Art & Legacy
Young Chung
Young Chung (studio art, ’96) celebrates his late UC Irvine mentor, fellow Korean American artist Yong Soon Min
By Greg Hardesty
Back in his undergraduate days at UC Irvine in the early 1990s, after he switched his major from philosophy to studio art, Young Chung recalls seeing the professor and Korean American artist Yong Soon Min around campus.
“I wondered, ‘Who is this Asian woman in the art department?’” said Chung, who would go on to take Min’s upper-division class and then study privately with her.
A fellow immigrant from South Korea known for her work that investigated the Korean War, colonialism, the intersections of memory and history and diasporic identity, Min joined the Department of Art faculty in 1993, just a few months after the violent spring uprising in L.A., during which Chung’s father, a store owner, was shot five times but survived.
“I felt comfortable and at home in the art department being different and speaking from the margins,” said Chung.
I felt comfortable and at home in the art department being different and speaking from the margins.
Image: Installation view, Scratching at the Moon, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Feb. 10-July 28, 2024. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA LA
Full Circle
The bond between Min and Chung recently had a full-circle moment in the L.A. art world, where Chung continues to flourish as a space operator at Commonwealth and Council, a gallery he founded in 2010 in Koreatown, where he grew up.
Min and Chung recently shared space at the Institute of Contemporary Art’s Scratching at the Moon exhibit (Feb. 10-July 28). Featuring 13 artists, the exhibit — curated by Anna Sew Hoy and Anne Ellegood — was the first focused survey of Asian American artists at a major L.A. contemporary art museum.
Now, Chung and other admirers of Min, who died of breast cancer on March 12, 2024, are readying for a fall exhibit, KISSSSS, that will feature Min’s works and serve as a memorial. Yong Soon Min is regarded as an innovator in American installation art and an inspiration to countless art students and audiences internationally.
“Her superpower was bringing people together, and I think that’s what I do at Commonwealth and Council,” said Chung. “I like to bring together artists in conversation, and I like to matchmake artists and curators — and I think I learned all this from Yong Soon Min, who was full of generosity and hospitality.”
I like to bring together artists in conversation, and I like to matchmake artists and curators — and I think I learned all this from Yong Soon Min, who was full of generosity and hospitality.
Chung added: “She left such an impression on me. The art world can be so isolating. You don’t want to be making work in a vacuum, but often you’re left feeling alone, and I think that Yong Soon Min taught me that we’re not alone — that we have each other.
Personal Portraits
Chung received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Irvine in 1996 and an M.F.A. in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998.
His father enjoyed photography as a hobby and his sister had a knack for drawing.
“I would give her five dollars to have her draw things for me,” said Chung. “Ever since I was young, I wanted to be surrounded by art — even though at the time I didn’t know what art was.”
Later, as an artist, part of what Chung aspired to do was represent his immigrant, working-class experience.
At the Scratching at the Moon exhibition, Chung showed five pigment prints of black-and-white photos he titled Not by Birth.
One portrait, China Doll, was of an aunt. The prints Papasan and Mamasan were of his grandparents, King (Saigu) his father and Ssaem (a familiar way of saying “my teacher” in Korean) featured Min.
Chung created the images during his final year at UC Irvine. Showcased adjacent to his photographs were Min’s gelatin prints from the series titled Defining Moments from 1992 and a stack of takeaway posters titled Springtimes of Castro and Kim from 2009.
Image: Yong Soon Min, Image from the upcoming exhibition KISSSSS, in collaboration with UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. By photographer: David Kelley, 2024.
A ‘Built-in Trust’
After earning his master’s degree, Chung switched mostly to making collages, using other people’s images, and re-ordering them. For example, he would cut up National Geographic magazines and piece the fragments back together.
Chung stopped producing his own art in 2012, two years after opening Commonwealth and Council (named after the streets where he lived in a one-bedroom apartment where he launched the gallery).
Championing art by women, queer people and people of color, it’s an experimental space whose artists have gone on to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale and other prestigious shows.
“I knew a lot of artists producing great work who weren’t showing in L.A. at the time, and I wanted to support them,” Chung explained.
The for-profit gallery features work by 40 artists. The space is rooted in Chung’s commitment to explore how a community of artists can sustain their co-existence through generosity and hospitality.
“I feel I have a built-in trust with artists,” Chung said. “When they look at me, they see an artist who they can talk to about their ideas — they don’t really see me as a dealer or an art gallery owner.”
One of Commonwealth and Council’s current projects include creating gallery-related programs for the Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide starting in September. The show, staged every four years, will feature more than 818 artists and 50 exhibitions.
“I think what my art experience at UC Irvine taught me was we all have something to say,” said Chung. "When there are more and more nuanced stories to complicate the dominant or blanket narrative, the richer our lives become and our engagement with the world becomes less stereotypical.”
The exhibition KISSSSS, featuring the works of the late UC Irvine Department of Art faculty member and professor emerita Yong Soon Min (1993-2024) and curated by Bridget R. Cooks, will be held Oct. 5-Dec. 14, 2024, at the Contemporary Arts Center Gallery on campus. A public memorial for Yong Soon Min will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Oct. 5, with an opening reception from 2-6 p.m.
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