Born in 1934 in Gaeseong, Korea.
Lived and worked in Los Angeles, California.
Died in 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
Young-Il Ahn was born in Gaeseong, a city now geographically located in North Korea. As a young boy, Ahn moved with his family to Horikiri, northeast of Tokyo; in 1943, the Ahn family left Japan and returned to Korea when his father, artist Seung-gak Ahn, accepted a position as an art instructor at Cheongju Teachers College.
A child prodigy, Ahn was awarded numerous prizes as a student, winning national art contests in both 1949 and 1954. After graduating from the highly competitive College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University, serving in the military, Ahn eventually made his way to the United States, settling in Los Angeles in 1966.
During the five-plus decades Ahn lived in Los Angeles, the landscape, light, and atmosphere of California played a prominent role in his artwork. An avid fisherman, his painting practice was deeply affected when, in 1983, a motorboat he was operating became engulfed by fog off the Santa Monica coast. Unable to get his bearings, Ahn drifted on the Pacific Ocean; as he later recalled, “I lost all sense of direction. I cut the engine and let the currents take me.” When the fog finally cleared, Ahn’s experience of sunlight rippling on the waves was an epiphany: “I became profoundly aware of the surface of the sea being reborn in each and every moment. What I witnessed was engraved deep in my heart. From that day on, the sea lived inside me and I became part of the sea.” Ahn’s Water series, his paintings of the fragmented colors of water in motion, would be an ongoing concern for the rest of his career, even as he painted other subjects and motifs.
In 2017–18, with the exhibition Unexpected Light: Works by Young-Il Ahn, Ahn had the distinction of being the first-ever Korean-American artist to be featured in a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, bringing overnight acclaim to his Water paintings. Ahn’s work was also the subject of two solo shows at the Long Beach Museum of Art, A Memoir of Water: Works by Young-Il Ahn in 2014, and Young-Il Ahn: When Sky Meets Water in 2017–18. Upon his death in 2020, ArtNews paid tribute to Ahn as a “trailblazing painter of radiant abstractions.”
education
1958
- B.A. Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
solo shows
2025
- Young-Il Ahn: Selected Works 1986-2019, Perrotin, Los Angeles, California
2023
- Memories of Water, Harper’s, Los Angeles, California
2022
- Water, Space, California, Harper’s, New York
2021
- 20 Years After, Harper’s, New York
- Young-Il Ahn: Reflection, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, Illinois
2019
- Young-Il Ahn: Theme and Variations, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California
2018
- Young-Il Ahn, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017
- Young-Il Ahn, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California
- Young-Il Ahn, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
- Unexpected Light: Works by Young-Il Ahn, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
2016
- Before Water, Sesom Gallery, Changwon, Korea
2015
- A Memoir of Water, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California
- A Memoir of Water, Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California
2007
- C J Gallery, San Diego, California
2005
- Klapper Gallery, West Hollywood, California
2004
- Doosan Hall Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2000
- Eamew Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1998
- Sackville Gallery, London, England
1997
- Dosan Hall Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1995
- John & Joe Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1992
- Gallery 365, Beverly Hills, California
1986
- Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
1985
- Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California
1985
- Artist Loft Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1983
- Artist Loft Gallery, Beverly Hills, California
1982
- Hyundai Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1971
- Zachary Waller Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1969
- Newster Gallery, Denver, Colorado
1968
- Zachary Waller Gallery, Los Angeles
1968
- Muckenthaler Center, Fullerton, California
1966
- National Press Center, Seoul, Korea
1966
- Daegu Gallery, Korea
1965
- Bando Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1964
- Salon Pagodong, Seoul, Korea
1963
- Bando Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1962
- USIS Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
1959
- Hull House Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1958
- Dong-Ah Gallery, Seoul, Korea
group shows
2024
- Good Morning Korea, In the Land of the Morning Calm, curated by Hervé Mikaeloff, Maison Guerlain, Paris, France
2022
- 25 Years, Harper's East Hampton, New York
2020
- The Written Word, Kavi Gupta, online exhibition
2012
- Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California
2011
- Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California
2010
- Here from Korea, C J Gallery, San Diego, California
1987
- Chosun News Daily Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1986
- Korean National Museum of Art
1957
- Invitational Exhibition, World House Gallery, New York, New York
public collections
Bronx Museum of Arts
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Long Beach Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
awards
2002-2005
- Artist Ambassador of United States to Vienna, Austria