[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 exhibitions highlight a diverse and captivating selection of shows taking place across the country that you can enjoy over the course of the week.

Joan Snyder, Because, 2012. Thaddaeus Ropac.

Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Group Exhibition "Mind's Eye"

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

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

Their methods differ. Snyder creates dense layers of autobiographical emotion and images of nature by overlapping paint, papier-mache, and herbs. Rooney leaves traces of what has disappeared by applying and then sanding away paint, pastel, and oil stick. Han Bing draws the city’s surface from the marks left by posters, newspapers, and advertisements being attached and removed on the street. In this exhibition, painting is less a finished image than a kind of skin, bearing the traces of building up, erasing, and peeling away. What lingers longer than the colors before your eyes is the sense of time buried beneath. The exhibition runs until August 1 at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

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

Jung Yumi Solo Exhibition "Flowing Volume"

In Jung Yumi's paintings, water resonates rather than merely flows. The solo exhibition "Flowing Volume (流水音) Flowing Volume" at Atelier Aki captures, through painting, not the landscape itself but the sounds and vibrations that linger within the body when standing before nature. Returning to Atelier Aki for the first time in two years since her 2024 solo exhibition, Jung presents around 18 new works, continuing her "Imagined Landscapes" series with images of water, clouds, waterfalls, and breath.

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

In Jung's paintings, the waterfall is not a stream of water falling, but a force that first touches the ear and body. The artist builds up brushstrokes with swift movements of the shoulders, arms, and wrists, creating the rhythm and volume of nature through the texture of these touches. In works like "Breath of Cloud Waterfall" and "When the Sound Descends and Touches the Water," the landscape becomes not a fixed scene but a field of sensations that form and dissipate. The exhibition is on view until June 20 at Atelier Aki, Seoul Forest 2-gil, 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"

For Lee Heuk, the sky is not a distant backdrop but a place where people pause and pass through. The solo exhibition "Each One's Sky" at Superior Gallery uses clouds and sky to depict the heights and speeds at which different lives are set. Skies shifting from deep blue to gray, clouds gently spreading or rising abruptly like cliffs—these hold both stability and anxiety, rest and tension. Through recent works by Lee, who has been painting since the early 2000s, the exhibition explores how the age-old metaphor of clouds is revived in contemporary feelings.

Like Shaking Flowers, Us Too26-01, 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 65×91cm. Superior Gallery

The animals and objects—rabbits, dogs, sharks, and balloons—in Lee’s paintings appear as small, unfamiliar markers resting atop clouds. The running dog represents a gesture of moving forward, while the airborne rabbit and balloon embody a momentary release of tension. The shark, emerging from hiding, evokes the sudden dangers that intrude upon life. Lee’s clouds do not simply drift away and vanish; instead, they remain as shapes of emotions we have lost or are still holding 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.