[This Week's Exhibitions] Ha Jung-woo Solo Exhibition "Either act or forget", Choi Eunyoung Solo Exhibition "What Will I Be Doing When I Die?" and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions feature a curated selection of diverse and captivating shows taking place across the country that you can visit over the week.

So Hyun Park's "Unsended Letter". This work evokes a pictorial space where personal narratives, absent presences, and historical memories overlap in time. Shinhan Gallery

Shinhan Young Artist Festa: "I Am Only Singing the Swan Song"

Loss only reveals the contours of the world after it is gone. "I Am Only Singing the Swan Song" at Shinhan Gallery is an exhibition in which six artists — Kim Yedam, Nam Hyeonji, SoHyun Park, Suyeon Park, Seok Jia, and Lee Kyungmin — interpret loss, absence, and uncertainty through their respective mediums. The title draws from the longstanding belief that a swan sings before its death, as well as from Hélène Cixous's reading of art and the sense of death in Kafka's writings. The focus of the exhibition lies not on the "final song," but on the ongoing act of "singing" — a present continuous — that follows. This suggests that the artists continue to work and create toward what is still unknown and cannot fully be replicated.

Suyeon Park's "Jeongga, Pansori, Contact, and Narrative." This is a performance work that evokes emotions, memories, and the sense of touch unreachable by language through bodily movements. Shinhan Gallery

Kim Yedam captures the "existence" of objects by stripping away the meaning and context of still lifes, while Seok Jia treats painting as a corporeal experience, detaching and reattaching gel medium as if handling a body. Suyeon Park evokes emotions and memories that cannot be touched by language through bodily movement, and Nam Hyeonji simultaneously reveals the sense of shelter and anxiety through images of family, space, and similar bodies. SoHyun Park weaves together memories where personal history and historical events intertwine through painting and video, and Lee Kyungmin uses the form of clouds to depict the gap between reality and the other side. The exhibition runs through September 9 at Shinhan Gallery in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Jung-woo Ha's 'Untitled'. Through the shapes of face and mask, it expresses the human persona wavering between external gaze and inner desire. The Shop Gallery

Ha Jung-woo Solo Exhibition "Either act or forget"

The more we try to hide the face, the more it reveals. Ha Jung-woo's solo exhibition "Either act or forget" explores the human existence and inner persona under the theme "HUMAN." The exhibition title, borrowed from a line in the film "The Godfather," embodies an attitude of acting or letting go, rather than complaining or hesitating. Ha Jung-woo, who has played countless roles as an actor, translates these experiences into masks, talismans, faces, and patterns. Through intuitive lines and vibrant colors, he depicts people and objects from daily life, attempting to restore pure humanity and primitive vitality suppressed within modern civilization.

Jung-woo Ha's Untitled. A work that reveals human inner emotions and energy by arranging characters, numbers, symbols, and repetitive patterns into intense color planes. The Shop Gallery

The repetitive lines and geometric motifs inspired by carpet design, along with images drawn from ceramics and traditional masks, do not remain mere decorative surfaces. The mask serves both as a tool to conceal oneself and as a passage that reveals inner desires. For this exhibition, in collaboration with Hyundai Livart, furniture and artworks have been arranged together, creating a gallery space that feels like a room in daily life. As the boundaries between artwork and real space blur, viewers are encouraged to recall both the presence of the depicted figures and the energy to actively fill their own everyday lives. The exhibition is open until October 4 at The Sharp Gallery in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Choe Eunyoung's 'Seed and Leaf - Yeduk Tree'. It depicts the creation and extinction of Jeju's nature and the continuous cycle of life through delicate plant images. Jeju Gallery

Choi Eunyoung Solo Exhibition "What Will I Be Doing When I Die?"

Death may not be the end, but a return to the earth. Choi Eunyoung's solo exhibition "What Will I Be Doing When I Die?" begins with a question the artist asked herself following the unexpected death of someone close. After relocating to Jeju, Choi observed blooming and withering plants and seeds returning to the soil, leading her to view life and death not as opposites, but as a cycle. Her works, built up with layers of ink and powdered pigments on hanji paper, bear the traces of rough basaltic earth and the steady passage of those crossing it.

Eunyoung Choi's "Long Hike." This work captures the time of existence passing over the rough earth using ink and powdered pigments on Korean paper. Jeju Gallery

New works such as "The Color of Wind," "Long Mountain Hike," "Corner of Solitude," and "Footsteps on Waves" depict the land left after humans are gone and the lingering journey of steps upon it. The grooves and undulations of stone-like basalt become small but unmistakable traces of life, like the paths of snails, while countless footsteps accumulate into one landscape. In the participatory installation "Where Steps Stop," viewers leave questions and answers about life, adding their traces to the exhibition. The question "What will I be doing when I die?" ultimately becomes "How will I live today?" The exhibition runs until the 30th at Jeju Gallery in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

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