Countries
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KOREA, SOUTH NORTH KOREA
East Sea
Seoul
SOUTH KOREA Yellow Sea
Gwangju
Busan
rea Ko
Source: CIA World Factbook
100 KM
St
ra
it
JAPAN
Official Country Name REPUBLIC OF KOREA Languages KOREAN Population 51,418,097 Median Age 42.3
Source: Ministry of Economy and Finance, Educational Statistics Service, AAP (non-official)
GDP Per Capita US $39,500
Total Value of Art Exported (UN Comtrade Database 2018) US $116,758,189 Arts Funding (Culture, Sports and Tourism) US $6,113,045,000 Art Programs (University Level) 70 Student Enrollment 21,424
Source: AAP (non-official)
Partial installation view of PARK CHAN-KYONG’s Gathering, 2019, digital photo, set of 24, each 80 × 80 cm, at “MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2019: Park Chan-kyong – Gathering,“ MMCA Seoul, 2019–20. Copyright Hong Cheolki. Courtesy MMCA.
Museums Exhibiting Contemporary Art 75 Contemporary Art Galleries (Commercial) 223 Contemporary Art Spaces (Nonprofit) 48 Art Foundations (NGO + Private) 32
Acknowledgments: Soo Choi, Kyungmin Lee, Pat Lee, Jaeyong Park, Emma Son
In 2019, South Korea commemorated the centennial of the March 1 Movement, the first nationwide demonstration in its modern history. Since then the country has been a bastion of public protest, and its citizens cherish their rights to make their voices heard through collective action. This propensity for dissent most recently manifested in the summer of 2019, when a national boycott of Japanese goods was mounted in response to an unprecedented trade war with Japan, one of Korea’s major economic partners, compounding an ongoing diplomatic dispute over the Japanese government’s refusal to acknowledge and atone for atrocities committed during World War II. The antagonism was mirrored in the art world in August, when the Aichi Triennale (8/1–10/14) in Nagoya, Japan, exhibited a sculpture of a “comfort woman” by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung. The work sparked massive controversy and inspired threats of violence against the Triennale, leading organizers to close the exhibition, which then resulted in protests by other exhibited artists—led by Korean artists Minouk Lim and Park Chan-kyong—who demanded their works also be removed in solidarity. Back on home soil, arts veteran Park Yang-woo was appointed head of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March, vowing to expand financial support for artists while reiterating the need for artistic freedom. At the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), curator and critic Youn Bummo was tapped in February to succeed Bartomeu Marí as director of the country’s premier art institution. MMCA celebrated its 50th anniversary with a nod to Korea’s protest tradition in an ambitious
exhibition, “The Square” (9/7–3/29/20), which traced the tumultuous flow of Korean history and art history since 1900. The museum’s main hub MMCA Seoul, located next to Gyeongbokgung Palace, had retrospectives of Dansaekhwa luminary Park Seo-Bo (5/18–9/1) and experimental artist Kim Soungui (8/31–1/27/20), as well as a conceptually rigorous solo presentation by Park Chan-kyong (10/26–2/23/20) in the annual MMCA Hyundai Motor Series. Another annual exhibition at MMCA Seoul is the Korea Artist Prize (10/12–3/1/20), which featured large-scale projects by finalists Young In Hong, Hyesoo Park, Ayoung Kim, and prize-winner Jewyo Rhii. Just outside the city, MMCA Gwacheon held a large-scale retrospective of avantgarde pioneer Quac Insik (6/13–9/15) in addition to “Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s” (1/31–5/6), an insightful and momentous exhibition that juxtaposed diverse art practices across the continent during the politically tumultuous postwar era. At MMCA Deoksugung, “Unearthing Future” (9/5–4/5/20) invited architects to install site-specific outdoor works responding to the palace complex’s history, such as William Lim’s sculptural designs on wheels, Furniture for an Emperor in Transition (2019). In March, Beck Jee-sook was named director of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), which hosted a blockbuster survey of David Hockney (3/22–8/4), while a spectacular retrospective of mystical Korean abstract painter Han Mook (12/11/18–3/24) went largely unnoticed. At SeMA’s satellite branches, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art featured a compact presentation of new sculptures by Suki Seokyeong Kang (10/8–3/10/20).
home, and provided a time in its ten-year history, Hite Collection platform for emerging mounted a photography exhibition, “Live artists with the group Forever” (10/18–12/14), which questioned show “Summer Love” perspectives of permanence inherent in (7/7–9/28). Sungkok the medium. Doosan Gallery maintained Art Museum surveyed its vigorous support for young artists with the irreverent exhibitions by sculptor Sue Yon Hwang interdisciplinary (3/6–4/17) and 2018 Doosan Artist Awardpractice of artist-duo winner Yunyi Yi (10/9–11/9). Sindoh Art Nayoungim & Gregory Space presented photographs by Lee Maass (5/22–6/30), Myeong-ho (2/19–4/25) and Seung Woo Back while Ilmin Museum (10/18–12/13). Perigee Gallery debuted a of Art presented new video work by Jung Yeondoo (3/14–5/11) “Immortality in the that engaged notions of memory and Cloud” (2/22–5/12), a narrative in the context of intergenerational Detailed installation view of MIRE LEE’s The Complicits, 2019, wire ropes, silicone hoses, flex foam, glycerine, pumps, motor, and other mixed media, 300 × 180 × 380 cm, scattered attempt at storytelling in Tokyo. Maison Louis Vuitton at “iwillmedievalfutureyou1,” Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2019. Photo by Euirock Lee. exploring 21st-century inaugurated its new exhibition space in Courtesy Art Sonje Center. existential anxieties Gangnam with a show of Alberto Giacometti and desires. Other sculptures (10/31–1/19/20). notable presentations In late September, Seong Eun Kim Nam-Seoul Museum of Art invited four in Seoul included a survey of Barbara stepped in as the new director of the artists including Kang to revisit their own Kruger (6/27–12/29) at Amorepacific government-funded Nam June Paik Art works from the museum’s collection in “The Museum of Art; conceptual artist Jungki Center, located south of Seoul, in Gyeonggi Expanded Manual” (12/11/18–2/17). Beak (3/13–5/4) at OCI Museum; and province. The Center presented the group At Arko Art Center, overseen by the “The Wall and Other Stories” (3/28–5/19) show “Ecological Sense” (7/5–9/22), which Arts Council Korea (ARKO), the director at Total Museum of Art, which explored explored skepticism and naivety in the position has remained vacant since the international perspectives in media art. face of environmental crisis, and a survey 2015 departure of Hyunjin Kim. In its Special exhibition programming at of 2018 Nam June Paik Art Center Prizegalleries, two group exhibitions, “Double Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, once the winner Trevor Paglen (10/16–2/2/20). Also Negative” (12/19/18–2/3) and “Media Punk” country’s foremost private institution, has in Gyeonggi-do, the 6th Anyang Public Art (9/10–10/27), questioned conventional remained at a standstill since director Hong Project (10/17–12/15), led by artistic director methodologies for producing, consuming, Ra-hee stepped away from leadership in Kim Yoon-sub, was held under the theme and disseminating media art in the digital 2017 after her son’s conviction for bribery in “Symbiotic City.” age. Also falling under ARKO’s purview is a massive corruption scandal. South Korea’s commercial galleries are Insa Art Space, which mounted intelligent A number of thriving smaller concentrated in Seoul, with the dominant shows by Kwantaeck Park, whose works noncommercial spaces rounded out the players clustered in the Samcheong-dong required a black light to view (2/22–3/23), diversity of the capital’s art offerings. area east of Gyeongbokgung Palace, while and In-young Kim, whose printed works Atelier Hermès exhibited works by Jihyun newer spaces continue to populate the explored digital/analogue dialectics of Jung that addressed the perception and Itaewon and Hannam-dong neighborhoods reproduction (5/31–6/29). At the citypresence of urban detritus (3/9–5/5), in central Seoul. Perennial heavyweight operated Culture Station Seoul 284, as well as a new photographic series Kukje Gallery commanded large audiences “DMZ” (3/21–7/7) assembled some 50 artists by Oksun Kim of Korean nurses who with shows by duo Elmgreen & Dragset in a capstone presentation of curator migrated to Berlin (5/31–7/28). For the first (3/21–4/28) and revered installation-artist Sunjung Kim’s long-running “Real DMZ Project.” A condensed version of the exhibition traveled to the Korean Cultural Center UK, in London, as “Negotiating Borders” (10/1–11/23). Several private institutions operate full exhibition programs. Adjacent to MMCA Seoul, Art Sonje Center presented a dynamic exhibition program including notable solo exhibitions by media artists Lee Kit (3/1–4/28) and Heecheon Kim (11/29–1/19/20), as well as the group exhibition “iwillmedievalfutureyou1” (9/18–11/17), curated by Kunsthal Aarhus director Jacob Fabricius, which brought contemporary concerns for the future of humanity into unsettling focus with works by 20 Korean and international artists. SongEun ArtSpace continued its support for midcareer artists with an exhibition of recent video works by Sejin Kim (10/23–11/30), which questioned Installation view of HAEGUE YANG’s “When the Year 2000 Comes,“ at Kukje Gallery, Seoul, 2019. Photo by Chunho An. Courtesy Kukje Gallery, Seoul / Busan. geopolitical power structures and notions of
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Countries Haegue Yang (9/3–11/17). The gallery’s recently inaugurated outpost Kukje Gallery Busan showed new works by Dansaekhwa mainstay Ha ChongHyun (5/29–8/4), while Kukje’s sister space in New York, Tina Kim Gallery, demonstrated the depth of its own program with presentations featuring early works by modern masters Suh Seung-Won (9/5–10/12) and Kim TschangYeul (10/24–1/25/20). Down the street from Kukje, Gallery Hyundai presented a diverse program with conceptual sculptors Fred Sandback (8/28–10/6) and Tomás Saraceno (10/30– 12/8), as well as abstract symbolist Nam Kwan (11/6–30). The gallery mounted a survey of Lee Kang-So (5/8–6/30) at Palazzo Caboto in Venice to coincide with the Venice Biennale, and in April quietly opened a showroom in New York. Nearby, Arario Gallery featured four Berlin-based artists in “A Shiver in Search of a Spine” (7/11–10/5) and a survey of metal sculptor Um Tai-jung (1/22–2/24), the latter of which continued at the gallery’s headquarters in the city of Cheonan. A partnership with the boutique Ryse Hotel in the Hongdae neighborhood came to an end in November 2019. Elsewhere in Samcheong-dong, One and J. Gallery offered elegant solo presentations by Minha Park (4/4–5/4) and Seeun Kim (10/17–11/17). PKM Gallery held concept-driven shows by Bek Hyunjin (2/15–4/7) and Cody Choi (9/24–11/5), while Hakgojae Gallery surveyed 20th-century realist painter Pen Varlen (4/17–5/19) and opened a second location in Gangnam. Lehmann Maupin surveyed the bead works of Liza Lou in Seoul (9/26–11/9) and the gallery showed Lee Bul in New York (11/7– 1/18/20). Perrotin presented the figurative paintings of Gahee Park (10/31–12/28) and Lee Bae in New York (11/2–2/1/20). In the Itaewon area, Pace Gallery offered focused presentations of avantgarde performance-artist Lee Kun-Yong (6/5–8/24) and Black Dada conceptualist Adam Pendleton (11/21–2/1/20). Two young galleries in the Itaewon vicinity also continued to impress: P21 exhibited emerging painter Heemin Chung (5/10–6/30), while Whistle showed rising photographer Kyoungtae Kim (5/17–6/22). Down the hill in Hannam-dong, Gallery Baton introduced paintings by Hugh Scott-Douglas (5/17–6/19); Los Angelesbased Various Small Fires opened its new showroom space with a show by Billy Al Bengston and Ed Ruscha (4/1–6/1); and Gana Art, which inaugurated a space in Hannam-dong in 2018, plans to open a second space in the neighborhood in 2020. One quarter of the country’s galleries are registered with the Galleries Association of
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at CR Collective; and the group exhibition “Neo Seoul: Time Out” (3/12–4/13) at the recently launched d/p. Critically acclaimed alternative space Audio Visual Pavilion, founded in 2013 by Inyoung An and Seewon Hyun, ceased operations in October. Though the majority of art infrastructure is consolidated in Seoul, each of the major provincial cities—Busan, Gwangju, Daegu, and Daejeon—has its own municipal museum. Best known for its international film festival, Busan also boasts a burgeoning art scene with a growing collector base. In October, Ki Hey-kyoung was appointed director of Busan Museum of Art (BMA), which held a retrospective of Lee Kun-Yong (6/28–10/13) and presented Antony Gormley's works (10/18–4/19/20) at GAHEE PARK, We Used to Be Fish, 2019, oil on canvas, 152.4 × 172.7 cm. Courtesy the artist and Perrotin, Seoul / Hong Kong / Tokyo / Shanghai / Space Lee Ufan, located on BMA’s Paris / New York. campus. The city’s newest art venue, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, mounted a show Korea, which runs the Korea International by Random International (8/15–1/27/20), Art Fair (KIAF) (9/26–29). In 2019, the complete with a version of its Instagram18-year-old fair tallied some 82,000 visitors friendly installation Rain Room (2012), and hosted 175 galleries from 17 countries, and focused on trends in media art with with reported sales exceeding USD 2.5 “Complete Technology” (8/15–11/24). Of million. In an ongoing trend, alternative art the handful of galleries in Busan, the most distribution models also catered to a new active is Johyun Gallery, which celebrated generation of collectors. The more enduring its 30th anniversary with abstract alternative market platforms keep prices organic-accretion paintings by Bosco Sodi for most works below USD 2,000: Perform (10/10–12/8). The city’s principal art fair (8/27–9/4), focusing on performance and Art Busan (5/31–6/2) held its eighth edition, video art; Pack (9/20–29), offering small hosting 164 galleries from 17 countries and works packed inside modular cubes; and attracting more than 60,000 visitors. Union Art Fair (9/20–29). Gwangju’s government-funded Asia Alternative and nonprofit spaces have Culture Center (ACC) staged the group long played a key role in maintaining shows “Homo Faber” (9/3–2/23/20), Korea’s robust art scene, led by a trio of examining the intersection of craft and groundbreaking outfits founded in 1999. sculpture art, and “Migration: Speaking Project Space Sarubia held exhibitions Nearby” (11/23–2/23/20), exploring by painter Sanghee Park (5/10–30) and migration narratives in Asia. ACC also media-installation-artist Kwanghwee hosted the International Symposium on Ahn (6/19–7/18); Art Space Pool presented Electronic Art 2019 (6/22–28) and organized conceptual-installation-artist Dahwan Ghim the technology-focused ACT Festival (6/13–7/14) and video-art collective Moojin 2019, “FoodHack” (6/22–8/4), with projects Brothers (10/31–12/1); and Alternative Space tackling food-related production chains. Loop offered a diverse and compelling The Gwangju Museum of Art exhibited program, including “We Are Bound to Meet” a retrospective of Minjung painter Son (8/9–9/8), which probed colonial legacies in Jangsup (11/1–2/2/20), while the ceramic Taiwan and Korea. practice of Young-Jae Lee (10/16–12/8) was Highlights from other well-entrenched surveyed at its recently opened annex, Ha nonprofits included Hapjungjigu’s Jung-woong Museum of Art. “QueerArch” (10/6–11/2), which revealed Elsewhere, the Daegu Art Museum held alternative histories of activism and a retrospective of painter Park Saeng Kwang advocacy in Korea’s queer community; the (5/28–10/20), while the group show “POP/ contemplative group show “Amoebas of a corn” (6/11–9/29) traced the evolution of Bamboo Forest” (3/21–4/19) at Amado Art pop art in Korea. The Daejeon Museum Space/Lab; video-artist Sei Rhee’s solo of Art presented a survey of contemporary show (10/24–11/14) at archive bomm; the Korean landscape painting, “Hanguk-hwa, exhibition of painter Kwon Hyuk (3/7–4/20) Mindful Landscape” (7/16–10/13).
Installation view of MATTIA CASALEGNO’s The Aerobanquets RMX, 2019, VR headsets, IR cameras, motion capture system, stereo audio, dimensions variable, at ACT Festival 2019, Gwangju. Courtesy the artist.
Following a year in which she presented retrospectives in London and Berlin, Lee Bul won the 2019 Ho-am Prize, Korea’s most significant art award, in April. In August, the Seoul art community was shaken by the double suicide of Jin Shiu and Yi Joungmin, members of the artist group Okin Collective. Active since 2009, Okin Collective focused on resisting urban development and promoting activism in the public sphere and was recognized in Korea and abroad for its socially engaged practice. Abroad, at the 58th Venice Biennale, the Korea Pavilion, “History Has Failed Us, But No Matter” (5/11–11/24), curated by Hyunjin Kim, presented siren eun young jung, Jane Jin Kaisen, and Hwayeon Nam. Lee Bul, Suki Seokyoung Kang, and Anicka Yi participated in the Biennale’s central exhibition, “May You Live in Interesting Times” (5/11–11/24). Elsewhere, a MMCAcurated survey of esteemed Dansaekhwa painter Yun Hyong-keun was held at Palazzo Fortuny (5/11–11/24). Dansaekhwa artists featured prominently overseas. “Kim Whanki and Dansaekhwa” (11/8/18–3/2) at the Powerlong Museum in Shanghai, was the movement’s first significant presentation in China. Lee Ufan presented exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC (9/27–9/13/20), Centre Pompidou-Metz (2/27–9/30), Galerie Kamel Mennour in Paris (6/3–7/20), and created a site-specific installation in New York at Dia: Beacon in May. Ha Chong-Hyun exhibited at Blum & Poe gallery in Tokyo (3/23–5/18) and Cardi Gallery in Milan (9/17–12/20). Park Seo-bo held a show at Perrotin's Paris branch (10/12–12/21). The Langen Foundation in Neuss, Germany, mounted solo exhibitions for Park Seobo and Minjung Kim (both 9/29–3/29/20). Chung Sang-Hwa showed at Lévy Gorvy in New York (11/11–1/18/20). Several contemporary Korean artists remained in heavy rotation abroad.
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Haegue Yang realized commissions at MoMA in New York (10/21–4/12/20) and National Gallery Singapore in November; participated in the Istanbul Biennial (9/14–11/10); and presented solo exhibitions at South London Gallery (3/8–5/26) and the Bass Museum of Art in Miami (11/2–4/5/20). Do Ho Suh exhibited at the Voorlinden Museum in the Netherlands (5/18–9/29) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California (11/10–10/25/20). Kimsooja inaugurated the debut edition of Traversées (10/12–1/19/20), a public art project in Poitiers, and held solo exhibitions at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (3/30–9/29) and the Peabody Essex Museum (6/22–1/20/20) in Massachusetts. Suki Seokyeong Kang mounted a solo exhibition at Mudam Luxembourg (8/31–4/13/20) for the Baloise Art Prize she received in 2018. In London, Nam June Paik received an exhaustive retrospective at Tate Modern (10/17–2/9/20); the Delfina Foundation featured half a dozen Korean artists in its
group exhibition “Power Play” (1/26–3/16); Meekyoung Shin showed at Barakat gallery (10/3–11/22); Jungsuck Kang was featured in a show at the Korean Cultural Center UK (12/10–2/15/20); and Hyon Gyon held her eye-popping European debut at Parasol Unit (1/23–3/31). Minouk Lim, Mire Lee, and Yona Lee appeared in the Lyon Biennale (9/18–1/5/20); Kunsthal Aarhus hosted exhibitions by Kim Beom (1/30–5/19) and Hwayeon Nam (10/4–3/15/20); photographer Heji Shin exhibited at Kunsthalle Zürich (12/8/18–2/3); Ludwig Museum Koblenz surveyed Nam Tchun-Mo (6/15–9/15); Perrotin showed Kim Chong Hak (3/16–5/11) in Paris; and Axel Vervoordt presented Bae Bien-U (11/24/18–2/23) in Antwerp. Rising performance-artist Geumhyung Jeong held a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel (5/3–8/11) and participated in the Ural Industrial Biennial (9/12–12/1). Looking ahead to 2020, Korean biennial exhibitions are set to return in September: the 13th Gwangju Biennale will be led by Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala under the theme of “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning.” Jacob Fabricius will take the helm at the 12th Busan Biennale, and Yung Ma will serve as director of the 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, operating under the title “One Escape at a Time.” In May 2020, the Jeju Biennale will kick off its second edition, led by Kim Inseon. Hwayeon Nam will hold a solo exhibition at Art Sonje Center in February. Atelier Hermès will present Sojung Jun in May. MMCA Seoul will host the second Asia Project in April and feature Haegue Yang in its annual MMCA Hyundai Motor Series exhibition in late August. Overseas, Zero Foundation in Düsseldorf will exhibit Dansaekhwa artists in June. A N DY S T. L O U I S
Still from JANE JIN KAISEN’s Community of Parting, 2019, projected film in two-channel video installation: 72 min 22 sec. Copyright and courtesy the artist.
ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2020 Vol. XV