Whanki Foundation Collection Exhibition
Collector KIM HyangAn: And Beyond 컬렉터 김향안, 그 후
Following the Whanki Foundation Collection exhibition Collector Kim HyangAn, held in the first half of 2026, this exhibition expands its focus beyond the early collection Kim HyangAn herself built. It centers on the Korean art collection the Whanki Foundation has assembled over the years, exploring what followed.
After Kim Whanki’s death in 1974, Kim HyangAn founded the Whanki Foundation. Through her relationships with artists in Korea and abroad and her support for their work, she remained closely engaged with Korean contemporary art. These efforts continued after the Whanki Museum opened in 1992 through initiatives such as the Whanki Foundation Artists exhibition and Prix Whanki. The works accumulated in the process, together with the foundation’s history, have come to form the Whanki Foundation Collection as it stands today. The works presented in this exhibition are both the outcome of that history and a record of the Whanki Foundation’s journey alongside Korean art.
Even the museum I built may, once I am gone and years have passed,
become something I never intended at all.
But that is history, and there is nothing to be done about it.
A founder has a dream.
There may or may not be someone to carry that dream forward.
There is no need to think about it in advance.
Kim HyangAn
The “beyond“ in Collector Kim HyangAn: And Beyond does not simply refer to the time after Kim HyangAn. Looking at another facet of the Whanki Foundation Collection is also, ultimately, a way of looking back at Kim HyangAn herself, as both founder and collector. The standards and sensibility with which she viewed and selected works live on today through the foundation‘s exhibitions and collection. We hope this exhibition offers a chance to reflect on the museum she envisioned and, together, to imagine what might lie beyond.
