Artist Biographies from Collector’s Review 2024 at AP Space

Explore the lives and careers of the artists behind Collector’s Review 2024—including Ha Taeim, Hyong Nam Ahn, Soojung Park, MOKU, and others. Learn about their education, awards, and international exhibitions.

At COLLECTOR’S REVIEW 2024 at AP Space, the eight featured artists—Ha Taeim, Hyong Nam Ahn, Yong-Ha Park, Soojung Park, Choi Young Wook, Yoon Byung Rock, Cho Hyun Seo, and the late MOKU—bring with them decades of experience, recognition, and innovation that reach far beyond the walls of the gallery.

MOKU, also known as Kwangmo Ku, began painting at the age of fifty with no formal training, defying every expectation to find his voice in abstraction. His deeply meditative works, often exploring impermanence and presence, were eventually exhibited in France and Germany. Though he never lived to fulfill his dream of exhibiting in New York, AP Space carries that mission forward, honoring MOKU’s belief that “every being in the moment is precious and beautiful.” His legacy remains at the spiritual core of the gallery.

Opening the exhibition is Ha Taeim, a painter widely recognized for her vibrant, rhythmic bands of color. A graduate of Hongik University with both BFA and MFA degrees in painting, Ha has exhibited at institutions such as the Daegu Art Museum, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, and the Busan Biennale. Her award-winning work has been offered at auction internationally, and it is known not just for visual elegance but for the powerful undercurrent of emotional resilience and introspection it inspires.

Hyong Nam Ahn, a Korean-born sculptor with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is revered for his light- and sound-infused kinetic works. Drawing inspiration from 1960s Kinetic Art and the intersection between nature and modernity, Ahn’s mixed media sculptures examine technology’s effects on human perception and connectivity. His works have appeared at the Smithsonian Institution, the Sungkok Art Museum, and the Sharjah Biennial, expanding his reach across continents and disciplines.

Soojung Park, who holds an MFA from Pratt Institute and a BFA from Ewha Womans University, works with plexiglass, ink, and pigment to create artworks that shift with light. Her technique—layering pigments on both sides of translucent surfaces—creates visual depth and mystery, revealing different compositions depending on the time of day. Park has exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art, Arario Gallery, and Art Basel Hong Kong, where her work has been praised for its ability to translate traditional Korean sensibility into a contemporary, luminous format.

In a practice deeply rooted in material and memory, Yong-Ha Park creates textured works using fine sand, gold dust, and stone powder, evoking the mud walls of traditional Korean homes. A graduate of Hongik University and winner of the Korean Fine Arts Association Prize, Park titles all of his works Thou to be Seen Tomorrow, a phrase inspired by his father’s reminder to always create for the future. His tactile works have been shown at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Seoul Museum of Art, and the Asia Art Center in Taipei.

Choi Young Wook, an MFA graduate of Pratt Institute and BFA graduate of Seoul National University, has spent the last fifteen years refining his signature subject: the moon jar. Blending Eastern philosophy with Western abstraction, his Karma series transforms this traditional form into a metaphor for relationships, fragility, and memory. Each moon jar is drawn with pencil, its soft contours filled with emotional weight. His work has been exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and internationally with Lehmann Maupin.

Yoon Byung Rock brings a conceptual twist to still life with his bird’s-eye view apple compositions painted on custom-shaped canvases. A graduate of Hongik University with both MFA and BFA degrees, Yoon explores memory, perception, and composition through repetition and subtle disruption. His work has been featured at Art Miami, Art Fair Tokyo, and the Daelim Museum of Contemporary Art. By painting subjects “in a composition that should be avoided,” he redefines the rules of balance and beauty.

Lastly, Cho Hyun Seo weaves the psychology of connection into her thread-based installations. With an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from Ewha Womans University, Cho explores themes of emotional closeness and vulnerability through the lens of the “hedgehog’s dilemma”—the idea that we hurt those we try to get closest to. Her work visualizes the contrast between childhood innocence and adult detachment, inviting viewers into the intimate tension of personal relationships. She has shown her work at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Seoul Arts Center, and Asia Society Hong Kong, and received the Asian Artist Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Together, these artists form a dynamic and deeply human collection of perspectives—each one contributing a voice to a broader cultural conversation. COLLECTOR’S REVIEW 2024 isn’t just about honoring the artists’ pasts—it’s about creating a future where their visions continue to evolve and resonate.