Highlights

Phoenix Art Museum opens its first Arizona exhibition of South Korean master painter Kim Chong Hak on Sept. 9, bringing more than 80 paintings, drawings and sketches to the Central Corridor museum for a show organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The exhibition, Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan, spans the arc of Kim's long career and highlights an aspect of Korean art from the late 20th century that is little known outside of South Korea. Born in 1937, Kim first worked as an abstract painter in the 1960s and ultimately rejected the adoption of Western-style abstraction. In the late 1970s, he settled in Gangwon Province in eastern South Korea and moved toward his own unabashedly expressive style. The show is curated by Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum.

Lead sponsorship of the publication is provided by Johyun Gallery and the Korea Foundation, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Phoenix presentation is coordinated by Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art, and underwritten by the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Exhibition Endowment Fund, Hyunsook Jeanne Sours, and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix.

Who organized the Kim Chong Hak exhibition?

The show is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and curated by Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Its Phoenix presentation is coordinated by Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art at PhxArt, with underwriting from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Exhibition Endowment Fund.

Sept. 25 brings the return of SOUNDCHECK, PhxArt's monthly live-music series. Season two opens with the Meat Puppets, Arizona Hall of Fame recipients formed in Phoenix in the early 1980s. The founding trio is back together, joined by keyboardist Ron Stabinsky and guitarist Elmo Kirkwood. Drummer Derrick Bostrom is quoted in the museum's release: "This doesn't feel like an oldies act. It feels like the culmination." The 7 p.m. set runs one hour; tickets are $10 for members and $28 for the public, with all-day museum access included. SOUNDCHECK is presented by the Men's Arts Council, with additional support from the Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for the Performing Arts.

Sept. 2 offers a separate draw: a screening of American Pachuco, a documentary on Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino, followed by a conversation with director David Alvarado and producer Everett Katigbak. The film won both the Audience and Jury awards at the Sundance film festival. Tickets are $10 for members and $15 for non-members.

Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan opens Sept. 9; tickets and full event details are at phxart.org.

Where to find them

Sources

Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.

  1. phxart.org retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52
  2. Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan (official site) retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52
  3. American Pachuco (official site) retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52
  4. Johyun Gallery (official site) retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52
  5. Piper Charitable Trust (official site) retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52
  6. Kimpton Hotel (official site) retrieved 27/08/2026 01:52

Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 27/08/2026 01:52. Every claim traces to a source.