[This Week's Exhibitions] Jung Jungyeop Solo Exhibition 'Woman Facing Earth Alone', Adam Handler Solo Exhibition 'Seoul Summer Songs', and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions present a curated selection of diverse and captivating shows happening across the country, offering a guide to what you can experience over the coming week.

Seodoi, Bones and Ashes, oil and graphite on canvas, 72.7×90.9cm_2025. OCI Museum of Art

Julian Lee Solo Exhibition 'Off-line IMAGE' and Seodoi Solo Exhibition 'The Unconquered World'

Images survive even when left unexplained. "Off-line IMAGE," Julian Lee's first solo exhibition in Korea, held on the first floor of the OCI Museum of Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul, traces the path of "emptied images" disconnected from established systems of meaning. Having absorbed an outsider's sensibility while moving between South Africa and Germany, the artist finds inspiration in the Cheonjeonri Petroglyphs of Ulsan. Just as the forms in these petroglyphs have endured for thousands of years despite their meanings remaining unclear, the petroglyphs, checkerboards, and chroma-key green and blue in Lee's works refuse to be confined to a single interpretation. In a series of 48 photographs displayed on the gallery walls, words like "Indicating," "Pointing," and "Resuming" are attached beneath the same image, shifting the act of viewing from searching for a single answer to witnessing the moment when meaning transforms.

Julian Lee, FELT SERIES: PAYLOAD No. 1-4_UV print on pure Japanese felt_31×22cm_2026_detail2. OCI Museum

On the second floor, Seodoi's "The Unconquered World" questions the direction of time. Instead of a linear concept of time, where the past creates the present and the present determines the future, the artist draws on the narrative of a neutron star—born stronger after collapse—and translates it into painting. Spinning tops, pendulums, cartwheels, and the waxing and waning moon embody repetition and cyclical time, while the 4.5-meter-tall "Nirvana" overlays the chrysalis and skeleton of a butterfly on a single canvas, merging the moments before birth and after death. The layered graphite and oil paint surfaces evoke the grain of ancient murals shaped from clay, carrying the texture of time itself. Both exhibitions run until August 1 at the OCI Museum of Art, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Girl Survival 9, 2026, acrylic on wood panel, 122x122cm. Gallery Mum

Jung Jungyeop Solo Exhibition 'The Woman Who Faces the Earth Alone'

Night falls every day, but the darkness is not the same for everyone. "The Woman Who Faces the Earth Alone," Jung Jungyeop's solo exhibition at Gallery MIM M'VOID, follows the nights of women who wish to face the world without fear. Since the 1980s, the artist has depicted humble, everyday beings—beans, red beans, greens, insects—through a feminist and ecological lens. This exhibition foregrounds her "Girl Survival" series. On wooden panels that showcase the natural grain, the movements of girls intermingle with droplets, flames, Paleozoic plants, and the darkness of caves. Fear is not something to erase, but a sensation to pass through; in that darkness, the girls learn to engage with the world as if tracing a path with their fingertips.

Moth-Misanri105, 2026, acrylic on wood panel, 90x53cm. Gallery MIM

In one corner of the gallery, huge vegetables, moths, and insects create their own order of life. The large-scale piece "Garden" overlays the act of tending vegetables with the work of caring for the earth. The magnified moth series invites viewers to perceive once-disdained creatures as kin within the ecosystem. Potato sprouts, no longer mere byproducts of food, cut across the canvas as agents of life in their own right, while beans soaring skyward transform the image of small grains—long tied to women's domestic labor—into a landscape of liberation. In Jung Jungyeop’s work, things that seem small and insignificant are strong not because they are fragile, but because they are interconnected. The exhibition runs until August 12 at Gallery MIM M'VOID, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Adam Handler, And Just Like That, We Were Friends, Oil Stick and Acrylic on Canvas, 193 x 238 cm, 2025. The Trinity

Adam Handler Solo Exhibition 'Seoul Summer Songs'

The summer garden is bright, but within it linger the shadows of those lost. "Seoul Summer Songs," Adam Handler's solo exhibition at The Trinity Gallery in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, unfolds feelings of loss and comfort through bold lines and vivid colors. A native of Queens, New York, Handler values emotional immediacy over traditional representation or technical skill. The wide-eyed, square-faced figures are not portraits of specific individuals, but recurring inner characters the artist has created over time. Though their expressions hold childlike playfulness and innocence, within them reside fear, love, loneliness, and the desire for connection.

Adam Handler, Moonlight Mile Tulip, Oil stick on Linen, 61 x 61 cm, 2026. The Trinity

The exhibition centers around three series: "Figure Works," "Ghosts," and "Flowers and Gardens." Pink ghosts escape the confines of the canvas and float above the wall as three-dimensional reliefs on wood panels. Ghosts, born from anxieties about death, serve as reminders of the departed while whispering to the living not to take life for granted. Tulips appear not as decorative still lifes, but as portraits of emotion. Their crown-like petals, scratched and peeled surfaces, and solitary stems reveal the enduring texture of human feeling, even amid bright colors. Exhibition visits are by reservation only. The show is on view until June 30 at The Trinity Gallery, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

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