*** Perhaps we can start at the beginning – how did you get into art? My parents are Korean. My mother (Chung Young Yang) is a very renowned scholar in textiles and an embroider herself. For her PhD dissertation in NYU, her book became the only English language historical reference to the textiles of Japan, Korea and China, of court robes. She studies the patterns and symbolism, and she knows about the fabric. She had an amazing collection which she donated to this university in Korea. So there’s a museum named after her. But she recently established a private foundation (Seol Won Foundation) to promote, nurture and revive all forms of Korean art, including embroidery. It was launched in New York in March and in Korea last week. She’s really a remarkable person. I grew up surrounded by all these robes and drapes. She prompted me to do an internship at the Metropolitan Museum as a high school student, which at that time was very competitive. I was very lucky. She used to give lectures (there). Her work is there as well. She made new ways of embroidering stuff, from the traditional way. I did my first internship there and I still remember, at that time, they had a Monet show. So I started looking at the artworks then. So it was by osmosis? You could have very well gone into to fashion design... (laughs) I’m not fashionable at all! My mom also did some pattern designs for fabrics when she was in school and did a degree at Parsons. She’s very artistic. But I think I was more inclined to music more than art in the beginning. I played classical piano. All I had was classical music. I really didn’t know very much about pop music—the only people I know, really, are Michael Jackson or Madonna. Like, you know, really popular. It’s okay what! When I think back and look at my children, and see people who end up in the arts field, whether it be music or visual art or performing arts, you can tell who is really inclined. I guess I was meant to be in the arts, but somehow it became the visual arts. I really loved playing the piano. I could spend hours just practicing. I loved to listen and just play. My mom was also a very good oil painter, and she kind of forced me to do some stuff, which I didn’t really like. (smiles) But after I had gone to college—I took up a business degree at Boston University—she really gave me a unique opportunity to go to Venice on a holiday. I ended up working for this gallery, Contini Gallery. (The owner's) now the exclusive dealer of Botero. I slowly became the gallery director. I was there for four years. I started going to art fairs since I was 21. I’ve been going to Art Basel since 1991. And I remember, when Jay Jopling was showing Damien Hirst, I just thought, “What is that?” I was much more familiar with the (works on the) first floor (of the fair). It was always modern art. When I went to the second floor, I was like, “Is this art?” I remember different structures, it could have been Tracey Emin or anybody else. I was so young I didn’t understand anything. And I was in Italy and it was much more conservative. I saw so many Piero Manzoni paintings, the assemblages, so many (Lucio) Fontanas. But I didn’t know any art. I was just starting out. But it sounds so cool. Like, “Oh, I think I fancy a bit of art. I think I’ll just head to the Venice Biennale down the street.” No, it’s still far! Anyway, I decided I must learn French because a lot of people from Paris have homes in Venice. And quite a lot of our clients were French. So I enrolled myself in Sorbonne to the Language and Civilization diploma course. I stayed in Paris for two years to learn French. While I was there I was kind of floating around and didn’t work for any gallery. But I got offered a job in Singapore. (Dale) Chihuly was doing his installation for the Ritz Carlton. He had met my parents through a mutual friend in New York and in the course of their conversation, my mother mentioned that I did this type of work. They called me and asked if I wanted to go to Singapore and man their gallery for six months. I said I’ll go for three weeks, so I came to Singapore in 1996. First impressions? I didn’t even know where Singapore was on the map! I’ve known my (future) in-laws since I was young, and that’s why I knew that Singapore was a country. (laughs) But I had never been to a tropical country, having lived in the Western hemisphere for so long. When I got out to all these hawker centres and saw all these Asian people, I just had a culture shock. And then it was hot. (laughs) I went to SAM, which had just opened then. For me, coming from America and Europe, I thought the place was cultural barren. I was 24 or 25 then. Ouch. So what was your first encounter with prints? I went to New York and did my Masters for two years—and for my second internship, I wanted to know what it’s like to be a curator. So I applied for the position at MOMA’s Paintings and Sculptures Department. I got it, but the curator at that  time didn’t have time for me and told me to try out at the Prints and Illustrated Books department. So I was, like, sure I’ll go. (laughs) So there it is! I was there doing the cataloguing stuff and just helping them out in the office.