UNSEEN: A First-of-Its-Kind Exhibition on North Korean Women Opens in New York

Curated by Dr. Stephanie Seungmin Kim, UNSEEN features 14 artists and is hosted by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, August 13, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- UNSEEN, the first-ever international exhibition dedicated to North Korean women’s lives and voices, opens September 19-27 at 393 Broadway in Tribeca, New York, coinciding with the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.

Curated by Korean-born Dr. Stephanie Seungmin Kim, the exhibit features 14 international artists who reimagine and amplify the untold stories of North Korean women - the quiet force sustaining underground economies, resisting oppressive governmental control, and ensuring family survival under one of the world’s most repressive regimes.

Spanning 25,000 square feet across two floors, the exhibition will blend sacred, historical, and radical visual languages. Fourteen artists are Christine Harris Amos, Liliana Porter, Livia Turco, Mia Enell, Mihaela Noroc, Minsang Cho, Nari Choi, Sunme Lee, Tracy Weisman, Yeojin Kim, Yong Eun (May) Kown, Yong Nam Kim, Youngha Park, and Younghi Kang. The artists work, which address topics such as self-reliance, renewal, defiance, hope and empowerment, bring visitors on a journey that collectively tells the story of UNSEEN.

UNSEEN is hosted by Amnesty International and five other partner NGOs, and the exhibition calls for an action and an emotional reckoning. Ten video testimonies from North Korean escapees—one of whom survived two forced repatriations—anchor the exhibition. Their stories, alongside illustrations drawn by escapees, bear witness to unseen injustice. A red sweater once worn during an escape and the red campaign dots reappear in artworks, turning statistics into visual protests, prayers, and acts of survival.

“This is not just an exhibition but our collective attempt to fight for justice and defend these women. The same fight that gave birth to the United Nations eighty years ago, gives strength to participants of the exhibition,” commented Dr. Kim. “We would not be standing here enjoying freedom if the UN had ruled against participating in the Korean War. I would be one of the North Korean women, trying to escape, becoming subject to human trafficking and violence.”

Opening on the 77th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNSEEN stands as a reminder that the fight for human dignity continues through art, testimony, and the courage to witness.

The exhibition is supported by a consortium of human rights organizations: Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK), Hanvoice, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights (NK Net).

https://unseenwomensrights.org/

About the Curator:

Dr. Stephanie Seungmin Kim is an internationally recognized curator known for groundbreaking exhibitions such as Earth Alert: Photographic Response to Climate Change (2009), Sleepers in Venice (2015), and the inaugural Jikji Korea Festival, Jikji, the Golden Seed (2016). Dr. Kim recently directed the inaugural exhibition marking the opening of UNESCO’s first museum for the Memory of the World program. From 2007 to 2011, Stephanie served as the Founding Curator of the Korean Cultural Centre UK, Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and has a PhD from the Royal College of Art.

For more information contact:
epaulus@hudsoncutler.com

Emily Paulus
Hudson Cutler
epaulus@hudsoncutler.com
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