Art as a political act: Expression of cultural identity, self-identity and gender in the work of two Korean/Korean American women artists (Yong Soon Min, Suk Nam Yun)

This dissertation explores the lives of two contemporary Korean/Korean American women artists, Suk Nam Yun, and Yong Soon Min, who respectively live in Seoul, South Korea, and Los Angeles, USA. This cross-cultural study focuses on their identity formation, artistic expression, their professional achievements and the role of art as a political act.; The study examines the impact of social, historical, political, and cultural forces on artistic expression, life experiences, and the status of women in Korean society, and Korean immigrants as an ethnic minority immigrant in America. This study explores how their art expresses issues of cultural identity, self-identity and gender as a political act, and how their art making process contributes to their identity formation. As an interpretive biographical case study, data were collected from sources such as review of their artworks, exhibition catalogues, written documents, and personal interviews with Yun and Min, which were documented, interpreted and analyzed.; The resulting comparative analysis indicates that both artists present a multifaceted consciousness of being Korean women—a cultural, feminist view; and the status of a Korean American immigrant—an ethnic minority identity view. Their art represents important social, cultural, political, and feminist activism. Therefore, their art contributes to the formation of their self-identity and to their professional identities as artists, feminists, and cultural activists. I identified the richness of their lives in the context of their Korean/Korean American cultural identity, self identity and gender issues that interweave and inform their art as a political act that functions to affect democracy and social transformation.; The research offers suggestions for the fields of cultural studies, women's education, art and art education. It provides artists, art educators, historians, curators, art critics, and students with a framework for examining content, the meaning of art, the role of art, artistic expression and the critique of artworks by artists from another culture. This study is important for the understanding of other cultures, especially the lives of Korean women in a patriarchal society, and the life of an ethnic minority in an American multicultural environment.