Few people—aside from perhaps her mother—have played as pivotal a role in positioning South Korea on the global art map as New York-based dealer Tina Kim. Born in California, Kim was immersed in the art world from an early age, accompanying her mother, Hyun-Sook Lee, on artist visits and exhibition tours, and actively contributing to the organization of exhibitions and publications. Lee is the founder of Kukje Gallery in Seoul—arguably South Korea’s most influential gallery—which is where Kim began her career, helping to mount exhibitions for some of contemporary art’s most established names, including Louise Bourgeois, Roni Horn, Anish Kapoor, Alexander Calder, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Joan Mitchell. These early experiences laid the foundation for what would become a groundbreaking international career.
The 1980s marked a period of rapid economic growth in South Korea, driven by post-dictatorship modernization efforts after 1979. As the 1988 Olympics approached, the government recognized the cultural and diplomatic potential of the arts to enhance the country’s global profile. That moment coincided with the rise of Kukje Gallery and marked a new chapter for the Korean art ecosystem. In the decades since, South Korea’s creative industries—especially pop culture—have fueled a global surge in visibility, with the so-called “Korean Wave” extending well beyond K-pop and K-dramas to include contemporary Korean art, which has increasingly captured international attention and acclaim.
Still, Kim chose to put down roots in New York after her studies, driven by a desire to carve out her own identity in the art world. “I wanted to have something that was mine,” Kim tells Observer when we catch up with her ahead of the spring art fairs. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of her brick-and-mortar space in Chelsea.
Kim’s gallery first opened on 57th Street in 2002, taking over a space once occupied by London’s storied Anthony d’Offay Gallery, known for its ambitious presentations of artists like Joseph Beuys, Cindy Sherman and Gilbert & George. “Anthony was somebody I had worked very closely with on many exhibitions,” Kim recalls, adding that she initially continued her collaboration with Kukje Gallery. “I continued working closely with my mother, mainly in the secondary market, and geared towards the needs of the market in Korea. I was often going to auctions or helping with institutional exhibitions in the States.”
She admits that her mother was initially less than thrilled about her decision to open an independent gallery rather than remain fully involved in the family business. She worried that her daughter would be “literally throwing herself into the shark tank” of New York’s notoriously competitive art scene and feared the move might spark unnecessary tensions with American colleagues, since many of the artists Kim hoped to work with already had representation in New York.
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A fundamental shift came in 2015, when Kim moved to her current space in Chelsea, debuting with “Happy Together,” an exhibition curated by Clara Kim, now chief curator at L.A. MOCA, featuring a broad constellation of Asian artists responding to social and political tensions in the region. “That show really set the future direction of the gallery,” Kim recalls. “I was interested in presenting artists who are relevant to the current political and cultural moment—artists making an impact and speaking across borders.”
Before launching her own program, Kim worked at Paula Cooper Gallery, which is now just next door. “It’s nice that Paula often visits my gallery and compliments my shows,” Kim adds. “I think it’s very meaningful for me that I am on 21st Street.”
Notably, 2015 also marked the opening of the Dansaekhwa collateral exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale, which Kim organized and which is now widely regarded as a defining moment in the global recognition of Korean modern art. By bringing the Dansaekhwa movement to international attention, the exhibition sparked its meteoric rise in the art market and helped dispel long-held misconceptions. “Many scholars misunderstood pan se qua, which literally translates as ‘monochromic paintings,’ as a Korean interpretation of American Minimalism—the exhibition showed that it was quite the contrary.”
The show clarified that Dansaekhwa was born from a distinct historical context in South Korea, which at the time was still under dictatorship and recovering from the Korean War (1950-53). The movement emerged as an act of resilience and resistance by artists navigating the urgent need to redefine their cultural identity. While breaking from inherited aesthetic traditions, they also grounded their “new Korean artistic language” in fundamental traditional principles, actively resisting Western influences. “Artists were expressing their frustration with the oppressive government censorship of the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Kim explains. “The country was undergoing rapid industrialization and urban development, but the government was also making major decisions with strict media control. There were demonstrations, which led to the Gwangju Uprising in May of 1980. In this context, artists turned to art to resist both the military government and Western influence.”
As Kim suggests, Dansaekhwa is far closer to action painting than initially understood—these artists were making personal, original marks: pushing, scratching, and cracking the surface, breaking with tradition. Their approach aligns more with postwar European movements like Gruppo Zero, Lucio Fontana’s Spatialism and European Informel, which questioned and subverted the physical and conceptual limits of the canvas as a site for representation.
Kim admits that the exhibition came together as a last-minute decision. In 2014, Kukje Gallery organized a Dansaekhwa show in Seoul, coinciding with the La International Biennale Foundation’s gathering in the city. After seeing the exhibition, Germano Celant and Okwui Enwezor, who would go on to curate “All the World’s Futures” at the 56th Venice Biennale, encouraged Kim to bring the work to Venice. The timing proved ideal for bringing these artists to the global stage.
Today, names included in the show—pioneers of Korea’s earliest abstraction and avant-garde, such as Ha Chong-Hyun, Park Seo-Bo and Mono-ha artist Lee Ufan—have seen significant market appreciation and are now held in major museums. This exhibition undeniably contributed to that recognition.
“I was fortunate that Doryun Chong from the M+ Museum, at the time, was just starting to build the museum’s collection,” Kim says. “Other curators, like Alexandra Munroe, the Samsung Asian art curator at the Guggenheim Museum who curated the Gutai show in 2013, also recognized the importance of this group of artists right away and selected works for their museums.” Kim explains that this early interest led to Dansaekhwa works entering collections at MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Hirshhorn, among others.
Kim played a pivotal role in securing many of the institutional acquisitions that have elevated Asian artists and artists from the Asian diaspora. Her gallery’s dedication to curatorial excellence, academic rigor and ambitious experimentation did not go unnoticed by institutional leaders. “U.S. institutions have only recently started looking seriously at Asian and Asian American artists,” Kim says. “I’m fortunate to be in this position to support this mission and help build the bridge.”
Today, the landscape for Korean contemporary art has changed dramatically. Korean artists are increasingly featured in international institutions and recognized at major global events, from biennials to top-tier art fairs. Both government and private funding have played essential roles in propelling this Korean Wave into the art world. “Today, K-pop and K-drama are popular worldwide, and Korean art, of course, is benefiting from this widespread interest in Korean culture,” Kim says. “I have so many friends and clients visiting Korea every year, and Frieze Seoul, along with major biennials in Busan and Gwangju, are regularly attracting curators and museum directors.” Kim points out that many international galleries have also opened in Seoul, helping showcase Korean artists abroad. Government-funded programs continue to support Korean artists and curators both domestically and internationally, fostering visibility and cultural exchange. In parallel, major corporations such as Samsung and Hyundai are investing heavily in this growth. “Korean sponsors, you know, recognize the benefit of sponsoring major institutions.”
Asked about the perceived bubble—and potential correction—within the South Korean art market, Kim is confident that the country’s place on the global stage is secure, even if the pace may be shifting to more sustainable levels. “South Korea has such a strong collecting base and institutional system: the number of private corporate museums is growing, and even public museums are extremely active, with their funds supporting more art,” she explains. “There’s been a huge growth in the Korean collector base, and they remain active, even if at a different pace. Plus, new collectors are continuously entering the market.”
Frieze Seoul has consistently exceeded expectations for Tina Kim Gallery, achieving strong results both in sales and in institutional relationship-building since its inaugural edition. “My market is the U.S.,” Kim explains. “I’ve long focused on building my market here, and I wasn’t trying to sell Korean art back to Korea. I was so lucky—people were very excited to have us there, as they noticed and acknowledged what we were doing in New York.” More significantly, she adds, participating in the fair—and planning trips to nearby countries before and after—has been critical for cultivating her collector base and institutional network across the region.
While Kim’s vision for the gallery has long centered on building a platform for Asian artists and the Asian diaspora, her sights are now set on broadening the scope of the program. “I try to identify artists who are relevant in art history, contributing, you know—I help contribute to their research scholarship and help them to enter museums’ collections,” she says.
Kim points to several notable instances where her gallery’s support has been pivotal in advancing careers and bringing overdue attention to important regional figures. For instance, after taking on young Korean artist Mire Lee following her participation in the 2022 Venice Biennale, Kim introduced her to New York audiences with a museum-quality show of ambitious, experimental installations—one that came with high production costs and substantial risk. Lee later revisited elements of this work in her acclaimed New Museum exhibition the following year and, last October, scaled it up even further with her monumental installation at Tate’s Turbine Hall as part of the Hyundai Commission.
In a similar vein, Kim has played a critical role in the long-overdue recognition of Filipino artist Pacita Abad. She began representing Abad’s estate in 2022, just as a major U.S. retrospective opened at the Walker Art Center before traveling to SFMOMA and then MoMA PS1. “I’m proud to say that Pacita Abad is now one of the most widely collected Asian artists,” Kim says, pointing to the significance of Abad’s work in portraying Asian American immigrant stories—not as narratives of victimhood, but as affirmations of resilience and strength. “That’s what I like about her work. She really celebrates Asian culture while embracing a cosmopolitan perspective.”
Throughout our conversation, Kim often returned to the dynamism of South Asia—not just for its expanding collector base (she noted that most of her sales at Frieze Seoul went to South Asian collectors) but also for its emerging museums and vibrant artistic output. “I’m eager to expand my program to include a wider spectrum of Southeast Asian artists,” Kim said, revealing that the gallery will mount a major curated group exhibition of South Asian artists this summer.
Confirming the academic rigor that defines its curatorial program, Tina Kim Gallery will unveil a major exhibition this May, “The Making of Modern Korean Art: The Letters of Kim Tschang-Yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan and Park Seo-Bo, 1961-1982.” Timed to coincide with both the 10-year anniversary of the gallery’s Chelsea space and the landmark Dansaekhwa exhibition, the show brings to light the personal and intellectual exchanges between four pivotal artists as they helped shape the trajectory of modern Korean art in the decades following the Korean War.
Featuring major paintings by Kim Tschang-Yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan and Park Seo-Bo—alongside their original correspondence, archival documents, photographs and ephemera—the exhibition traces the global dialogues and artistic debates that laid the foundation for Korean modernism’s first international breakthrough.
“Korean art’s prominence today is not just a result of recent support and investment on multiple levels,” Kim says. “It was really grounded in the efforts these artists made in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. It didn’t happen overnight.” She explains how the letters exchanged between the artists became critical tools for sharing exhibition plans, navigating diplomatic hurdles and sustaining an emerging network of transnational collaboration. “These letters show the depth of the struggles these artists faced,” Kim continues, recounting, for instance, how Park Seo-Bo and Kim Tschang-Yeul coordinated their participation in the 1961 Venice Biennale by mail. “One letter, for example, has Kim Tschang-Yeul telling Park Seo-Bo, ‘You must go to the Korean embassy and ask them to sign this, and you have to take it to the Biennale office by this date.’ They should really make a movie out of this.”
The exhibition—five years in the making—is accompanied by the release of a landmark publication featuring these never-before-published letters, offering new insight into the inner workings of a generation that helped bring Korean art onto the global stage.
Despite global headwinds, Kim remains confident in the continued growth of the art market, particularly across Asia. “Asian history and culture are so rich, going back thousands of years, alongside the region’s economic growth,” she says, underscoring the immense potential for further expansion. “Particularly in Southeast Asia, it’s only a matter of time—in the next 20 years, many museums will open in that region.”
Throughout our conversation, Kim reiterates her ongoing commitment to leading her gallery, even as she oversees a resourceful international team. She remains closely involved in all aspects of the gallery’s operations, including traveling to numerous fairs each year—an approach that continues to generate vital opportunities to meet clients and cultivate both new and longstanding relationships. “I think one of the other strengths I have is that I participate in many major international art fairs,” she says. “When you have a global market, you’re not heavily dependent on one region, allowing you to plan better for challenging times.” Kim also stresses the importance of maintaining a program that actively engages multiple regions. “I’m constantly researching to expand my program. You really have to think five years or ten years ahead.”
“The Making of Modern Korean Art” is on view at Tina Kim Gallery through June 21, 2025.
