SCAD deFINE ART artist talks: Ken Gun Min and Samuel Ross

Join artists Ken Gun Min and Samuel Ross for two back-to-back discussions on their new exhibitions, presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2025. Delve into Min’s sublime embroidered paintings of “queer utopia” that picture collisions of idealism with reality and reinterpret his experiences as a Korean immigrant. Ross will then speak to the material explorations and Brutalist aesthetic that inform his exhibition Heave, spanning the disciplines of fashion, painting, and furniture design.

About the artists
Ken Gun Min (b. 1976, Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in Los Angeles) studied Western painting and art history and theory at Hongik University in Seoul and received his M.F.A. from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Solo exhibitions include The Lost Paradise, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver; Sweet Discipline from Koreatown, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; Silverlake Dog Park, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; Wounded Man, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, K Contemporary, Denver; and Becoming Palm Tree, Gae Po Project Space, Seoul. Min’s work has also been featured in group exhibitions including Strings of Desire, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles; i know you are, but what am i? (De)Framing Identity and the Body, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City; Sparkle In, Fade Out, Torrance Art Museum, Ca.; People of the Otherworld: Ken Kiff in Dialogue, Albertz Benda, New York; Who Is Your Master?, 1969 Gallery, New York; Bozomag: Bozo Family Hoedown, M+B, Los Angeles; and 36 Paintings, Harper’s East Hampton, N.Y. A Hopper Prize finalist, Min has received awards from Direktorenhaus, Berlin, and the Kellogg Foundation, New York. His work has been published by Artnet, Artsy, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, Wallpaper*, and Frieze.

Artist and designer Samuel Ross (b. 1991, London; lives and works in London) is best known for founding the menswear fashion label A-COLD-WALL* and the industrial design studio SR_A SR_A, as well as for his work with the late designer Virgil Abloh (1980–2021). Ross first trained in graphic illustration before pursuing product design and interdisciplinary projects. He has presented solo exhibitions at White Cube, London, and Friedman Benda, New York, among others. His work is held in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Ross has collaborated with global brands including LVMH, Nike, and Apple to create innovative wearable objects. He was named the British Fashion Awards’ Emerging Menswear Designer in 2018 and received the Hublot Design Prize in 2019. He was honored with the GQ Fashion Award in 2020 and a People of the Year British Fashion Award in 2021. Ross is the founder of the Black British Artist Grants Programme, connecting the next generation of talent with funding and global institutions. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2024.

This event is free and open to the public and presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2025.