1010 North Highland Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90038
Saturday, July 12 at 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Ends Aug 29, 2025
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is pleased to host PKM Gallery for an exhibition in Los Angeles. A prominent Korean gallery, PKM has chosen to exhibit a solo presentation of Korean multidisciplinary artist and musician Bek Hyunjin, introducing his gestural and poetic practice to Los Angeles for the first time. Entitled Seoul Syntax, the exhibition will be on view July 12 through August 29, 2025. The opening reception will be Saturday, July 12 from 6-8pm with a special live performance at 7pm.
Bek Hyunjin was born in Seoul and has lived and worked there for over 50 years. While the city has remained a constant in his life, Seoul itself is always changing and evolving. Both systematic and variable, the city is a juxtaposition of both stability and insecurity in Bek’s life. Seoul Syntax translates the artist’s experiences of his hometown – the emotions, thoughts, and sensations rooted in this place – to the city of Los Angeles.
Syntax refers to the structure and order of language, as well as the relationship between signs and their meanings – rife with slippages and misalignments. Across painting, installation, sound, and performance, Bek Hyunjin’s work captures Seoul’s chaotic and restless patterns, mapping its unique rhythms and structures.
Bek Hyunjin has held numerous exhibitions at major art institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea), Leeum Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Art Sonje Center (Seoul, Korea), Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai, China), and Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, Austria). In 2017, he was chosen as the nominee/sponsored artist for the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Korea Artist Prize.