Join Director Soyoung Lee and Guest Curator Sunjung Kim for an engaging conversation exploring the artistic techniques and creative process of renowned Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun.
Join Soyoung Lee and Sunjung Kim for an engaging conversation exploring the artistic techniques and creative process of renowned Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun. Following the talk, the conversation continues with an audience Q&A, offering guests the chance to ask questions and dig deeper into the artist’s practice.
But don’t just listen—make something of your own!
After the discussion, guests are invited to roll up their sleeves and take part in a hands-on Art Lab inspired by Ha Chong-Hyun’s distinctive approach to making art. Experiment with materials, explore texture and process, and discover your own creative possibilities as you create an original piece to take home.
Whether you’re an art lover, a practicing creative, or simply curious to try something new, this is an opportunity to experience Ha Chong-Hyun’s work in a whole new way—from looking and listening to making.
Come for the conversation. Stay for the Art Lab. Leave with your own work of art.
(Admission to Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective is included with this event.)
Dr. Soyoung Lee joined the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco as The Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO in April 2025, bringing more than two decades of curatorial and museum leadership experience. Prior, Lee served as Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator at the Harvard Art Museums, where she oversaw the museums’ robust exhibitions program and curatorial vision for building the global collections. She also directed the Museum Training Program mentoring the next generation of curatorial, conservation, and education professionals. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University for the academic year 2024-25. Between 2003-2018, Soyoung was the first curator for Korean art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she helped transform the profile of Korean art and culture in the U.S. Her acclaimed exhibitions and publications include Jewelry: The Body Transformed, Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art, Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom, and Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. A respected scholar and leader in the museum field, Lee has wide-ranging expertise and research interests, including Korean and Japanese ceramics 1400-1900, issues of cross-cultural exchanges in East Asia, and contemporary Asian and Asian diasporic art. She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.
Sunjung Kim is the Artistic Director of Art Sonje Center in Seoul (2022–). She is also a Board Member of CIMAM (2026–) and ICOM ASPAC (2023–). She previously served as a Chair of ICOM Korea (2023–2025), as President of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation (2017–2021) and as Artistic Director of the ACC Archive & Research at the Asia Culture Center (2014–2015). Closely associated with Art Sonje Center since 1993, she worked there as Chief Curator and Deputy Director (1993–2004) and later as Director (2016–2017). Kim is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the REAL DMZ PROJECT, an ongoing art and research initiative launched in 2011 to explore the (in)visible borders of the Korean Demilitarized Zone through the critical lens of art. At Art Sonje Center, she has curated numerous exhibitions featuring artists such as Kim Beom, Haegue Yang, Lee Bul, Sung Hwan Kim, and Heidi Bucher, and has recently co-curated Do Ho Suh: Speculations and Adrián Villar Rojas: The Language of the Enemy. She also curated Forms of the Shadow at the Vienna Secession, reflecting on the contemporary shadows cast by the global pandemic, climate emergency, and geopolitical tensions.
Image: Ha Chong-Hyun in his studio. Photo by Sangtae Kim.
