GopherFi

Revisited → “Growing Up” by @GrantYun2 On Wednesday, November 18, Grant launches Sections with us and @opensea, a generative project that imagines square miles of the American landscape from the rules that shape real places. Sections moves away from the personal memories behind much of his earlier work, so ahead of the launch, we’re looking back at the series where those memories were most present. A Meditation on Bicultural Memory and Distance In 2024, Grant Yun opened his first solo exhibition in Seoul, and it was a personal one. Growing Up, presented with Avant Arte, looked at what it means to live between two cultures. Through nine quiet, precise works, the show reflected on Grant’s experience as a first-generation Korean-American, bringing together memory, distance and identity. Grant is known for his clean digital landscapes and minimal views of American life. In Growing Up, the scenes became more intimate: a train ride, a kitchen table, a father stepping into shadow. These choices were emotional as much as visual. The series took shape during the pandemic, in time spent alone between Wisconsin and New England. That stillness runs through the work, in its sense of quiet, waiting and reflection. One of its central themes is the distance between generations. In works like Mom Made Dinner! and PB&J, Grant uses something as simple as food to show the space between immigrant parents and their American-born children. One finds comfort in kimchi, the other in a peanut butter sandwich. The result is light and familiar, with a quiet sadness underneath. In Grant’s words: “From the immigrant experience, families grow together, families grow apart. There’s sacrifice, there’s learning.” The exhibition was also an important moment in Grant’s career. Beyond being his first solo show, it brought together the different parts of his identity: American and Korean, digital and physical, past and present. Growing Up speaks to anyone who has felt the distance between where they come from and where they are, even if the story isn’t their own. ↓ Here are some of the artworks featured in the exhibition.