Join us for a special walkthrough just for the GYOPO community of Mythical Creatures with artist and curator Dave Young Kim. A major exhibition that transforms USC Pacific Asia Museum into an immersive journey through myth and the immigrant story, Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry is sweeping in scale and deeply personal in tone, its narrative written in verse in a voice evocative of a wise uncle to a loved one. The exhibition draws approximately 100 objects from USC PAM’s significant collection—which spans more than 5,000 years and includes art from East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, and the Pacific Islands and their diasporas— blending them with new and interactive media technology and works by 24 contemporary artists , most commissioned for the exhibition. The result is an interdisciplinary experience in which visitors engage with the past through creative activations of pan-Asian mythology that ignite feeling and memory.

Conceived by Los Angeles–based Korean American artist and muralist Dave Young Kim, the museum-wide installation—itself a work of immersive art—marks a bold shift in how USC PAM’s historical collections can be activated to tell emotionally resonant, present-day stories.

Dave Young Kim is a Los Angeles–based Korean American artist and muralist whose work reflects his interest in cultural memory, migration, and the idea of home. Working across public art and studio practice, he often draws on Korean visual traditions and his family’s history while partnering with local communities to shape murals that speak to their lived experiences. Kim earned his BFA from UC Davis and pursued graduate study in studio art at Mills College. His projects and exhibitions span institutions such as USC Pacific Asia Museum (USC PAM); the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Center; and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Recent highlights include A Momentous Moment in Time of Passage and Landing, 2024, a monumental mural outside of USC PAM and a large-scale mural in Gusan, Korea. His work has been recognized through awards and grants including the Asian Pacific American Heritage Award, the Abbey Mural Prize, support from the California Arts Council, and his leadership in co-founding the Korean American Artist Collective.