Before Korean abstraction solidified into a recognizable “style,” one artist relentlessly pursued the fundamental nature of painting itself. That time is being called back into focus with a solo exhibition that squarely reexamines the practice of Cho Yong-Ik, long overshadowed by the label of Dansaekhwa.
Gallery Chang announced that it will open the year 2026 with a solo exhibition of Cho Yong-Ik, titled Knowing Cho Yong-Ik. The exhibition runs from January 6 to January 31 at Gallery Chang Seoul.
Moving beyond the long-held designation of Cho as a “Dansaekhwa artist,” the exhibition asks anew about his essential position in the formation and expansion of Korean abstraction.
Cho Yong-Ik is regarded as a key figure who helped lead the currents of Art Informel and abstract painting during the formative years of Korean contemporary art in the 1970s and 1980s. As Dansaekhwa later became institutionalized as a distinct movement and gained international recognition, Cho gradually drifted away from the center of attention—not due to any lack of artistic achievement, but largely because of his chosen path as both an educator and an artist who continued to work outside institutional frameworks.
This exhibition does not divide Cho’s practice into a “before” and “after” Dansaekhwa. Instead, it closely traces the continuity of his painterly experiments and thought, revealing how his inquiries evolved over time. In doing so, Cho is reread not as a peripheral figure, but as a central presence who persistently explored the very essence of Korean abstraction.
Cho Yong-Ik’s work began to receive renewed international attention following a Christie’s auction in 2015, which sparked a dramatic reassessment of his practice. Since then, his works have been presented by prominent overseas galleries such as Kiang Malingue and shown in major exhibition spaces in New York, leading to sustained international reevaluation. Paradoxically, Cho came to be recognized first abroad as a “hidden master” before gaining wider acknowledgment in Korea.
While his name has recently become more familiar domestically through Frieze and major museum exhibitions, in-depth discussions of the depth and art-historical significance of his work are only just beginning. This exhibition marks an important moment in bringing that international reassessment back into a Korean context.
Positioned as the first exhibition of 2026 at Gallery Chang Seoul, Knowing Cho Yong-Ik serves as a declarative opening that sets the tone for the year ahead. At the same time, Gallery Chang New York will present a four-artist exhibition in January 2026 featuring Ed Moses, Cho Yong-Ik, Kim Kang Yong, and Jimi Gleason. That exhibition will situate Cho’s work within a broader international dialogue on Eastern and Western abstraction.
If the Seoul solo exhibition offers an in-depth view of the continuity and internal rigor of Cho Yong-Ik’s practice, the New York group exhibition places him at the center of a global conversation on abstraction. Together, the two exhibitions reposition Cho not on the margins of Dansaekhwa, but as a core figure who forged an independent trajectory within the shared yet diverse histories of Eastern and Western abstraction.
Park Jungeun, Director of Gallery Chang Seoul, explained, “Knowing Cho Yong-Ik is not a retrospective of a forgotten artist. Through the work of an artist who relentlessly questioned the essence of painting before Korean abstraction hardened into a fixed style, this exhibition asks how we should reread Korean contemporary art today.”
Cho Yong-Ik’s paintings are only now beginning to be read anew.
