UM TAI-JUNG: WORLD WORLDS

This publication is a collection of a solo exhibition of UM Tai-Jung, published for his solo show at ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL from June 18 to August 2, 2025.

UM Tai-Jung (b. 1938) is a pioneering figure in the first generation of Korean contemporary abstract sculpture. Since the early 1960s, he has continuously explored form and material, with a focus on metal sculpture. The exhibition creates meditative spaces through sculpture, representing an artistic practice grounded in Eastern philosophy and ontological reflection. The title references Martin Heidegger’s proposition, “the world worlds,” which sees the world not as a fixed entity but as a living sphere that continually reveals and constitutes itself through relationships among humans, objects, time, and place. Engaging deeply with the materiality of metal, UM seeks to construct a world where earth and sky, human and object, time and spirit intersect.