[This Week's Exhibitions] Verdant Solo Exhibition 'I Believe in Me', Kyu-Tae Hwang Solo Exhibition 'Beyond the Frame' and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a selection of diverse and captivating shows held across the country that can be enjoyed throughout the week.

Yasuhito Kawasaki Solo Exhibition 'Blue Blue Bear and Green, Blue Blue Bear and Sea' Exhibition View. Rina Gallery

Yasuhito Kawasaki Solo Exhibition: 'Blue Blue Bear and Green, Blue Blue Bear and Sea'

Yasuhito Kawasaki's Blue Bear may appear cute, but the heart of this exhibition lies beyond cuteness. The solo exhibition 'Blue Blue Bear and Green, Blue Blue Bear and Sea,' held at Rina Gallery in Seoul and Busan, poses the question, "To whom do the blue sea and green nature belong?" By overturning the familiar narrative that bears have encroached on human territory, it prompts viewers to reconsider whether it was, in fact, humans who first pushed the boundaries of nature.

Exhibition view of Yasuhito Kawasaki's solo exhibition 'Blue Blue Bear and Green, Blue Blue Bear and Sea'. Rina Gallery

Within the gallery, paintings and ceramics are arranged like small fables. Apples, birds, boys and girls, and tigers do not remain fixed as singular symbols, but instead build layers of perception and memory. The Blue Bear serves as both a self-portrait of the artist and an empty space in which viewers may reflect themselves. As you follow the bear's endearing face, the exhibition quietly leaves a question behind: Was nature ever truly owned by humans? The exhibition runs until July 11 at Rina Gallery Seoul, Nonhyeon-ro, Seoul.

Shin, Pigment Print, 132x100cm, 2011. Yuna Gallery

Kyu-Tae Hwang Solo Exhibition: 'Beyond the Frame'

Kyu-Tae Hwang’s solo exhibition 'Beyond the Frame' asks not what a photograph captures, but how photography operates. Having started out in the 1960s as a documentary photographer, he has long treated photography not as evidence of reality, but as a device for deconstruction and recombination. The montages and pixel works on display at Yuna Gallery encapsulate this trajectory. Viewed from a distance, they resemble color-field abstraction; up close, the grid of pixels and the texture of combined images are revealed. Viewing thus becomes a process of verification and doubt, rather than simple appreciation.

Andy Warhol Parallax Product Review, Pigment Print, 143x200cm, 2011. Yuna Gallery

The most intriguing aspect of this exhibition is that the 87-year-old artist’s experiments are not confined to the language of retrospection. Hwang’s works seem to have long anticipated the post-photographic, post-digital image environment. In an age where images are overproduced and the boundaries between truth and fiction are blurred, he unsettles not the clarity of the subject, but the very way we come to trust images. To go "beyond the frame" is not merely a declaration of formal experimentation; it is, rather, a call to reconstruct the very way we see photographs. The exhibition runs until June 13 at Yuna Gallery, Seocho-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

Lotte Museum 'I Believe in Me' Exhibition View, 2026, Lotte Museum.

Verdant Solo Exhibition: 'I Believe in Me'

Verdant’s first solo exhibition in a museum, 'I Believe in Me,' demonstrates what changes when street graphics enter the white walls of a museum. The persona 'Vick,' a fusion of panda and rabbit, transcends the flatness of logos and characters to become a sculpture at the center of the exhibition space, while 'Visty,' born from the emotions of comfort during the pandemic, occupies an entire wall as a seven-meter-high relief. The exhibition brings together over 250 works, including crayon drawings, graphics, sculptures, and installations, blending cuteness with rebellion, consolation with self-assurance, all in a single space.

Exhibition view of Lotte Museum's 'I Believe in Me,' 2026, Lotte Museum.

The core of this exhibition is how it reframes Verdant not merely as a streetwear designer, but as an artist who translates the emotions of contemporary youth culture into a visual language. Phrases like 'Girls Don't Cry' and 'Wasted Youth' are not simply product slogans, but serve as rallying cries for a generation familiar with anxiety. The final section, which recreates the Tokyo studio, reveals how his work emerged from a scene where brand collaborations, friends, community, collecting, and sketching intermingle. Thus, 'I Believe in Me' is less a self-help mantra than a declaration of youth culture that relentlessly pursues self-awareness. The exhibition runs until July 19 at Lotte Museum, Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.