A Message from our President

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Wishing You a Prosperous Rooster Year!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As we approach the commemoration of the Lunar New Year, we look around us, to the future and to the past, in celebration and in anticipation.

We proudly look back on a past year with many developments in our efforts to promote the legacies of Po Kim and Sylvia Wald, together with our ongoing initiative to foster global recognition and research of Korean artists. In this vein, the Foundation held several major collaborative events and activities throughout the year, as highlighted below.

Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement. With your backing, we can continue our growth and excitedly look forward to providing world-class exhibitions, programs and events in the year to come. Our season kicks off with Paper Revelation, a fascinating exhibition of Korean contemporary works in, on and of paper. This year will also bring centennial celebrations of the birth of Po Kim and several exciting events organized in his honor in both New York and Korea later this year.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Year of the Rooster,

Young Cho
President

Year in Review

ACAW 2016 Kick-off

As a Consortium member, the Foundation hosted the Asia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) 2016 Season Kick-Off Party on its 7th and 8th floors. Held in the atmospheric, intimate studio-lofts and rooftop garden of late artists Po Kim and Sylvia Wald, over 200 Asian-art-world influencers gathered for an evening of Pan-Asian interdisciplinary collaboration.

As an Asian Contemporary Art Consortium Partner, the Sylvia Wald & Po KIm Foundation joins forces with over 40 prestigious New York and Asia-based art institutions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Asia Society Museum, and the Rubin Museum of Art, in a unified commitment to support critically-viable Asian contemporary art programming.

Click here to see event photos

Luminescence

Fall programming kicked off with the opening celebration for the group show Luminescence in our fourth-floor gallery space. This immersive exhibition explored both the conceptual and material approach to light and showcased large-scale light installations and other work by six internationally-established contemporary Korean artists, Choong Sup Lim, Dong Chul Ha, Hyong Nam Ahn, Ho Han, Moha Ahn, and Yunwoo Choi.

See photos from the opening reception

Po Kim: Abstraction Beyond Borders, 1955-1970

In March we proudly opened the exhibition Po Kim: Abstraction Beyond Borders, 1955-1970. Insightfully curated by Dr. Marshall N. Price of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the show provided a fascinating examination of Po Kim’s early AbEx works within the context of the cultural melting-pot of 1960s New York. We thank Dr. Price for his scholarly expertise and the excellent feedback we received.

The show closed on June 2, 2016 with a celebration co-hosted by Blouin Modern Painters and featured an interpretive performance by WHITEWAVE Dance Company, directed by Young Soon Kim, reflecting the themes present in the exhibition.

See photos from the closing event and excerpt of the performance here

Socially Active!

Want to see more behind-the scenes activities? Utilizing social media’s potential for friends, fans and patrons to stay informed with the latest news about upcoming exhibitions and events, the Foundation is now actively engaged across a variety of channels from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, to LinkedIn and Flickr. Be sure to follow @waldkimgallery on all your favorite platform links at the bottom of this email!

Archives

In the summer we began the archival process of Sylvia Wald’s and Po Kim’s estates. This monumental task will be ongoing for quite some time and is essential for curators, researchers and scholars to gain insight into the extraordinary lives and work processes of both artists.

We kindly ask anyone who may have any related material to please send us an email. We are particularly interested in any exhibition-related ephemera or press clippings which may be missing in our archives.

Vanishing Boundaries: Sculpture by Judy Sigunick

Showcasing Sigunick’s recent works, Vanishing Boundaries featured 39 sculptures and 10 wall sculptures addressing boundaries such as social class, political differences and the human-nature divide. Her metaphorical works present a journey of construction, deconstruction and questioning of established beliefs. It is in the details of Sigunick’s sculptures that borders are crossed and barriers are collapsed into imagination.

Following the Shakespearean themes which served as inspiration for many of the works on show, the opening reception provided guests with a special treat: a musical performance by renowned harpist Victoria Drake.

OHNY Weekend

In October the Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation participated for the first time in Open House New York, a city-wide event opening the doors of over 275 institutions to allow visitors unique behind-the-scenes access to spaces normally not open to general public viewing.

Nearly 500 visitors toured our 4th floor gallery, 7th floor exhibition space, and our rooftop garden. We are pleased to see that participation in the event has increased our walk-in numbers since the Weekend in October, in addition to the wonderful feedback and word-of-mouth referrals we are still receiving. We thank our in-house volunteers and OHNY volunteers for making the weekend-long event a success and for providing indispensable crowd control assistance.

Korean Art Curator Symposium

An exclusive closing reception for the Korean Art Curator Symposium hosted at The Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Foundation presented an additional highlight in 2016. The evening brought together 32 Korean art curators from top US and international museums to enjoy a celebration and a tour of the Foundation’s facilities, exhibitions and collections.

This is the first year the Symposium’s conference has been held in the United States and marks a shared commitment to support resources and networks for promoting Korean Art in the U.S. The Symposium, organized together with the Korea Foundation and the Korea Society, examined ongoing challenges and rewards in presenting Korean arts in the United States and aims to strengthen networks among Korean art curators and relevant scholars. Represented institutions included the he Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, LACMA, the Portland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Crow Collection of Asian Art, among many others.

Click here to see event photos

Now Moment: Selected Works by Sylvia Wald (1915-2011)

A Centennial Celebration of the Artist’s Birth

Aptly named after Wald’s 1967 work “Now Moment”, an embossed print referencing the Eastern concept of presence in every moment, the exhibition examined our co-founder’s impressive artistic career. Although long-recognized as a pioneer in the field of silkscreen printing, Wald’s oeuvre expands much broader than her prints and includes fascinating creations in paint, sculpture and multi media assemblages incorporating found objects – a reminder that she was truly living in the present moment throughout her long and extraordinary life.

Holiday Fundraiser Cocktail Party

Thank you to our patrons, friends and staff for making our first annual Holiday Fundraiser Cocktail Party a festive success! Holiday cheer set the tone as guests enjoyed drinks, hors d’oeuvres and Christmas classics performed by harpist Maria Banks while bidding on works of art in the silent auction. A special thank you also to our event co-host Donghwa Cultural Foundation and to the Donghwa Ode Gallery for providing such exquisite collectors’ pieces for the auction.

Click here to see photos

Night Sessions

In December we were thrilled to launch our new series of salon-style evenings of art, food, and music. We were honored to welcome renowned artist Tchah Sup Kim as the featured artist for the inaugural Night Sessions. We thank Mr. Kim for sharing his time and insights into his creative process, and for providing an enlightening and enjoyable evening for all!

Renovations

Renovations and construction of our 417 Lafayette Street building has been underway since Fall 2016. Sylvia Wald’s 7th floor studio has now been integrated into exhibition space, and plans for Po Kim’s 8th floor continue into 2017. Opening up these spaces will give visitors an insiders’ peek into our founders’ lives and will provide the Foundation with space for events, workshops, seminars and exhibition of works from our permanent collection.

Much needed roof repairs are currently underway. Replacement of the roof required temporarily lifting and transplanting the garden and plants – a lofty task indeed! We eagerly anticipate the completion of our our new rooftop garden, scheduled for Spring/Summer 2017, just in time to host outdoor patron events on warm summer evenings. Stay tuned for more information as Spring approaches!

SoHo Arts Network

We are pleased to announce our membership in the Soho Arts Network.

Founded in 2014, the SoHo Arts Network is a working network of non-profit arts organizations dedicated to celebrating the rich history of the creative community in and around SoHo and to advancing the neighborhood’s continued cultural contributions to the lives of both residents and visitors. For more information, and to download the new SoHo Arts Network map of non-profit arts spaces in the neighborhood, please visit: www.sohoarts.org

VRC Young Professionals Fundraiser

In November the Foundation was pleased to host the Volunteer Referral Center (VRC) Young Professionals Committee Fundraiser in our 4th floor exhibition gallery. Set amongst the vibrant works on view during Luminescence, socially-engaged young professionals gathered for a fun night of drinks, food, live jazz, art and a silent auction.

For over 25-years, VRC has served an integral role in New York City by connecting skilled volunteers with the needs of nonprofit organizations. VRC has become an indispensable partner and friend to the Foundation this year, providing us with wonderful volunteers for our daily operations and support for our exhibitions and events.

The Young Professionals Committee is a group of like-minded individuals, committed to promoting volunteerism in New York City especially among young people to continue the traditions of volunteering and philanthropy. We are thankful for the contribution they continuously make to our organization and to New York’s nonprofit community.

Click here to see photos