Kwon Ok Yon was born in 1923 in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province, and grew up learning calligraphy from his grandfather and music from his father, a violinist. Dreaming of becoming a musician like his father, he began studying art upon enrolling in Gyeongseong Secondary School (now Gyeongbok Middle and High School), making his art world debut while still a student upon receiving an award at the 20th Joseon Art Exhibition (1941).

Kwon went on to study Western painting in Japan, entering the Tokyo Imperial Art School (now Musashino Art University) in 1942, and maintained his passion for art even after his return to Korea, through the many tribulations of liberation and war. In 1957, he and his wife, Lee Byung-bok (1927-2017), traveled to France to study at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière, where he continued his study of Western painting for three years and participated in the Salon d'Automne (1957, 1958), the Cannes Grand Prix Exposition (1958), and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles (1958).
Hailed as the vanguard of "Oriental Surrealism" by poet and Surrealist advocate André Breton (1896-1966) during his time in France, Kwon developed a singular painting style characterized by his own tones and hues rather than joining any particular school or group.
In commemoration of the centennial of Kwon's birth, this exhibition features 20 major works spanning the 1950s to the 1990s — including Portrait of Wife(1951), Cry(1957), Primrose(1986), and Return to Hometown(1999) — that showcase the artist’s sincerity and commitment to establishing a vision entirely his own, moving freely between figuration and abstraction while maintaining the restrained palette that became his signature.