Heart of stone: NY’s Maison Gerard stages retrospective for sculptor Yongjin Han

The New York gallery Maison Gerard has devoted its latest staging to the monumental, abstract stone works of the Korean sculptor Yongjin Han. The retrospective, which opened this week, traces the master sculptor’s career from its inception to the present day. Widely respected and considered a pioneer who adapted Korea’s traditions of stone carving to refined sculpture, Han’s hand-tooled works are a poetic articulation of natural form.
Han’s sculptures respect the provenance, character and energy of the stone used. The 20 sculptures exhibited at Maison Gerard – Han’s first exhibition in New York – also include a selection of early wood works and a bronze piece, in addition to key stone works. An immensely personal selection, Han has also included several unfinished creations that he still deems significant, thus offering visitors unprecedented insight into his simple, yet physically demanding process. Han sums up his meticulously empathetic approach as such: ‘As stone has been around since the beginning of time, it has much to teach us if we care to slow down and listen. Stone is the backbone supporting the world. It contains all time.’
To do the poetic works due justice, Maison Gerard has recreated Han’s studio as a backdrop for the exhibition. An array of drawings and sketches, which Han makes during his travels, featuring everyday objects including coffee cups and cigarette packs, are also on display. With a career spanning decades and works in numerous museums and private collections worldwide, the opportunity to get up close and intimate with Han’s practice is one not to be missed.
Widely respected and considered a pioneer who adapted Korea’s traditions of stone carving to refined sculpture, Han’s hand-tooled works are a poetic articulation of natural form. Pictured: Unfinished, 1993. Photography: Robert Levin
To do the poetic works due justice, Maison Gerard has recreated Han’s studio as a backdrop for the exhibition
The 20 sculptures exhibited at Maison Gerard – Han’s first exhibition in New York – also include a selection of early wood works and a bronze piece, in addition to key stone works
Han has also included several unfinished creations that he still deems significant, thus offering visitors unprecedented insight into his simple, yet physically demanding process
INFORMATION
'Quiet Profundity: the work of Korean master stone carver Yongjin Han' is on view until 22 August. For more details, visit Maison Gerard's website
ADDRESS
Maison Gerard
53 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10003
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
'You can feel their presence': step inside the Eames' Pacific Palisades residence
Charles and Ray Eames’ descendants are exploring new ways to preserve the designers’ legacy, as the couple’s masterpiece Pacific Palisades residence reopens following the recent LA fires
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient music
Grammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the Armory
Matthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth Menorca
US-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
It was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolition
The brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer