Korean diasporic artist Jin Meyerson is presenting his latest body of work at Perrotin gallery in Los Angeles, drawing inspiration from the iconic 1968 "Earthrise" photograph and themes of orbital movement. The exhibition, titled "SAFE SPACE," features ten paintings that follow a celestial rhythm, beginning with four darker works evoking sunset to night, then transitioning into six luminous pieces that guide viewers from sunrise through daybreak.
Meyerson's artistic journey is deeply rooted in his personal history as a Korean adoptee. Raised in rural Minnesota by a Swedish-American mother and Jewish father, he was one of approximately 200,000 children sent abroad to the United States and Europe after the Korean War ended in 1953. The only possession he brought from the orphanage in Incheon was his love of drawing. This mass adoption occurred as the South Korean government prioritized international adoption over developing a domestic welfare system.
The exhibition's central theme explores the search for safety and belonging amid the complexities of hybrid identity. Each artwork is anchored by a fluorescent orange underpainting, referencing a color commonly used to signal distress in nautical, aviation, and hunting contexts. This motif takes physical form in the gallery's courtyard installation "WINDSOCK" (2025), which renders a functional wind indicator deliberately useless as it flounders from side to side, allowing viewers to peer inside and glimpse the blue Los Angeles sky above.
Meyerson's paintings extend this framework through abstracted landscapes composed from both found and personal photographs that he digitally fragmented and reassembled using artificial intelligence. The process transforms recognizable images into unrecognizable portals of refracted light, creating works that evoke spatial drift while mirroring the artist's confrontation with the limits of fixed identity. The resulting pieces suggest the strength derived from navigating multiple cultures and emotional worlds.
Among the notable works is "EVENT HORIZON" (2025), the exhibition's largest painting, which creates the sensation of spinning through the cybersphere with visuals reminiscent of old Windows Media Player graphics. This monumental piece draws inspiration from the familial behavior of ancient aspen tree groves in northern Utah and Colorado, where trees grow through interconnected root systems that allow a single offshoot to propagate an entire forest.
The digital works "SPACE SHIP 1" and "SPACE SHIP 1.2" (2025) are strategically installed on opposite sides of an adjoining wall, exploring the collision of two- and three-dimensional planes. Other paintings like "FERRIS WHEEL" and "OWL" (2025) offer subtle hints of place through city skylines barely visible along their lower edges, though the precise locations remain deliberately elusive.
A crucial element of the exhibition is the immersive soundscape composed by Mtendere Mandowa, known professionally as Teebs. The meditative, lush score plays on a loop throughout the gallery, offering what the artist describes as a synesthetic translation of what the paintings might sound like. The composition weaves together fragments including frog sounds and the rhythmic hum of Teebs's computer fan, creating a blend of natural and artificial sounds that offers alternative ways of marking time.
Meyerson's work reflects his current position as an artist now based in Seoul, the country from which he was once sent away. His artistic practice transforms what could be seen as a fractured identity into fertile creative ground. Rather than fitting neatly into the category of "Korean Korean," he occupies a space that is "beautifully in-between," with his identity emerging not in isolation but through relationships and reflections with others.
The exhibition takes its inspiration from multiple sources, including the famous "Earthrise" photograph captured by astronaut William Anders on Christmas Eve 1968 as Apollo 8 orbited the moon. This image reframed Earth not as a grid of conflicting nations but as a shared, borderless vessel carrying all humanity through space. Samantha Harvey's 2023 novel "Orbital" also served as a source of inspiration for Meyerson's latest work.
"Jin Meyerson: SAFE SPACE" continues at Perrotin gallery, located at 5040 West Pico Boulevard in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, through August 29. The exhibition demonstrates how contemporary artists are using personal narrative and technological tools to explore themes of displacement, identity, and the search for belonging in an increasingly connected yet fragmented world.
