Dream Land: Tommy Kwak at Clic Tribeca

There’s a certain stillness in Tommy Kwak’s work. An atmosphere that feels both fleeting and suspended, like light just before it disappears. This month, we’re bringing that feeling into our Clic Tribeca space with Dream Land, a new installation that invites you to step inside his world.

Kwak is known for his ethereal, large-format color photographs, images that blur the line between landscape and abstraction. Washed in soft gradients of pink, blue, and sun-faded orange, his compositions feel almost like memories rather than places. Grasses dissolve into the sky, palm silhouettes hover in haze, and light becomes the subject itself. There’s a quietness to the work, but also a sense of warmth, something distinctly transportive.

For Dream Land, these images come together in a way that feels immersive yet restrained, allowing each piece to breathe. Installed within the clean, minimal architecture of the gallery, the works create a dialogue between softness and structure, color against white walls, reflection against matte surfaces. The effect is subtle but enveloping.

What makes Dream Land especially compelling is the range of landscapes Tommy Kwak brings into conversation, moving from New York to the Caribbean, from city to shoreline, all through the same softened, atmospheric lens.

In Wetland Grass, Jamaica Bay, NY, something as ordinary as marshland becomes almost abstract. The grasses dissolve into washes of color, hovering between coral and sky blue, capturing a fleeting moment where nature feels weightless. It’s a reminder of how close these quiet, overlooked landscapes are to the city, and how easily they can slip into something more dreamlike.

That sense of transformation continues in his Monuments series. In Monuments Chrysler 1 and Monuments United Nations 2, familiar New York architecture is stripped of its rigidity. The skyline softens, edges blur, and these iconic structures feel less like fixed landmarks and more like impressions, almost as if remembered rather than seen. Even in NYC Skyline 2, the city becomes atmospheric, its density reduced to light and gradient, turning something typically sharp and graphic into something fluid and meditative. His work consistently reframes urban environments through color and blur, offering a more poetic reading of the city.  

In contrast, the Palm works from Turks and Caicos, Palm 14, Palm 15, and Palm 16 introduce a different kind of stillness. Here, the subject is minimal: a single palm form, suspended in soft gradients of blue and green. Yet these pieces feel expansive. The horizon dissolves, the air thickens with color, and the palms take on an almost sculptural presence. Kwak’s work often explores the transience of natural forms, capturing landscapes in a way that feels both ephemeral and immersive.  

Together, these works create a quiet rhythm within the installation, New York and Turks and Caicos, structure and nature, density and openness, all unified by Kwak’s ability to dissolve reality into the atmosphere. It’s less about place, and more about perception: how light, color, and memory shape what we see.

Moreover, in 2022, Kwak released his first monograph, Lifeguard Towers: Miami, published by Blurring Books. The series captures the iconic towers in Miami through his distinct lens, rendered in soft, dreamlike tones that shift them from documentary into something more poetic. The book will be available in-store during the exhibition, offering a deeper look into his ongoing exploration of color and place.

We invite you to join us for the show on Thursday, April 23rd from 6–8 PM, an opportunity to spend more time with the work and meet Tommy.