Samantha Yun Wall

(Seoul, South Korea, 1977 - )

Korean, American

In her highly detailed monochromatic images, Samantha Yun Wall draws from both East Asian and Western storytelling traditions to explore themes of hybridity, transformation, and feminine power. The artist delves into collective stories to better understand and respond to contemporary social structures that stigmatize difference. The tales that she examines—mythologies, folktales, and creation narratives from around the globe—influence how we construct meaning about ourselves and others, encoding social expectations and passing them on to future generations. Examining them can reveal their scaffolding and architecture, and with that knowledge, the structure can be remodeled through the effort and time of retelling. In particular, Wall focuses on the female archetypes found throughout these tales. The artist finds that vilified figures—such as ghosts, monsters, healers, and storytellers—are the most revealing. Such women defy traditional expectations and are consequently marginalized, transformed into altered beings, made invisible or hyper-visible, and treated as outcasts. In these stories, Wall has found striking reflections of her lived experience as a multiracial woman navigating a world that often alienates and exoticizes those perceived as Other. The figures Wall depicts challenge the limitations imposed upon them that would devalue their difference. They draw strength from their contradictions and reject distorted views that would deny the complexity of their identities. They allow us to imagine new narratives that challenge outdated 
ways of seeing.
As the artist explains, “My experiences as a Black Korean immigrant inform my practice. There is a longing to uncover lost histories, revealing the narratives that have shaped me. This is the backbone of my research. The effort to reclaim my identity has led to my discovery of Amerasian experiences within the United States and abroad. Amerasians are the people born to Asian women and U.S. service members during periods of military occupation, such as the Korean War, and the genetic shadows cast decades later. The children born within these circumstances were often viewed as outcasts. The discrimination that Black Amerasians experience is two-fold: stigmatizing the women and their children and perpetuating a legacy of trauma and shame. I am seeking to create broader pathways for contextualizing Black 
experiences within the U.S.”
Samantha Yun Wall immigrated to the United States as a child and now lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She recently won the Betty Bowen Award from the Seattle Art Museum, which includes a 2026 solo exhibition. She will also have work in the 2025 Outwin Triennial at the National Portrait Gallery. Within the last year she had solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, and the Spokane Falls Community College Fine Art Gallery. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, Northern Arizona University Art Museum, Library of Congress, Crocker Museum, Whatcom Museum, Microsoft Art Collection, Oregon State University, and more. Wall has been included in group shows at the Portland Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, The Boise Art Museum, The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Oregon Contemporary in Portland, Cue Art Foundation (New York), Hangaram Art Museum (Seoul), University of Hawaii, Seattle University, Schneider Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and others

Portland, Oregon

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