CONNECT: Memory, Nature, and the Inner Landscape
July 22–30, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 23, 6-8 pm
Asian & American Art Foundation, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 211, NY, NY 10001
The Asian & American Art Foundation is pleased to present CONNECT: Memory, Nature, and the Inner Landscape, a group exhibition featuring four contemporary Korean artists Roza Park, Shin Ho-jae, Jeong Ki Ju, and Cho Yongnam. Organized in collaboration with the Gwangju Association of Fine Arts (Korea Fine Arts Association, Gwangju Branch) as part of the 2026 Art Gwangju Connect international exchange program, the exhibition reflects a shared commitment to strengthening cultural dialogue and expanding opportunities for Korean artists in the global art market.
Launched to support regional artists and foster sustainable international exchange, Art Gwangju Connect is an initiative linked to the Art Gwangju International Art Fair. The 2026 program selected galleries in the United States, Germany, and Mongolia, with twelve artists ultimately chosen to participate in overseas exhibitions. The New York presentation at the Asian & American Art Foundation features four artists whose diverse practices explore universal questions of memory, identity, nature, and human connection.
Although each artist speaks through a distinct visual language, their works converge around the idea of connection—between self and place, memory and landscape, language and abstraction, contemplation and lived experience.
Roza Park transforms photography, poetry, and meditative practice into deeply contemplative works that reflect the interconnectedness of nature, spirituality, and human existence. Rooted in years of Zen practice, her images invite quiet reflection on presence, compassion, and the rhythms of life.
Shin Ho-jae distills memories of the mountains, rivers, and coastlines of Korea's southern region into expressive abstract landscapes. Rather than depicting nature literally, his paintings reconstruct remembered places through bold color, gesture, and spacious composition, allowing viewers to encounter nature through emotion and memory.
Jeong Ki Ju explores the emotional meaning of home and personal space through geometric abstraction. His layered compositions transform architectural forms into poetic metaphors for belonging, identity, and the quiet places where memory resides.
Cho Yongnam has devoted more than four decades to developing an abstract visual language based on written characters. Through continual transformation, distortion, and reconstruction of letterforms, he creates dynamic compositions that transcend literal meaning, encouraging viewers to experience form, rhythm, and emotion through their own intuition.
Together, these four artists demonstrate how personal histories can transcend cultural boundaries through the universal languages of abstraction, memory, and nature. CONNECT: Memory, Nature, and the Inner Landscape invites viewers to reflect on the invisible threads that bind people to places, language to emotion, and individual experience to our shared humanity.