Oh Yoon

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) presents Oh Yoon, an exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the passing of Oh Yoon (1946–1986), a quintessential figure of Korean Minjung Art in the 1980s. The exhibition is on view at the Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art (AA SeMA) from August 27, 2026, to February 14, 2027.

Oh Yoon traces Oh’s creative process and artistic world, drawing on 860 items in the Oh Yoon Collection at AA SeMA, a collection formed from materials donated by the artist’s family in 2024. The exhibition brings together more than 300 archival materials, including original printmaking blocks, studies, drawings, and notes, alongside 31 works. Together, they offer multiple perspectives on a unique artistic world, formed within the context of the wounds of modern and contemporary Korean history, the lives of minjung (the people), traditional culture and philosophy, and the literature of the period.

Oh joined Reality Group in 1969 and Reality and Utterance in 1979, exploring the relationship between reality and art. He built a distinctive visual language based on the lives of minjung as well as traditional culture and thought. He also collaborated with literary and publishing communities, producing prints and publication art. In the mid-1980s, Oh gave dynamic form to the vitality of traditional culture, including gut (traditional Korean rituals), dance, and shinmyeong (spiritual exuberance). In 1986, he held his first solo exhibition, Oh Yoon Print Exhibition, at Geurimmadang Min (a historic art space in Seoul) and passed away later that year at the age of 40.

The exhibition presents for the first time a newly discovered 60-minute video recording of the 1986 Oh Yoon Print Exhibition. The footage shows the exhibition at Geurimmadang Min, its visitors, performances, and events, as well as Oh himself shortly before his death. It preserves the cultural atmosphere that artworks and written materials alone cannot reconstruct.

The exhibition focuses not only on completed works but also on Oh’s creative process through the archives that remain alongside the works. Traces of carving on original printmaking blocks, studies at different stages, and repeated drawings reveal his explorations of visual form. His notes and memos provide a broader context, spanning Buddhist scriptures and Korean traditional thought including Donghak and Jeungsan, traditional performance and folk culture, and reflections on art and reality.

The exhibition is organized into six sections that chronologically trace Oh’s life and work through the archives he left behind. It begins with the development of his visual language during his university years and his activities with Reality Group. The exhibition then moves through memories of modern and contemporary Korean history and the lives of minjung, his observations of labor scenes and the lives of those around him, his critical questions about art and reality through Reality and Utterance, and his interest in gut, dance, and shinmyeong. These sections follow the development of Oh’s artistic world toward its peak. The final section looks back on the trajectory of Oh’s life and artistic practice through his 1961 travel diary, drawings made in various regions, and printmaking tools. Through these materials, the section traces how he developed his own visual language through firsthand observation and documentation.