Korean Cultural Center New York Presents “Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World,” Featuring an Artwork on Loan from MoMA
The Artist’s First Posthumous Retrospective Showcases More Than 130 Works and Archival Materials
On view September 17 – October 24, 2026
Gallery & Atrium at the Korean Cultural Center New York
NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) presents Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World, a retrospective of Korean artist Tchah Sup Kim (1940–2022), on view through October 24, 2026, in KCCNY’s Gallery and Atrium.
Featuring more than 130 works and archival materials spanning nearly five decades, the exhibition traces Kim’s artistic and intellectual journey between New York and Korea, from his early printmaking experiments in the 1970s to later works exploring civilization, history, nature, and the cosmos.
Major New York institutions hold Kim’s work, including The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. His work was also featured in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s 2023 exhibition Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s.
“New York was not simply a place where Tchah Sup Kim lived and worked; it was where his visual language and way of thinking expanded,” said Hee Sung Cho, Curator and Program Director of Visual Arts at KCCNY. “Through this exhibition, we hope to show his lifelong search for new ways of perceiving and understanding the world.”
New York: Shaping an Artistic Vision
Kim moved to New York in 1974 with support from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund Fellowship and went on to study printmaking at Pratt Institute, where he developed a distinctive visual language through etching.
Among the works on view is Triangle Between Infinities (1976), on loan from The Museum of Modern Art. The work introduced the triangle as a recurring motif in Kim’s practice. By opening one vertex of the geometric form, Kim transformed the triangle from a closed structure into one suggesting openness, circulation, and connection.
While geometry played an important role in his early work, Kim’s practice increasingly reflected his experience of living between cultures. During the 1980s, his self-portraits explored the displacement and cultural tension he felt as an immigrant artist in New York.
The Coffee Cup Series: An Everyday Object, Reimagined
A centerpiece of the exhibition is Kim’s Coffee Cup Series, created between 1984 and 1989 and presented together in its entirety.
The series began with the flattened form of the familiar Greek-style paper coffee cup associated with New York diners. Kim transformed this everyday object into a surface for images, symbols, figures, and language, using an icon of American popular culture to reflect on migration, identity, and his experience of New York life.
The exhibition brings together all 85 works from the series, allowing visitors to see the subtle variations of imagery and language that emerged within its repeated format.
Inside the Artist’s SoHo Studio
The exhibition also recreates part of the SoHo studio where Kim lived and worked with his wife and fellow artist Myong-Hi Kim beginning in 1982.
An unfinished painting and easel are displayed alongside objects from the artist’s working environment—including globes, rulers, books, stones, a baseball, and natural materials that became recurring sources of inspiration in his work.
The recreated studio offers a glimpse into Kim’s creative process and the environment in which his artistic and philosophical ideas developed over decades.
After returning to Korea in the 1990s, Kim’s interests expanded from personal experiences of migration and identity toward broader questions of civilization, history, geography, astronomy, and human existence. His later works drew on subjects ranging from Eurasian cultures and historical geography to the structures of the universe, continuing his lifelong search for ways of seeing beyond established systems of thought.
The exhibition title, The Key to a New World, comes from a phrase found in one of Kim’s own notes. For Kim, a “new world” was not simply an imagined future, but the possibility of seeing and thinking beyond existing frameworks.
About the Artist
Tchah Sup Kim received his BFA from Seoul National University in 1963. With support from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund Fellowship, he moved to New York in 1974 and received his MFA from Pratt Institute in 1976.
Working primarily in painting and mixed media, Kim explored the cosmos through nature and natural phenomena, raising fundamental questions about humanity’s enduring search for universal truths.
His artistic journey can be divided into three major periods: from 1965 to 1982, during his early years in Korea and New York, his work was characterized by a focus on geometry; from 1983 to 1993, during his New York period, he turned toward geopolitical and historical themes; and from 1993 to 2022, after leaving New York for the rural village of Naepyung-ri in Korea and later alternating between the two locations, he focused on geography and nature.
About the Korean Cultural Center New York
Established in 1979, KCCNY is a branch of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea dedicated to promoting Korean arts and culture in New York. It presents a wide range of cultural programs, including exhibitions, performing arts, film, and educational programs.
Located at 122 E 32nd Street in New York, near Manhattan’s Koreatown, KCCNY serves as a cultural hub in the heart of the city. The seven-story center offers audiences opportunities to experience Korea’s rich heritage and dynamic contemporary culture while fostering dialogue, creativity, and cross-cultural exchange.
For more information, visit www.koreanculture.org and follow @kccny on Instagram.
For inquiries: Dr. Bora Yoon (Manager, Visual Arts), b.yoon@koreanculture.org
Media Assets: Access the press kit for the official event poster and exhibition photos.
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SOURCE Korean Cultural Center New York
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