Ken Gun Min: Strange Days of a Quiet Sun
Nazarian / Curcio is pleased to present Strange Days of a Quiet Sun, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Korean-born, Los Angeles–based artist Ken Gun Min. This marks the artist’s third solo presentation with the gallery.
The exhibition brings together a new body of paintings alongside a monumental double-sided folding screen, continuing Min’s exploration of lush, psychologically charged environments shaped by queer experience, art historical reference, and ornamental excess.
The works in Strange Days of Quiet Sun build upon Min’s established visual language: vibrant color palettes, densely layered compositions, and surfaces enriched through hand-applied embroidery, beading, and the embellishment of natural gems and pearls. These tactile interventions heighten the sensory intensity of the paintings, drawing viewers into environments that feel at once immersive and unstable. Across the exhibition, Min constructs botanical spaces that function as both refuge and site of conflict—places where beauty, desire, and violence coexist.
Ken Gun Min (b. 1976, Seoul, South Korea; Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) studied western painting and art history and theory at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea and received his MFA from the Academy of Art, University of San Francisco. Min has recently had solo exhibitions at MCA Denver, CO; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; and Nazarian / Curcio, Los Angeles. Recent group exhibitions include the Denver Art Museum, CO; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Whitecube, London, UK; Albertz Benda, New York, NY; Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, Korea; Highlights from the Gautreaux Collection,Peninsula Hotel, Chicago, IL.. He was a Hopper Prize finalist and received awards from Direktorenhaus, Berlin, DE and the Kellogg Foundation, New York, NY. Min’s work has been featured in Artnet, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Observer, Artsy, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, Wallpaper* and Frieze.
His work is included in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, FL; Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA), CA; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Marquez Art Projects, Miami, FL; CCS Bard, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; JP Morgan Chase Art Collection; and X Museum, Beijing, China.