Tae Um on Building a Collection with Mentors and Hard-Won Acquisitions

Tae Um, a 35-year-old writer, curator, and founder of Creative Resource based in Seoul, has built a collection that bridges Korean and American art worlds. He credits mentors from Commonwealth and Council, Grace Liptak of Skarstedt, and Margaret Kross of Romance for guiding his collecting journey. A particularly hard-won acquisition was a work by Gala Porras-Kim, where Um had to prove his genuine engagement to the gallery. He now gravitates toward artists who emphasize the human hand in an AI moment, naming Lotus L. Kang, Florian Krewer, and Ken Gun Min as ones to watch. Um sees collecting as preserving the spirit of the times, shifting from instinctual purchases to a focus on contemporary relevance and personal identity.