Pastel Paintings Celebrate Everyday Life With Quiet Tenderness

“Sand, Stories, and a Small House,” 2025

For those living between multiple countries, “home” is a very nebulous concept. This is the case, at least, for Danym Kwon. After more than a decade in California, the Korean-American artist returned to her native Seoul in 2022, only to realize how much the Bay Area had shaped her sense of place and belonging. In her latest solo exhibition, Kwon mines those feelings through quiet, meditative paintings that encapsulate “home.”

Now open at Hashimoto Contemporary, Dear Moments compiles several of Kwon’s new works, ranging from traditional paintings to birch plywood cut-outs. Each work exudes tenderness, complete with smooth brushstrokes, pastel colors, and solid backgrounds that create an illustrative, graphic feel. Kwon’s subject matter is equally intimate, encompassing sleeping children, neat piles of clothes, walks in the park, and meandering bike rides. It’s clear that, for Kwon, a “dear moment” is simply one lived to its fullest, regardless of whether or not it’s seemingly mundane and habitual.

At the heart of Dear Moments is a large-scale triptych of the same name, depicting a stack of laundry. In the folds of these sweaters, shirts, and button-ups is a myriad of domestic scenes, offering a glimpse into an otherwise private—yet universal—world. Here, children play with toy trains and spray a watering hose across a field; a woman reads from her book, tucked peacefully into a plush lounge chair; a couple fishes alongside a river bank, explores an art museum, and feeds swans at the shore. These scenes are, of course, cumulative, building upon one another much like the piles upon piles of laundry, each as soft and familiar as the next. Seasons pass, children grow older, and still we cling onto the memories of these moments like we would a beloved garment.

Other pieces are more contained, capturing a single experience rather than an entire tapestry. Little Reader’s Nest, for instance, depicts a child nestled in what appears to be a wicker laundry basket, a book splayed open in his lap. Interestingly, Kwon places this figure on the far-left side of the canvas, providing an exceptional amount of breathing room, while also opting for a simple background. These compositional decisions strip the painting of too much specificity, allowing us, as viewers, to project our own visions and recollections upon it. Where, exactly, is this child? It doesn’t matter: he’s at home, wherever that may be.

Kwon’s preoccupation with domesticity and everyday life is no coincidence. “I may never have had a place to stay forever,” the artist explains. “But wherever we were together became a home.”

Dear Moments isn’t stingy with its warmth. Its entire being invites us to “cherish the moments that pass too quickly,” as Kwon hopes.

Dear Moments is currently open at Hashimoto Contemporary through August 30, 2025. To plan your own visit and learn more about the exhibition, visit the Hashimoto website.