Storied: Cold War Legacies
October 24 - December 7, 2024
Stephanie Kim Gallery
New York, NY

STORIED presents a spectrum of strong voices that exist in stark contrast to what we hear and see in the media, offering a fresh and engaging perspective on the world. The exhibition’s exploration of how diplomatic relations, global peace, and women’s rights continue to be at the fore by Cold War era power structure resonates with the current political climate, marking the exhibition highly relevant and engaging to our times. 

As these geopolitical constructs persist, the artworks invite contemplation of the lingering effects of post-WWII alliances and Cold War anxieties. This exhibition is a timely reflection on art’s role to capture past and present cultural tensions. More importantly, the exhibition serves to promote critical awareness, stimulate conversations, and encourage storytelling about the personal and the political histories we inherit, the chaos we live in, and hope for a future that we shape collectively. 

Stephanie Kim’s concept of “Storied” encapsulates the past and the future, intertwining ideas of power and control with intergenerational personal political histories. “With it both current and legacy meanings, denoting power and control, refers to traditional and social media - all of which seemed apt and compelling in the context of the exhibition and its subject matter,” said gallery director Stephanie Kim. “There is a powerful interplay of artists who have had vastly different life experiences and yet share many of the same themes, perspectives and points-of-view in their work. Given the current state of world politics and media, Storied is timely and important.”

Tracy Weisman’s explosive reimagining of Cold War-era Duck and Cover illustrations evoke a range of emotions, from anxieties of the Cold War tension and global warfare, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis of the past to current United States politics related to womens’ rights, privacy, and protection. For those growing up in Korea, including Won Seoung Won and curator of the exhibition Stephanie Kim, the wail of sirens from routine military drills were a part of everyday life. The drills became a numbing repetition of the Korean conflict played over time, a stark reminder of the trauma of a country in constant war. Weisman’s work, in this context, is intuitively connected to Mina Cheon’s politically charged pop paintings in the straightforward visual narrative that carries complex cultural meanings. The parallels are thought-provoking. Cheon’s 007 (2013) creates a tension between state propaganda and artistic commentary, what is permissible in creative expression in one country can be deadly in another - all three artists are a testament to the inspiring power of art to respond to the world around them. 

Weisman also frequently uses vintage objects to decode, reminding us that as Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Weisman recreates her 2017 work Indivisible? and entitles it Precipice. The US flag, rendered in black and white textiles, replaces stars with emoji of things that can either divide or unite us.

Storied exhibition brings in the third component to the show, by bringing in the ambiguity, evoked by Won Seoung Won’s Sea of Journalists. Won uses a collage and layers of 2000 photographs to recreate the overwhelming chaos of a stormy sea. It is a new narrative for a world that is simultaneously fictitious and true. The painting depicts various journalists reporting on a typhoon, each with a distinct approach: some dive headfirst into the eye of the storm, others skillfully navigate the treacherous waves, while a few lurk like bloodthirsty hyenas, waiting for a disaster-related opportunity. The vast, churning sea represents the complexity of the story—a chaotic and layered reality that feels too overwhelming to fully comprehend.