Floral Dimensions: A Discussion with Seongmin Ahn and John Yau

Join artist Seongmin Ahn and art critic John Yau in a conversation about flowers in art, particularly those depicted in Its Inside is Bigger Than Its Outside: Paintings by Seongmin Ahn and Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers. Moderated by Laura Vookles, HRM Chair, Curatorial Department. Simultaneous ASL interpretation by Certified Sign Language Interpreter Nancy Kaplan, M.A., C.I., will accompany this talk, including the Q&A.

Cascading peonies and blossoming plum trees inhabit Seongmin Ahn’s paintings that experiment with hyperdimensional, connected spaces. In Korea, peonies are traditionally known as the “king” among flowers, a symbol of nobility and prosperity, while plum blossoms symbolize spring and hope. Meanwhile, Edward Steichen incorporated floral imagery in his large-scale panels, using the botanical specimens—rose, geranium, petunia, caladium, budleya, lily, and violet—to reflect the sitter’s dominant personality traits.

In her first solo exhibition at the Hudson River Museum, Seongmin Ahn, who was born in South Korea and resides in New York, combines traditional Korean painting techniques with contemporary subject matter to express her personal journey to discover a sense of home as an artist bridging Eastern and Western cultures. Ahn holds an MFA in Asian traditional painting from Seoul National University and an MFA in multidisciplinary art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. As an active participant in the contemporary art scene in New York and East Asia, she has exhibited work at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and the Charles Wang Center at Stony Brook University.

John Yau, Professor of Critical Studies at Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University), has published books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, including monographs on Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and A. R. Penck In 1999, he started Black Square Editions, a small press devoted to poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism. He was the Arts Editor for the Brooklyn Rail (2007–2011) and currently writes regularly for Hyperallergic. Yau has received awards and grants from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation, the Academy of American Poets (Lavan Award), The American Poetry Review (Jerome Shestack Award), the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the General Electric Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2002). In 2018, he was named a recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize.

Left: Seongmin Ahn by Jason Green. Right: John Yau by Eve Aschheim.