Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World
Brunch Magazine
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
A visitor in a blue sweater stands before a wall of paintings. Dark suits, pale faces, and passages of vivid blue recur across canvases of different sizes. Smaller works punctuate the spaces between larger compositions, drawing the eye from one image to the next. In this photograph from Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World, looking becomes a process of making connections.
Presented at the Korean Cultural Center New York from September 17 through October 24, 2026, the exhibition revisits the work of Tchah Sup Kim (1940–2022). Its title comes from a phrase in the artist’s notes a fitting introduction to a practice concerned with how people might see beyond inherited structures of thought.
A City That Changed the Questions
Kim moved to New York in 1974 and studied printmaking at Pratt Institute. The exhibition includes his 1976 etching Triangle Between Infinites, on loan from the Museum of Modern Art. In his treatment of the triangle, an opening at the vertex allowed a seemingly self-contained shape to suggest connection and movement.
His work of the 1980s addressed migration and diasporic identity; after his return to Korea in 1990, his inquiry broadened toward civilization, history, and humanity’s origins. Bringing these concerns back to New York gives the retrospective a particular resonance: the city was a formative setting for his art and for his questioning of established perspectives.
Exhibition Information
Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World
September 17–October 24, 2026
Venue
Atrium & Gallery, Korean Cultural Center New York
122 East 32nd Street, New York, NY 10016
The Intimacy of Small Things
The exhibition photographs offer a more intimate route into those large ideas. On one wall, small, curved paper surfaces sit within generously proportioned frames. Nearby, decorated cups appear in a transparent case. Their modest scale invites close attention: visitors gather around them, one pointing toward the display as others look on.
The arrangement gives everyday material a deliberate visual presence. Repeated frames establish a rhythm, while differences in color and imagery interrupt it. From a distance, the wall reads as a sequence; up close, each object asks to be considered separately.
Elsewhere, visitors bend over works presented horizontally beneath glass. A pointing hand directs attention toward a detail. These small gestures make an effective counterpart to the exhibition’s larger themes. An encounter with art can begin with something as simple as noticing what another person has seen.
Images in Conversation
The public program photographs shift the scale again. A seated audience faces speakers against expansive projections of paintings, handwritten pages, and studio imagery. The pictures stretch around the room, placing the conversation within a much larger field of visual material.
In one photograph, a speaker stands at a clear lectern before enlarged notebook pages filled with lines, diagrams, and annotations. Seen at this scale, the working page has its own density and movement. It offers a visual counterpoint to the framed works in the galleries: marks accumulate, overlap, and travel in several directions.
Together, these photographs show the retrospective as a place of shared attention. Visitors listen, point, pause, and return their gaze to the work. The most compelling image may be the quietest—the solitary viewer facing a wall of paintings, following the relationships between them at her own pace.
Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World is on view at the Atrium & Gallery, Korean Cultural Center New York, 122 East 32nd Street, through October 24, 2026.
Visitor Information
All adult visitors must bring a government-issued photo ID, such as a passport or driver’s license.
Hours
Tuesday–Friday: 10 AM–6 PM
Saturday: 11 AM–5 PM
Closed Sundays and Mondays.
Contact
+1 212-759-9550
info@koreanculture.org
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
An audience listens to a panel discussion surrounded by large projections of artworks and studio imagery.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
Artist Myong Hi Kim, wife of the late Tchah Sup Kim, addresses the audience during a program held in conjunction with Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World at the Korean Cultural Center New York.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
Two attendees pose beside the exhibition’s introductory wall text.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
Attendees gather in the event space, where studio footage and notebook pages fill the surrounding screens.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
A biographical display introduces Tchah Sup Kim, with visitors and framed works visible in the adjoining gallery.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
Visitors lean in to examine works displayed horizontally beneath glass.
ⒸRose McElroy | Brunch Magazine
Visitors examine decorated cups and a wall of individually framed paper works.
