[This Week's Exhibitions] Thaddaeus Ropac Group Show 'Eye of the Mind', Jung Yumi Solo Exhibition 'Flowing Volume', and More

Editor's NoteThis week's selection introduces a variety of captivating exhibitions taking place across the country that can be enjoyed over the course of the week.

Joan Snyder, Because, 2012. Thaddaeus Ropac.

Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Group Exhibition 'Eye of the Mind'

The group exhibition 'Eye of the Mind' at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul views the canvas not as an outlet for emotion, but as a site where time and memory accumulate. This marks the first time that Han Bing, Megan Rooney, and Joan Snyder are being presented together in Korea. Through around 16 paintings by these three artists, the exhibition demonstrates how abstract painting can capture bodily movement, the resistance of materials, and traces of the city.

Three artists participating in the group exhibition "Eye of the Mind" hosted by Thaddaeus Ropac. From left: Han Bing, Megan Rooney, Joan Snyder. Thaddaeus Ropac

Their approaches are distinct. Snyder layers paint, paper pulp, and herbs to densely build up autobiographical emotions and images of nature. Rooney applies and then scrapes away paint, pastel, and oil stick, leaving behind traces of what has vanished. Han Bing draws the surface of the city from the marks left by posters, newspapers, and advertisements being attached and removed from the streets. In this exhibition, painting is closer to a skin left behind by the process of layering, erasing, and peeling, rather than a completed image. What lingers longer than the colors before our eyes is the sense of time buried beneath. The exhibition runs until August 1 at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Yumi Jung, Silent Dawn, 2026, Gouache and Ink on Mulberry Paper, 91 × 116 cm. Atelier Aki

Jung Yumi Solo Exhibition 'Flowing Volume'

In Jung Yumi's canvases, water resonates rather than simply flows. Her solo exhibition 'Flowing Volume (流水音)' at Atelier Aki does not seek to portray nature as a visible landscape, but instead captures on canvas the sounds and vibrations that remain within the body when standing before it. Returning to Atelier Aki for her first solo exhibition in two years since 2024, Jung Yumi presents around 18 new paintings extending her series of 'imagined landscapes,' featuring images of water, clouds, waterfalls, and breath.

Yumi Jung, Breath of Cloud Waterfall, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 180 × 230 cm. Atelier Aki

In Jung Yumi's work, a waterfall is less a stream of falling water than a force that first reaches the ears and body. Using brisk movements of the shoulders, arms, and wrists, she overlaps brushstrokes, creating the rhythm and volume of nature through the texture of each touch. In works such as 'Breath of Cloud Waterfall' and 'When the Sound Comes Down and Touches the Water,' the landscape transforms from a fixed scene into a field of emerging and dispersing sensations. The exhibition is on view until June 20 at Atelier Aki, 2-gil, Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul.

One Day Cloud - Your Story 26-01, 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 116×91cm. Superior Gallery

Lee Heuk Solo Exhibition 'Each One's Sky'

In Lee Heuk's paintings, the sky is not a distant background, but a space where people pause and pass through. The solo exhibition 'Each One's Sky' at Superior Gallery uses clouds and sky to depict the height and speed at which each life unfolds. Skies shifting from deep blue to gray, clouds that spread gently before rising abruptly like cliffs — these elements contain both stability and anxiety, rest and tension. Through Lee Heuk's recent works, which continue his painting practice since the early 2000s, the exhibition explores how the age-old metaphor of clouds resurfaces in the present-day mind.

Like Shaking Flowers We Are Too 26-01, 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 65×91cm. Superior Gallery

In the works, rabbits, dogs, sharks, and balloons appear as small, unfamiliar symbols perched atop clouds. The running dog gestures toward moving forward, while the airborne rabbits and balloons represent a brief exhale of relaxation. The shark, emerging from hiding, evokes the sudden dangers that intrude upon life without warning. Lee Heuk's clouds do not simply drift away and vanish — they remain as shapes of emotions we have either lost or still hold onto. The exhibition runs until June 16 at Superior Gallery, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.