Installation view of 《Close to Far》 © HITE Collection
HITE Collection is presenting 《Close to Far》, its young artists’ exhibition
for the second half of 2026, through December 19.
Featuring painting, sculpture, video, and performance by five
artists in their 20s and 30s, the exhibition explores their distinctive
sensibilities shaped by the times. It focuses in particular on their
perceptions of time in relation to the past, present, and future, and of space
in relation to reality and virtuality.
Drawing on references from diverse fields to make sense of a
rapidly changing world, the participating artists interpret time and space
through nuanced and fluid approaches.
Installation view of 《Close to Far》 © HITE Collection
Known as Generation Z, these artists have an intuitive familiarity
with digital media and a strong grasp of rapidly evolving AI technologies. Yet
they are less optimistic about the future than any generation before them.
Fascination with technology coexists with distrust, as they witness climate
crisis, war, economic instability, housing insecurity, and shifts in labor
structures disrupting their lives.
As it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the future
will be better than the present, their sense of time also diverges from the
linear perception of previous generations. The future seems to have already
arrived in the present, while the past becomes data that can be summoned at any
moment.
The present is no longer a stable point between the past and the
future, but something that either passes in an instant or resembles a
compressed state in which all moments overlap. This sensibility further blurs
the boundary between reality and virtuality, a process accelerated by the
everyday ubiquity of media and AI.
Installation view of 《Close to Far》 © HITE Collection
The exhibition title 《Close to Far》 brings together two
possibilities: a present in which everything distant—the past and the
future—converges at a single point, forming a tightly sealed whole, and the
distant things that remain forever out of reach, no matter how close we come to
them.
Participating Artists: Sollee Kim, Seoyoung,
Siyoung Song, Daul Rheem, Janjaa
