Highlights
- Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan opens Sept. 9, 2026 at Phoenix Art Museum and runs through Feb. 21, 2027.
- The exhibition features more than 80 paintings, drawings, and sketches and marks the first showing of Kim's work in Arizona.
- The High Museum of Art in Atlanta organized the exhibition; Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art, coordinated the Phoenix presentation.
- Hyunsook Jeanne Sours provided support that made the Phoenix showing possible.
Phoenix Art Museum opens its first Arizona exhibition of South Korean master painter Kim Chong Hak on Sept. 9, 2026, with more than 80 paintings, drawings, and sketches filling Steele Gallery through Feb. 21, 2027.
The exhibition, titled Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan, was organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and coordinated at Phoenix Art Museum by Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art. Hyunsook Jeanne Sours provided support that made the Phoenix presentation possible.
Kim was born in 1937 in Sinuiju, Korea, and first worked as an abstract painter in the 1960s before rejecting Western-style abstraction in favor of expressive interpretations of Korean landscape and cultural heritage. He settled in Gangwon Province in the late 1970s, near Mount Seorak, the highest peak in the Taebaek mountain range in eastern South Korea. The works on view span his career and include drawings, sketchbooks from the 1970s to the present, and recent botanical studies executed on Korean hanji paper.
The Phoenix showing arrives as the museum is also presenting Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection, which opened in June 2026 and features oversized posters and lithographs from Michelin, Dunlop, and Goodyear, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
Who organized the Kim Chong Hak exhibition?
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta organized the exhibition, which is the first U.S. museum presentation of Kim's work. Phoenix Art Museum's Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art, coordinated the Southwest stop. Hyunsook Jeanne Sours is credited with making the Phoenix showing possible.
Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan opens Sept. 9 at Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. The exhibition runs through Feb. 21, 2027; admission and ticketing details are available at phxart.org.
Where to find them
- Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan · high.org
- Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection · phxart.org · Instagram · Facebook · X
- Steele Gallery · steelegallery.ca
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- phxart.org retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
- phxart.org retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
- phxart.org retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
- Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan (official site) retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
- Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection (official site) retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
- Steele Gallery (official site) retrieved 23/06/2026 22:38
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 23/06/2026 22:38. Every claim traces to a source.
