Contours of Zero: Emerging Korean Artists in New York

Space ZeroOne, a new non-profit contemporary art space announces its inaugural exhibition, Contours of Zero: Emerging Korean Artists in New York, opening November 7, 2025, at its new permanent space in Tribeca. Curated by Hayoung Chung, Curator/Head, Space ZeroOne, Hanwha Foundation of Culture (New York) and Jihyung Park, Curator, Hanwha Foundation of Culture (Seoul), the exhibition brings together eight Korean artists whose practices reZect intersections of technology, materiality, and cultural identity, alongside Korean artists based in New York, who help bridge these perspectives to the city’s diverse audiences. Space ZeroOne, founded by the Hanwha Foundation of Culture, arrives at a moment when Korean contemporary art and culture are commanding unprecedented international attention, reZecting both the country’s dynamic cultural production and its expanding global networks.

For Korean millennials, “0 and 1” are more than numbers. They are the structural syntax of a formative, world shaping perception, relationships, and identity from early DOS screens to today’s smartphones. In cultural history, zero has often symbolized emptiness or neutrality: the German postwar ZERO group invoked it as a point of renewal, while Roland Barthes framed it as a space of neutrality. In this exhibition, zero is reimagined not as absence but as a relational matrix or the very ground from which new forms, identities, and connections emerge.

The eight participating artists reflect facets of contemporary Korean society through their diverse practices, treating zero as a mutable and expansive field. Their works explore how identities and relations form within the shifting space between digital and lived experience, positioning zero not as a fixed concept but as a state of becoming, always in rehearsal and open to transformation.

Spanning media from oil painting to digital landscapes captured on smartphone screens, their works trace moments of collision and emergence shaped by technological saturation and transnational movement. These layered perspectives mirror the lived experiences of audiences navigating the intersections of Korea and New York today.

Featuring approximately fifteen to twenty works, most produced within the last three years and many making their New York debut, the exhibition includes newly commissioned pieces developed in dialogue with the gallery’s raw architecture and location. Participating artists include alumni of Hanwha’s international residency program such as Jungki Beak, Jihee Kim, and Jiyoung Yoo, along with emerging voices including Kai Oh, Khia Hong, and Jeenho Seo. Their practices transform everyday encounters with appliances, urban infrastructures, and fleeting digital moments into material forms that speak to broader cultural shifts. The full list of participating artists is Jungki Beak, Khia Hong, Jihee Kim, Kai Oh, Junghae Park, Jeenho Seo, Min Jung Song, and Jiyoung Yoo.  

About Space ZeroOne
Space ZeroOne is a new initiative of the Hanwha Foundation of Culture, extending the foundation’s longstanding commitment to cultural exchange and artistic experimentation into the heart of New York’s art world. ZeroOne aims to create a venue dedicated to emerging voices, risk-taking, and dialogue across cultures. Through exhibitions, commissions, and public programs, ZeroOne supports emerging and underrecognized artists worldwide, in addition to Korean and Korean diasporic practitioners, all while engaging the broader ecosystem of New York’s contemporary art community.