Growing Up by Grant Yun

This POAP commemorates Grant Yun’s first physical solo exhibition Growing Up in Seoul, South Korea. Hosted by Avant Arte, the exhibition is open to the public from 22-30 March 2024 at Soft Corner Gallery in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. “Growing up is a journey you take on your own.” Since 2019, Grant Yun has lived between his permanent home in Wisconsin and New England. When the Covid pandemic hit he found himself isolating in Connecticut. Like the rest of the world, he was “forced to take in that loneliness.” A feeling of distance saturates this series of works on paper. Sometimes that is the cultural distance between an immigrant parent and their child – while the child craves American snacks like a PB&J, the parent relishes in the delayed gratification of kimchee (Mom Made Dinner!). Although he grew up in California, the weight of history Yun felt in New England caused him to reflect on his childhood as a first-generation Korean-American. This is encapsulated in the tender depiction of a father, Dad. The figure disappearing into the shadow of a house is a sombre reminder of generational distance, captured in an everyday scene remembered from childhood. Growing Up is Yun’s first exhibition in Korea, and feels like a full circle moment for him. It presents his quintessentially American Neo-Precisionism in South Korea, connecting two of the cultures that raised him.