Korean Indigenous Futures: The Art of Kim Bong-Jun 김봉준 판화전: 토착적 미래- K아트, 디아스포라, 세계

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The East Asia Library at Stanford University will host a print exhibition by Kim Bong-Jun, a leading figure in Korean Minjung (People’s) Art, from September 29 to December 11, 2026. Active since the 1980s, Kim has developed a distinctive visual language that combines traditional Korean folk art and popular expression with contemporary art, reflecting the lives and realities of ordinary people and envisioning possibilities for a more just and ecological future. The exhibition explores Kim’s concept of “Indigenous Futures” through art as a form of civilizational transformation, expressing p'owŏl (포월 抱越), embracing and transcending the pain and contradictions of reality while reaching toward new possibilities for the future.

The opening reception on October 8 will feature an artist talk and a Korean mask dance (탈춤 t'alch'um) performance by Kim Bong-Jun and Che Se-hyun, a Seattle-based creative director and multidisciplinary artist.

The exhibition is curated by Jee-Young Park, Korean Studies Librarian, and Jisoo Kim, an SFSU MA Museum Studies graduate and San Francisco-based curator.