Highlights
- Phoenix Art Museum presents Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan in Steele Gallery from Sept. 9, 2026 through Feb. 21, 2027.
- The show, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is the first Arizona exhibition of Kim's work and features more than 80 paintings, drawings, and sketches.
- Underwriting comes from Hyunsook Jeanne Sours, with in-kind support from Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix and additional backing from the Rob Walton, Jordan Rose, and Rose Law Group Fund for Contemporary Art.
- Admission is included in general admission; free reduced-admission windows run Wednesdays 3 to 8 p.m., supported by SRP and the city of Phoenix.
Phoenix Art Museum opens its fall season with the first Arizona presentation of work by South Korean painter Kim Chong Hak, a show organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and underwritten locally by Hyunsook Jeanne Sours. The exhibition, Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan, runs in Steele Gallery from Sept. 9, 2026 through Feb. 21, 2027.
The show brings more than 80 paintings, drawings, and sketches that trace Kim's career from his early abstract period through the expressive landscape work he developed after settling in Gangwon Province in eastern South Korea in the late 1970s. Born in 1937 in Sinuiju, Korea, Kim first worked as an abstract painter before rejecting Western-style abstraction, which he viewed as a response to national melancholy shaped by decades of hardship. He lived through the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910–45), the division of North and South Korea in 1948, and the Korean War (1950–53). In self-imposed isolation on Mount Seorak in the Taebaek mountain range, he moved away from the monochromatic styles prevalent in Korea at the time and toward his own expressive approach.
The exhibition also includes drawings and sketchbooks from the 1970s to the present, recent botanical studies on Korean hanji paper made from mulberry bark, and an introductory biographical video by filmmakers Jung Dawoon and Kim Jongshin of Giraffe Pictures. Kim holds a substantial collection of Korean folk art, and that influence runs through the work on view.
Colin Pearson, the museum's Curator of Asian Art, coordinated the Phoenix presentation. "Kim Chong Hak's work grows out of an intense, lived relationship with Seoraksan and the changing seasons,
Where to find them
- Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan · high.org
- 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 12/06/2026 19:19
- Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan (official site) retrieved 12/06/2026 19:19
- Steele Gallery (official site) retrieved 12/06/2026 19:19
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 12/06/2026 19:19. Every claim traces to a source.
