Phoenix Art Museum is bursting with color this season thanks to Kim Chong Hak: Painter of Seoraksan, a joyful exhibition celebrating one of South Korea’s most beloved artists. On view in the Steele Gallery through February 21, 2027, the show traces the long and radiant career of the master affectionately known as the “painter of Seoraksan.”
Born in 1937, Kim Chong Hak began as an abstract painter in the 1960s before leaving Western-style abstraction behind. In the late 1970s he settled near majestic Mount Seorak in Gangwon Province and discovered a bold new visual language all his own, trading muted monochrome palettes for unabashedly expressive color.
Visitors will find works spanning decades: drawings and sketchbooks from the 1970s to today, plus recent botanical studies painted on traditional Korean hanji paper made from mulberry bark. A biographical video by award-winning filmmakers Jung Dawoon and Kim Jongshin of Giraffe Pictures introduces the artist’s story.
The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and curated by Michael Rooks, with generous support from Johyun Gallery, the Korea Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Plan a visit to Phoenix Art Museum at 1625 North Central Avenue and let these mountain-inspired paintings brighten your day. It’s a rare chance to experience a side of late-20th-century Korean art that few outside South Korea have ever seen.
Photo: Kim Chong Hak (Korean, b. 1937), Pandemonium, 2018, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist, Seoul, South Korea. © Kim Chong Hak.
