In the late 1990s, hallyu, which translates as “Korean Wave,” flooded Asia, and shortly after that, the world. There was PSY’s song “Gangnam Style,” which broke the internet in 2012—one of the first instances of the internet being “broken.” Since then, Korean music, dramas, beauty products, and food have all become global obsessions. Still, the K-pop and neon of the last 30 years is a blink in Korea’s deep cultural history, its royal palaces, Buddhist temples, and Confucian academies. This exhibition, which presents masterpieces donated from the collection of Samsung Group’s former chairman, Lee Kun-Hee, who died in 2020, looks at how technology, beliefs, and style brought us into the era of hallyu. —Elena Clavarino