Welcome to the September 2023 highlights from the Korean art world!
We start off with the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art where artist Ahn Seong-Seok explores modern cities and how technology has turned them into virtual spaces where human co-exist with non-humans. Titled "Non-humans and Virtual Cities", the show features artworks using a variety of media such as photography, games, VR, and installation to depict a virtual city of the future in 2085.
"The Flow of Korean Polychrome Paintings II" is the 2nd installment of a series of exhibitions at Jinju National Museum focused on traditional Korean paintings. After the success of the 1st installment, in this second one, the organisers put the spotlight on the role and meaning of flowers and birds in folk paintings. The special exhibition features a total of 86 pieces of Korean traditional and modern colored paintings ranging from the Goryeo Dynasty to the modern and contemporary times. Some of the pieces have been donated by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee.
The Ahn Sang-cheol Museum of Art is hosting the exhibition “Sosomilmil (疏疏密密)” showing 22 works by 17 mid-career and senior artists devoted to the modernisation of traditional Korean painting. The topic of the ‘modernization of Korean painting’ has been continuously raised as an important task for Korean painting circles since late 20th century - "how can we maintain the uniqueness of Korean painting in response to globalization while accepting or responding to the influx of modern styles and formative languages from the West?" In these artists' work, one can find classic subjects of oriental paintings such as landscapes, flowers and birds, as well as religious icons of Buddhism and Taoism. Themes from Confucian scriptures and classical literature are borrowed to connect Eastern spirituality with modern people's thinking, and characters are introduced to express the idea of the unity of calligraphy and painting in a modern form. Artists explore the fundamental principles of the creation and extinction of all things, light and darkness, time and space.
Love Contemporary Art will be holding artist Jackson Shim's solo exhibition "Chogokin Encyclopedia" unveiling about 20 new works. Various giant superalloy robots that the artist longs for and longed for during his childhood were reborn as works of art, demonstrating the kidult's dream-come-true moment.
In thsi show, the artist, with the sensibility of a boy, is speaking honestly about himself and, by extension, about the desires of modern people on canvas. He underscores the importance of rpeserving childhood innocence even in adult life. The '$' and 'R' symbols, symbols of capitalist desire and adapting to global economic realities, are planted throughout the robots.
There's a movie line that says life is like a box of chocolates. Since you don't know what's in which box, it means that the results will vary depending on your choice. This exhibition 'Invitation' invites viewers to the 'Garden of Doha'. The garden referred to here goes beyond simply being a space where flowers and trees grow; it also means a space that changes over time and embodies the flow of changing times. This place, this change, must be tended to with affection.
The artist says: "I think everyone, including me, has their own world. Some people may have already opened the door and entered, while others may be hesitating. What space and what world awaits behind the door of your choice? If you don’t know yet, what do you want your space to be like? If there comes a moment in your life when you are faced with a door of choice, don't hesitate to open it. Your own garden may be waiting behind that door."
This September, Gallery DOS is hosting Hyemi Yoo's "Again, September" exhibition. As the seasons change, nature goes through an endlessly repeating process of birth and decay. The changing of seasons affects our lives too, like flowers, we too can never escape this cycle. Past, present and future are in constant circulation. In this context, artist Hyemi Yoo observes the moods we encounter each season and visualizes them to convey warm comfort about this cycle.
The artist steps on the spirit of traditional Korean paintings but developes it further by adding moredn colours thus achieving a universality of the visual expression.
The Jeonbuk World Biennale of Calligraphy is a festival held every two years in Jeonju since 1997. It aims to globalise calligraphy by overcoming the limitations it is facing for being recognized as Asian culture.
Modern artists tend to regard the expression of desire as the essence of beauty which leads to doubts about the true identity and meaning of art. The Biennale wants to bring into the spotlight the essence of calligraphy which is "purification of the mind".
Art should guide the world toward a stable and harmonious state where humans and nature are purified; matter and spirit, moderation and desire are balanced, and individuals and the public coexist in harmony. True art is not the free expression of unbridled emotions, but rather a journey towards harmony.
Oriental art, especially calligraphy, aims to immitate the harmony and order of heaven and earth. The organisers hope to create "a new wave of K-calligraphy in the global village."
The Busan Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting "Utopian Scenario About Nature", a group exhibition addressing the climate crisis and the need for new growth and economic development theories. The climate crisis is seen as nature's call for a change in capitalist lifestyles. The exhibition presents works from 29 Korean and foreign artists and teams which double as social activitsts. Within this process of re-examining capitalist values and systems, what should the role of art and artists be? How should art production change to respond to the climate crisis? What constitutes a sustainable art practice?
The exhibition is on until 7 January 2024 and includes side-events and discussions on the logic of capitalism, its inherent contradictions, ecological economics, Busan's own industrialisation and how this process sits with the local communities,
Kang Seung-wan, director of the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, said, “Through the exhibition, we look back on the current state of contemporary art, which must consider coexistence with nature beyond a human-centered perspective at a time when the global common task of climate crisis has been assigned to us, and today. “
We close this month's review with Kim Chang-Yeol's "Water Drops from Paris to Korea" co-hosted by ART CHOSUN and TV CHOSUN and planned by ACS which will be held at the Art Chosun Space in Gwanghwamun from September 6 to October 28, 2023. It consists of a total of 24 paintings.
Kim Chang-Yeol led the Informel movement in the 1950s which argued that Western art trends should be proactively accepted within the Korean tradition. He is a founding member of the Association of Contemporary Artists who took part in the Paris Biennale in 1961 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1965. Later, he moved to New York to study his printmaking, and remembers that he lost his sense of direction under the pressure of the strong pop art force in the New York art world at the time. He became known as "the waterdrop artist" in whose art water droplets are seen as the source of life.
“The Man Who Painted Water Drops”, a documentary dedicated to the artist and directed by his own son Kim O-An, will premier at the exhibition.