[Herald Interview] Yi Yi Jeong-eun sings praises of nature through layers of oil painting

Upon opening the door to her studio, one is overwhelmed by the plethora of oil paintings – both visually and olfactorily. In a room where Yi Yi Jeong-eun dries her paintings are oil paint tubes stacked in rows and wafting with their smell. Painter Yi Yi moved her studio to a four-bedroom apartment -- where she also resides -- in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province about a year ago. She wanted to find a bigger place where she can separate where she dries her oil paintings, from where she stores and pa

Dec. 4, 2023

MMCA Seoul marks 10th anniversary with international symposium

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea marked its 10th anniversary with an international symposium under the title, “Potential from the Unknown: Contemporary Art and Institutions” at the Multi-Project Hall of MMCA Seoul on Friday. The three sections of the symposium -- “After Institutions,” “From the Perspectives of Asia” and “Ecological Exposure” -- brought together some 15 art experts, including curator Karen Archey from Sted

Dec. 1, 2023

Leeum Museum to restore Korean artifacts from overseas institutions

The Samsung Foundation of Culture will collaborate with overseas cultural institutions to restore works of Korean cultural heritage, bringing the works to the Leeum Museum of Art for the restoration process, the foundation announced Wednesday. “Banquet for the Governor of Pyeong-an,” owned by the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, is currently under restoration and is the first work to benefit from the collaboration. The folding screen painting from the 19th century depicts a ban

Nov. 29, 2023

Van Cleef & Arpels touring exhibition brings sparkles to Seoul

The 118-year history of Van Cleef & Arpels, a French luxury jewelry brand, is showcased at a world-touring exhibition titled “Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love" which opened in Seoul on Nov. 18. More than 300 jewelry creations, watches and precious objects and more than 90 original archives are brought together at the exhibition, which arrived in Seoul after touring Italy in 2019, China in 2022 and Saudi Arabia earlier this year. The delicate beauty of the gems is breatht

Nov. 27, 2023

PKM Gallery sheds light on Toby Ziegler, Kwon Jin-kyu

PKM Gallery, one of the leading commercial galleries in South Korea, is offering two exhibitions of artists with whom it has long-standing relationships: British contemporary artist Toby Ziegler and Korean sculptor Kwon Jin-kyu. The gallery, located in Samcheong-dong in northern Seoul, brought together works by the two artists in separate exhibitions, “Toby Ziegler, Broken Images” and “Kwon Jin Kyu: The Reliefs.” Ziegler has shown his works at the Seoul-based gallery ever

Nov. 24, 2023

Leeum Museum ecological project starts Dec. 1 with Chanel Culture Fund

The Leeum Museum of Art will launch a long-term public program entitled “Idea Museum: Ecological Turns” in conjunction with Chanel Culture Fund to explore diverse ways ecological issues can be made part of art institution practices, convening leading international and Korean artists, academics and designers, among others. The three-year project will evolve around themes such as the climate crisis, sustainability, ecology, women, care and education through seminars, film screenings an

Nov. 22, 2023

Enigmatic artist David Rappeneau's first Asia show taking place at Gladstone Gallery

David Rappeneau’s drawings are peculiarly attractive. Some younger audiences may find the images familiar as they view young men and women smoking or looking at a smartphone screen in a sketchy part of town. The subjects in Rappeneau's work look free, but for some reason, they also appear to be lonely or in agony. Not much is known about Rappeneau, who has remained enigmatic since emerging in the art world in 2014 as a provocative illustrator. What is known so far is that Rappeneau is

Nov. 20, 2023

Hong Kong-based Villepin shows Kang Myong-hi's works in Seongsu-dong

Hong Kong-based gallery Villepin dusted off paintings by Korean artist Kang Myong-hi spanning from her early works from the 1970s to more recent ones for an exhibition in Seoul. Founded by former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and his son Arthur, the gallery opened in 2019 in Hong Kong. During his time as a diplomat, Dominique regularly met with artists from across the globe and Arthur grew up surrounded by them. The father and son's relationship with Kang dates back three deca

Nov. 19, 2023

Shanghai art scene puts on fair show while struggling to recover from pandemic

SHANGHAI – International visitors returned to Shanghai’s West Bund, located on the west bank of the Huangpu River that runs north to south through Shanghai, where the 10th edition of the West Bund Art & Design fair took place from Nov. 9 through Sunday. The city’s flagship art fair and one of the leading art events in all of China, taking place at the West Bund Art Center and West Bund Dome, drew the participation of some 190 galleries, including Gagosian, Hauser&Wi

Nov. 15, 2023

British interdisciplinary artist Jane Benson turns literary texts into art

British interdisciplinary artist Jane Benson applies her systematic interventions into existing works of literature and art. She interprets, combines and collapses sentences from written works, which are then created into other forms of art. At the exhibition “Dodo Note...” at Gallery Shilla in Seoul which closed Sunday, the artist unveiled new works that encompass several different forms of art -- from sculptures, sound, drawings and prints to installations. Benson took sentences fr

Nov. 14, 2023

Korea Artist Prize returns after overhaul

The Korea Artist Prize has returned after the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea pledged to improve the 11-year-old annual artist award, strengthening the judge system and curation in order to present finalist artists’ practices in a deeper and more holistic way. The four artists who were announced as finalists for the prize -- Kwon Byung-jun, Gala Porras-Kim, Lee Kang-seung and Jun So-jung – unveiled their recent works at the exhibition, “Korea Artist Prize

Nov. 10, 2023

Jun So-jung transcends borders, time, space at Barakat Contemporary

Artist Jun So-jung engages in many different art genres from sculptures, sound to digital art, transcending time and borders. At Barakat Contemporary in Seoul where her solo exhibition is being held through Jan. 4, 2024, the artist crosses seamlessly between the virtual world and reality. The exhibition “Overtone,” the artist’s first solo show at the gallery, features her new three-channel video that documents the journey of Park Soon-a, a Korean Japanese gayageum player who ha

Nov. 10, 2023

Without light, Lightwalk will not be architecture: Dominique Perrault

Gangnam Intermodal Transit Center is more than just an underground transportation station that will house three high-speed train lines and two subway stations in southern Seoul. For acclaimed architect Dominique Perrault, it is more of a social project. “It is not a project to build an underground tunnel. Architecture is part of culture. The space should be a quality public space where people want to come, not a damp and dark underground space,” the architect said in an interview wit

Nov. 6, 2023

Define Seoul beckons Seongsu-dong hipsters with art, design

The inaugural design and art fair, Define Seoul, kicked off Wednesday, bringing together some 25 galleries and design brands from home and abroad in Seongsu-dong, one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Seoul, home to hip cafes, intriguing pop-up stores and shops. “Seoul is garnering unprecedented international recognition as one of the major art centers. Define Seoul encapsulates the idea of connecting design and fine art while redefining the way we perceive and engage with art,” said

Nov. 2, 2023

[Herald Interview] Swiss collector Uli Sigg sees contemporary Korean art as part of global mainstream

To Swiss art collector, businessperson and former diplomat Uli Sigg, who is known for having an extensive private collection of contemporary Chinese art, collecting art in a meaningful way allows one to understand a society, and collectors supporting artists and museums enables them to develop and function better. “The most important quality a collector has to build is to find a focus that will distinguish a collection from a mere accumulation of works. I collect artworks as I find this th

Oct. 30, 2023

Architect Dominique Perrault's 'Lightwalk' displayed at French Embassy in Seoul

World-renowned architect Dominique Perrault unveiled details of an ongoing project at Seoul’s Gangnam Intermodal Transit Center at an exhibition held at the French Embassy in Seoul on Thursday. The exhibition centers around a newly published book that introduces the history and implications of the transit center at the heart of Seoul, which will become the largest underground station in the world. “The 'Lightwalk' will bring a change to the history of underground space in S

Oct. 27, 2023

Italian architect Franco Mancuso donates archives on Korean Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Italian architect Franco Mancuso has donated nearly 4,000 documents related to the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale to the Arts Council Korea (Arko). The architect had gathered the documents as he undertook the design of the pavilion together with Korean architect Kim Seok-chul, who has since died. Arko, the commissioner of the Korean pavilion, runs the 26th national pavilion in Giardini located on the eastern edge of Venice. Opened in 1995 as the last national pavilion at the biennale, it

Oct. 26, 2023

Silversmith William Lee wins Craft Prize 2023

Silversmith William Lee is the winner of this year's Craft Prize, an annual craft award given by the Culture Ministry and the Korea Craft and Design Foundation. Lee, based in Seoul, studied silversmithing and metalwork at Camberwell College of Arts, part of the University of London. He re-creates a form of traditional Korean ceramics with silver that features delicate flowing lines and subtle marks that appear to be melted on the surface. Lee's silver objects -- such as vessels and jar

Oct. 24, 2023

[Exclusive] Asia's Tang Contemporary Art to open first Western outpost in London

Tang Contemporary Art, one of the most influential commercial galleries in Asia, will launch a new space in London next year, its first gallery in the West after 26 years in Asia. Headquartered in Beijing, the gallery represents Chinese contemporary art masters such as Ai Weiwei, Yue Minjun and Zhao Zhao. It has presented some 80 artists, mostly from Asia, including Korean artists Paik Nam-june, Chun Kwang-young, Woo Kuk-won and Lee Diren. The gallery is currently working on the interior desig

Oct. 23, 2023

Emerging artists unveil works of enduring times at Park Seo-bo's Gizi Foundation

Standing in front of the works by Korean artists Kim Deok-han and Keem Ji-young can be a solemn experience, as the artists’ laborious effort and sincerity hit home. The exhibition “Keem&Kim’s Glowing Overlaid Hour” at Gizi Foundation’s Art Base in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, shows 11 works by the young artists whose works are created through the tedious and time-intensive process of layering colors over each other. Born in 1981, Kim applies traditional Korean lacquerin

Oct. 22, 2023