Solo Exhibition Featuring Award-Winning Korean Contemporary Artist, Jung Yeondoo, Opens Simultaneously
SALEM, MA – This spring, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) opens a landmark installation of the museum’s remarkable Korean collection in the Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture. PEM is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States and the first American institution to collect Korean art. The gallery opens on May 17, 2025, thanks to the support from the Korea Foundation and other generous funders, including the National Museum of Korea, who also support PEM’s Curator of Korean Art position. Visitors will see key works of art that reflect life in Korea from the late Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) and early 20th century — a period of cross-cultural connection and transformation — through to the present day.
These early works, often rare and one of a kind, vividly show how people lived and interacted with each other in Korea, as well as exemplify their thoughts, values and dreams. Visitors will also see how Korean artists navigated global waves of change and expressed their struggles and aspirations through resourcefulness and innovation. Resilience and creativity have been integral to Korea throughout its history, and these values continue to shape the global influence of Korean culture today.
“The Yu Kil-Chun Gallery will be an ongoing collection installation that honors PEM’s ties to Korea and will be the only gallery in the country to focus on early 19th- and 20th-century Korean art,” said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. “PEM’s Curator of Korean Art, Dr. Jiyeon Kim, has conducted thorough research on our historic collection, uncovering fascinating human stories, and has made significant acquisitions of modern and contemporary Korean artworks, further enriching the collection. Through these efforts, this project not only extends and deepens the historical partnership between the museum and Korea but also invites us to reconsider contemporary culture and the global experience through a fresh perspective.
“The Yu Kil-Chun Gallery extends and expands upon a historically significant partnership between the museum and Korea and encourages us to consider our contemporary culture and experience of globalism through a new lens.”
PEM’s Korean collection began in the late 19th century under Edward Sylvester Morse, director of the museum’s predecessor organization, the Peabody Academy of Science. During his almost 40-year tenure, Morse was determined to bring Korean culture to the United States. In addition to gifts from Korean diplomats, Morse imported more than 200 objects from Korea in 1883, forming the basis of PEM’s Korean collection. One of the most important groups of works Morse acquired is a set of ten Korean musical instruments exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair.
Yu Kil-Chun (1856-1914), a member of the first Korean diplomatic delegation to the U.S. in 1883 and the first Korean international scholar in America, played a crucial consulting role in growing PEM’s collection of Korean art and culture. Yu Kil-Chun’s stay in the Salem area from 1883 to 1884 solidified an enduring friendship with Morse. Before Yu Kil-Chun departed the United States to return to Korea, he donated his personal belongings to the museum. A few years later, Charles Goddard Weld assisted the museum with the purchase of Korean works from Gustavus Goward, a diplomat who served in Korea and other parts of the Pacific Rim. In the early 20th century, PEM purchased nearly 100 Korean pieces to add to its already significant collection.
PEM’s collection emphasizes works that reflect the prominence of Korean women artists and artisans in textiles, basketry and papier-mâché objects. It continues to grow and diversify thanks to important acquisitions, including fine mid-Joseon mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerware, a Nectar Ritual painting from 1744 (a remarkable example of a late Joseon religious painting), an exquisite 19th-century folding screen depicting a Banquet of Queen Mother of the West and the recent acquisition of four works by Nam June Paik, including the 2001 multimedia work Ceramic Vessel and Mirror from 1998.
“PEM’s Korean Art and Culture collection is brimming with compelling stories of Korea’s early interactions with the West, as told by various voices, from the artists themselves to collectors and advisors,” said Dr. Jiyeon Kim, PEM’s Curator of Korean Art. “Visitors will have a rare opportunity to see how Koreans lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries and understand how their lived experience helps tell a larger story of global exchange, cultural change, resilience and personal expression.”
PEM’s Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture will feature about 100 works, including major examples from the museum’s renowned Korean textile collection, superb 19th-century paintings and the painted screen Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan, which depicts eight spectacular moments from lavish official celebrations. This set of paintings, originally made as one magnificent folding screen, came to PEM as eight separate panels and has been recently conserved. The installation will also feature a newly commissioned media work by the South Korean artist Yang Sookyun (born 1982) and other inspiring contemporary works by Korean and Korean American artists.
Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams
Do you ever wonder about the people next door? Who are they and what do they dream about? Opening concurrently with PEM’s Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture, this exhibition by artist Jung Yeondoo invites you to think more deeply about your neighbors — the strangers you might pass in an apartment elevator or on a busy street — and imagine their dreams. On view May 17, 2025 through January 25, 2026 in PEM’s Jeffrey P. Beale Gallery, Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams highlights two of the artist’s major photographic works: Evergreen Tower (2001) and Bewitched (2001-ongoing).
After attending art school in London, Jung returned to South Korea in the early 2000s and discovered that Seoul had become a “concrete forest” of high-rise apartment complexes. Among his new neighbors, Jung observed that the comforts of urban, middle-class life had also produced a sense of anonymity and isolation. Driven by curiosity, Jung began to ask the people around him about their hopes and aspirations.
The resulting work, Evergreen Tower, opens the doors into the living rooms of 32 families in the same apartment complex in Seoul’s Gwangjin-gu district. The apartments are architecturally nearly identical in size and layout, but each family chose their own attire and personal objects – such as toys or musical instruments – to include in their portrait. Jung’s photographs shed light on these individual families’ tastes and aspirations, revealing vibrant interior lives behind the concrete walls of the city and prompting us to reflect on our own lifestyles and choices. The original slides for Evergreen Tower were part of a 2019 gift of photography to PEM from the Joy of Giving Something (JGS) Foundation, Inc.
In Bewitched, Jung asked people whom he encountered on his travels around the world about their dreams. He created portraits of individuals as they were — a gas station attendant, an ice cream shop cashier, a working parent — and then worked collaboratively with them to create a second portrait that visually fulfilled their greatest wishes — to drive a racecar, explore the Arctic with a dogsled or be swept off to a movie set. Though the moments captured in the portraits are fleeting, these photographs act as catalysts for conversation as well as an opportunity for the participants to reflect on the heart’s unspoken desires.
The subjects that appear in Jung’s photographs are ordinary families and individuals with whom he collaborates to tell a deeper story. Whether asking people to open up their living room or share their innermost dreams, Jung uses the camera to show people as they are, but also as they wish to be seen.
“It is an honor to bring to PEM the work of one of Korea’s most exciting artists working today,” said Stephanie Hueon Tung, PEM’s Byrne Family Curator of Photography. “I hope visitors to PEM will also appreciate Jung Yeondoo’s curiosity, spirit of experimentation and ability to connect with strangers and welcome them into his work as he asks questions to better understand our society today.”
ABOUT JUNG YEONDOO
Jung Yeondoo (born 1969, South Korea) uses photography, videography and sculpture to find connection amidst the anonymity of modern urban life. He has lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea, since 2000, after graduating from Seoul National University and finishing an M.F.A. at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Jung’s work was displayed in the Korea Pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennial; in 2007, he became the youngest winner of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea’s Artist of the Year award.
OPENING WEEKEND PROGRAMMING
Saturday, May 17
- 10:30–11:15 am | Artist Talk: Jongkuk Lee Learn about Korean hanji papermaking and its connections to PEM’s collection.
- 1–3:30 pm | Drop-in Art Making Explore hanji applications with Jongkuk Lee in PEM’s Create Space Studios.
- 1–2 pm | Curator Talk Learn about PEM’s Korean Art collection and Jung Yeondoo’s work from Curators Jiyeon Kim and Stephanie Tung.
- 2–4 pm | PEM Presents: The New York Korean Performing Arts Center Enjoy a performance and workshop of the Buchae Chum (Korean fan dance) and Sogo Chum (small drum dance).
Sunday, May 18
- 10:30 am–3:30 pm | Creative Foundations: Hanji Workshop with Jongkuk Lee This long-form art class is open to ages 18 and up.
- 2–3 pm | PEM Presents: G-Hwaja A dynamic quartet combines Western and Korean traditional music and instruments.
Visit pem.org/events for updates on our full lineup of Korean cultural programming throughout the month of May, including a K-pop dance party.
PRESS & INFLUENCER RECEPTION
Please join us for a press and influencer preview reception on Thursday, May 15 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, featuring remarks and a curator-led tour. Invitation to follow.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow along on social media using #PEMKoreanArt.
PUBLICITY IMAGES
Publicity images available upon request.
IMAGE CREDITS
- Artists in Korea, Hwarot (bridal robe) (detail), 1700s or 1800s. Silk, paper, and cotton. Gift of Yamanaka and Company, 1927. E20190.F. Peabody Essex Museum.
- Jung Yeondoo, Evergreen Tower, 2001, printed 2024. Set of 32 chromogenic prints. © Jung Yeondoo. Courtesy of the Jung Yeondoo Studio.
- A. B. Cross Photography Studio, Salem, Massachusetts, Portrait of Yu Kil-Chun, 1883-1884. Albumen print. Phillips Library. Edward Sylvester Morse Papers. E2, box 88 3 Japan, ETH000031.
- Frank Weston Benson, Portrait of Edward Sylvester Morse, 1913. Oil on canvas. Gift of Edith Owen Robb, 1914. M4311. Peabody Essex Museum.
- Artist in Korea, Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan (detail), early 1800s. Ink and color on silk. Museum purchase, made possible in part by W.C. Endicott and George A. Peabody, 1927. E20262.A-H. Peabody Essex Museum. © Samsung Foundation of Culture. Courtesy of the Leeum Museum of Art. Photo by Kim Hyunsoo, K2 STUDIO.
- Jung Yeondoo, Bewitched, 2001–ongoing. Single-channel 4K video, 22 minutes, 30 seconds. Courtesy of the artist. © Jung Yeondoo. Courtesy of the Jung Yeondoo Studio.
SPONSORS
The Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture has been made possible with the support of the Korea Foundation. Generous support is also provided by the National Museum of Korea; The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation; the Samsung Foundation of Culture, Korea; the Henry Luce Foundation; the Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.; the Korean Cultural Society of Boston; an anonymous donor; Linda Champion; Mrs. Yu; and other generous donors.
Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum. This exhibition is made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, The Creighton Family, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum and the Joy of Giving Something (JGS) Foundation, Inc. for their transformational gift of photography.
Opening Weekend Programming is supported by the Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
About the Peabody Essex Museum
Founded in 1799, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, is the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. PEM provides thought-provoking experiences of the arts, humanities and sciences to celebrate the creative achievements and potential of people across time, place and culture. By connecting people through inquiry, empathy and dialogue, PEM encourages an understanding of our shared humanity and fosters a sense of belonging in a complex, ever-changing world. We build, steward and share our superlative collection, which includes African, American, Asian Export, Chinese, contemporary, Japanese, Korean, maritime, Native American, Oceanic and South Asian art, as well as architecture, fashion and textiles, photography, natural history and one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM offers a varied and unique visitor experience, with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities and performance spaces. The museum’s campus, which offers numerous gardens and green spaces, is an accredited arboretum and features more than a dozen noted historic structures, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese home that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture in the United States.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Whitney Van Dyke | Director of Marketing & Communications
whitney_vandyke@pem.org | 978-542-1828
Amelia Kantrovitz | PEM Publicist
amelia_kantrovitz@pem.org | 617-794-4964
Kristen Levesque | PEM Publicist
kristen_levesque@pem.org | 207-329-3090