Growing up is a journey you take on your own.
Grant Yun
Living between two contrasting experiences is what encapsulates the artworks in Grant Yun’s first solo show, Growing Up. Taking place in Seoul, South Korea, the show is a landmark moment for his career. The series examines the artist's Korean heritage and American-Korean identity. The works are lonely, personal, and intimate to Yun’s experience, yet in some ways feel personal to us all.
A feeling of distance saturates this series of works. The cultural distance between an immigrant parent and their child – while the child craves American snacks like a PB&J, the parent relishes in the delayed gratification of kimchee (Mom Made Dinner!). Other works, like Taking the Train Home and Tuesday Night present a physical distance – a lake glimpsed from a speeding train, or a world watched from behind a window.
Grey Nail Polish
Tuesday Night
Mom Made Dinner!
Yun explores the contrast between various themes and subjects in this series. Close-ups are a rarity in his practice, but the historical significance of the region beckons him to ponder the leaves of the trees, or the curve of an old bathtub. Yun depicts his immediate surroundings, as well as moments that encapsulate solitude.
Since 2019, Yun has lived between his permanent home in Wisconsin and New England. When the Covid pandemic hit, he found himself isolating in Connecticut. Like the rest of the world, he was “forced to take in that loneliness.”
The series visually encapsulates an American experience. The landscapes continue Yun’s exploration of American regionalism, finding throughlines in the romance of the American road (Summer Morning Drive). New England is presented in swathes of deep greens, and we see through his eyes moments of reflection and loneliness.
Summer Morning Drive
Although he grew up in California, the weight of history Yun felt in New England caused him to reflect on his childhood as a first-generation Korean-American. This is encapsulated in the tender depiction of a father, Dad. The figure disappearing into the shadow of a house is a sombre reminder of generational distance, captured in an everyday scene remembered from childhood.
Dad
The Exhibition
Growing Up is a full circle moment for Yun. It presents his quintessentially American Neo-Precisionism in South Korea, connecting two of the cultures that raised him.
Soft Corner Gallery
2F, 19 Apgujeong-ro 20-gil, Gangnam-gu
Seoul, South Korea
Tuesday–Saturday · 13:00–19:00
Closed on Sunday & Monday
Photography · Jun Lee
Artworks · Grant Yun
Discover the Artworks
Tuesday Night, UV pigment print on aluminium di-bond with a silkscreen matte varnish, 88.9 × 66.7 cm
PB&J, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 114.3 × 114.3 cm
Our Tub, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 88.9 × 66.7 cm
Dad, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 50 × 88.9 cm
Taking the Train Home, UV pigment print on aluminium di-bond with a silkscreen matte varnish, 50 × 88.9 cm
Summer Morning Drive, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 57.2 × 101.6 cm
Waiting on a Sunday Afternoon, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 101.6 × 76.2 cm
Mom Made Dinner!, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 88.9 × 66.7 cm
Grey Nail Polish, UV pigment print on paper with a silkscreen matte varnish seal, 88.9 × 66.7 cm
