Image: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, New York
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco will open 'Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective' on September 25, 2026, presenting the first North American museum retrospective devoted to the Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun, born in 1935. The exhibition is scheduled to run through January 25, 2027, in the Yang Yamazaki Pavilion. According to the museum, the show offers a “sensory journey through sixty years of innovative abstraction.”
The museum says Ha has spent more than six decades exploring what painting becomes when freed from established conventions. The exhibition text describes his practice as one in which materials and process are central, with works shaped by pressure, gravity, and tools ranging from torches to everyday utensils. The resulting canvases, some up to eight feet tall, are presented as dense fields of texture and physicality rather than traditional painted surfaces.
'Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective' is organized by the Asian Art Museum and guest curator Sunjung Kim, Artistic Director of Art Sonje Center, with assistance from Art Sonje Center’s curatorial team. The museum’s announcement frames the presentation as an unprecedented look at the creative evolution of one of Korea’s most influential contemporary artists, while also emphasizing that it is his first museum exhibition in North America.
The exhibition materials identify a recent work, 'Conjunction 25-19' (2025), as the top image for the project. The title and medium are listed as oil on hemp cloth, and the page also credits photography by Chunho An, courtesy Tina Kim Gallery. The museum’s website and newsletter describe the retrospective in terms that link Ha’s longstanding experimentation to the tactile scale of the works on view.
Support for the exhibition is being provided through multiple channels. Presenting sponsorship comes from SK ∙ PODO Museum. Leadership support is provided by Timothy and Virginia Foo, and Salle E. Yoo and Jeffrey P. Gray. Generous support is listed from Tina Kim Gallery, Kukje Gallery, and Sundar and Anjali Pichai, with major support from Canal Projects, Gay-Young Cho and Christopher Chiu, Penny S. and James G. Coulter, Jason M. Fish and Courtney Benoist, Tad Freese and Brook Hartzell, and the Kahng Foundation.
Additional support is credited to Cori and Tony Bates, Lillian K. Chun and David H. Chun, Marie Oh Huber and John Huber, Esther and Thomas “Tom” Lee, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Hee-Jung and John Moon, and Gina Sohn and Gregory Lee. Sustained support is provided by the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Endowment Fund for Exhibitions and the Kao/Williams Contemporary Art Exhibitions Fund. The museum lists the exhibition at 200 Larkin Street in San Francisco, with current hours shown on the exhibition page as Thursday 1–8 p.m., Friday through Monday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Tuesday through Wednesday closed.
