After Louvre-Lens, Paek Yunzo opens two-person show in Seoul

Since September, a painting by the Korean artist Paek Yunzo has hung under the same roof as a bronze lion by Takashi Murakami and cat figures from ancient Egypt.

Her 2024 oil painting "Free Riders" is one of more than 300 works on view in "So Cute! The Art of Happiness," a wide-ranging survey of cuteness in art that runs through Jan. 18 at the Louvre-Lens, the Louvre’s regional branch in the former coal-mining town in northern France.

The painting is one of several with the same title in Paek’s “Walk” series, which shows people out for a stroll with small animals along for the ride. Gallery Joeun has described the series as a humorous take on the artist’s fondness for pets.

Curated by Louvre-Lens director Annabelle Teneze and Emilie Girard of the Musees de la Ville de Strasbourg, the exhibition includes a section on how cuteness is expressed and valued in Korean society.

Paek and the painter Woo Kukwon are the first Korean artists of their generation to take part in an exhibition at the Louvre-Lens, according to 313 Art Project, one of Paek’s galleries.

Born in 1980, Paek earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in painting at Dongduk Women's University in Seoul. Her work often pares down the human figure to simple lines and bright color against flat, single-hue grounds. Most of her subjects are walking, usually with a dog or a toy in tow.

Paek has held five solo shows in Seoul since 2019, most recently “Every Little Step” at Gallery Joeun in 2024. Her work has also appeared at Art Paris and Art Miami.

Starting Thursday, Paek is showing about 10 new paintings in “Still,” a two-person show with the Tokyo-based painter Tatsuhito Horikoshi at Gallery Joeun in Itaewon, through Dec. 5.

The show sets Horikoshi’s portraits against Paek’s moving figures: hence the double meaning of the title, which, according to the gallery, can either mean a moment frozen in time or a state that carries on.