Along with the crop of 1.5 and second generation Korean American artists was the simultaneous rise in immigrants from Korea, or the "third wave" of immigration following Korea's economic boom in the later 1970s and early 1980s. Many of these first generation Korean Americans had come to the U.S. for graduate training, especially at East Coast art schools. These artists, such as Sung Ho Choi (b. 1953) and Mo Bahc (b. 1957), becames active participants in the trend of multiculturalism as they appropriated and inserted cultural-specific references in their works. The cultural-specific references that many of these artists gravitated towards were signifiers specific to Korean American experiences, such as the institution of the green grocery or hokey "Let's Learn English" videos. In contrast with older artists such as Whanki Kim and mixed media artists Choong Sup Lim (b. 1941), both of whom were more concerned about formal issues, the younger artists gravitated towards sociopolitical concerns.

In the 1990s, younger second generation Korean American artists born in the 1960s like Byron Kim (b. 1961) and Michael Joo (b. 1962) debuted with works that integrated their ethnic background with distinctive forms. Byron Kim infuses his Neo-Abstract paintings with colors like jade green or various shades of yellow ochre, hues referring to Koryo celadon pottery of Korean skin tones. Likewise, Joo's sprawling installations dissects Asian stereotypes such as the slanted eye or the exotic Asian female. Mainly offspring of professional Koreans who were preferred under the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, several of these artists were not solely trained as artists such as Byron Kim, who began his art career after completing his undergraduate graduation. A marked feature of the works of such artists is the strong interest in the conflict or interaction between form and content rather than in focusing on cultural-specific content alone.

Exhibitions play a large role as the contextualization of an artist's work can mold the viewer's perceptions regarding that particular work and establish boundaries that limit possibilities for multiple interpretations. In many exhibitions, especially exhibitions aimed at presenting a wide array of cultures and styles like the Whitney Biennial, Korean American artists are deemed as representatives of a singular Korean American, or Asian American experience. As Richard Vine noted in a review of Michael Joo's work, one only needs to fulfill certain categories (youth, ethnicity, education and fluency in new media and new themes) to become "a dream curatorial pick for the 90s." This checklist approach often leads to the perception and presentation of Korean Americans as a monolithic entity. Even in shows specifically devoted to Asian American or Korean American artists such as "Asia/America" or "Across the Pacific," curators tend to assume a celebratory approach that emphasizes biography and simplifies formal interpretation. Korean American artists thus deal with problematic contextualization as well as problematic issues of postcolonialism in their works.