance her work and as a medium for expressing concepts. The radiant metals in her creations are occasionally severed and disconnected, while at other times they are interconnected in diverse manners or combined into a chain to produce beautiful formations. Joo uses a paintbrush and oil paint to render the rings in a straightforward and precise design that arises in her head. As you go closer, numerous lines are translucent and indistinct at their edges, shown as interwoven lines that mirror one another. She applies several intersecting lines to form a surface, so obscuring its borders and hues. Joo wants the viewers to understand she depicts the intricate complexities of past relationships and present boundaries.

(Park YoungHa's Artworks of Earth and Essence)

Park YoungHa is a Korean artist known to intergrate earthly materials into his artworks.

After graduating from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, he has since then created paintings that use methods augmenting physical texture using a blend of materials such as gravel, stone particles, dust, and sand.

Park YoungHa
소품3호-38, 2023
Mixed Media
10¼ x 7⅛ in.
26.00 x 18.00 cm.

Park YoungHa
03_소품2호-2, 2023
Mixed Media
10¼ x 7⅛ in.
26.00 x 18.00 cm.

Park YoungHa
03_소품3호-48, 2023
Mixed Media
11 x 8⅝ in.
28.00 x 22.00 cm.

(Understanding Minku Kim's Artistic Vision)

Minku Kim is a Brooklyn-based artist known for his straight edge paintings.

Kim holds a Master of Fine Arts from the New York Studio School and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His art has been seen internationally, including at Songwon Art Center in Seoul (2024) and Central Park Tower in New York (2023).

Minku Kim
S.E.P. (Pink Clouds), 2018-19
Oil on Canvas Board
7 x 5 in
12½ x 10½ in (framed)

Minku Kim
S.E.P. (Cold Evening), 2020
Oil on Aluminum
7 x 5 in
12½ x 10½ in (framed)

Kim is intrigued by linear line, edges, color, and the spatial elements that elicit specific emotions. The sunsets and windows bring back feelings of nostalgia, inviting viewers to explore the artist's fascination with space and the essence of beauty. He consistently endeavors to generate, flatten, reduce, and subsequently modify the spatial dimensions of his two-dimensional artworks through the use of color and arrangement.

Minku in the studio

The colors in his paintings allude to the experience of viewing a Korean hanbok, a traditional clothing item worn for holidays and celebrations. Hanboks are usually made applying Obangsaek, a five-color scheme of red, yellow, white, black, and blue, which carry profound cultural importance in Korea. This vivid color palette not only characterizes the essence of hanboks but also significantly influences many of his artworks, where the symbolic and visual significance of Obangsaek is carefully integrated into the fabric of his artistic expression. By incorporating three or more of these Obangsaek colors, he experiences a more robust sense of meaning and Korean identity.

“Each work stands as an amalgamation of specific memories, experiences and feelings. They are in ways both extremely specific and quite generic or universal.” -Minku Kim

(Han Sungwoo’s Enviromental Abstract Works)

Han Sungwoo is a Korean artist known for his abrupt brushstroke abstract paintings.

Han Sungwoo
untitled, 2021
oil on canvas
28⅝ x 23⅞ in.
72.7 x 60.6 cm.

Han Sungwoo
fw.work no.3, 2021
oil on canvas
28⅝ x 23⅝ x 1⅝ in.
72.70 x 60.00 x 4.00 cm.

Han Sungwoo's art frequently centers on remnants of environments that are socially marginalized, neglected, overlooked, and vanishing. He uses subdued and natural hues to connect with the audience's perception of the works.

(Alex Paik’s Geometric Paper Assemblage)

Alex Paik is a Los Angeles based artist known for his delicate gouache paper installations.

Paik earned his M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, his B.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University in 2003, and founded arts organization Tiger Strikes Asteroid while creating his innovative paper installations. He started working with scraps that led him to small collections. He reacted to how paper inherently softened the geometric shapes in his creations, prompting him to focus solely on paper thereafter.

Alex Paik
Partial Equilateral Triangle (Magenta), 2024
Gouache, paper, nails

Themes of structure, fragmentation, and improvisation are frequently explored in his works; this is evident in exhibits like Caesura at Praxis New York (2019) and Stretto at Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn (2018). His site-specific installations are known for turning paper into dynamic, spatial experiences; one such piece was shown at Art on Paper in New York (2016). Previous displays of his skill with paper as a sculptural media included Guest Spot at The Reinstitute in Baltimore and Gallery Joe in Philadelphia.

Alex Paik
Improvisation #4 from Right Triangle (Curve), 2021
Gouache, colored pencil, paper

(Hyemin Lee's Sculptural Integration of Mini Pillows)

Hyemin Lee is a Korean artist known for her mini pillow installations and artworks.

Before her artistic journey, Lee spent her childhood devoted to cello playing. She grew up practicing to become a professional, yet had frustration regarding her playing skills until she discovered art. Ultimately, she abandoned her musical pursuits to follow her passion for art. Following her graduation from the Department of Sculpture at Seoul National University in 1991, she specialized in video installation at New York University Graduate School and has persistently engaged in her work while traversing between New York and Seoul.

Hyemin Lee
Seeds, 2023
Fabric, beads

After receiving her BA, Lee, who had to stay with her in-laws, discovered that the basement was an ideal spot to unwind. It was an area where her mother-in-law had traditional Korean mattresses, moderately used clothing, and outdated blankets. She started sewing sculptures in the form of pillows after constructing with leftover cloth. The sensation of revitalizing neglected items motivated her to create a series.

“It challenges me to give things new meaning when I notice that they have been discarded or have become frail. Making things that were on the verge of being discarded into brilliant protagonists is an expression of my artistic universe, much like a silkworm cocoon changes into a butterfly.”

Hyemin in the studio

The tale of "reversal and contradiction," which is weak yet powerful, is united in her works. The pillows are a balance and juxtaposition of metal and fabric, tenderness and firmness, making it contradictory. They individually hold significant emotions, memories, and dreams.

Hyemin Lee
Dreaming, 2023
Fabric, beads
8⅞ x 8⅞ x 4¾ in