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Category Archives: Artists
A Park Soo-keun comes up for sale
30-Sep-08
"80% of Korean art buyers are pure speculators", says Juhl Joohyun Lee, director of Arario Gallery. And with Lee Kun-hee having stepped down from the chairmanship of Samsung and allegations flying that an illegal slush fund was used to buy works for his wife's Leeum museum, Samsung has stopped buying art. So says the FT (Korean buyers hit by chaos on the markets, 27 Sept 2008) in its report from the Korean International Art Fair last week. "Visitors were thin on the ground, and buyers even rarer."
Let's hope the current financial turmoil doesn't dim the appeal of one of Korea's most popular artists, Park Soo-keun. Having been in private hands since its original purchase in 1956, Park's painting of a ...
Chihwaseon at KCC
23-Sep-08
The next screening at the KCC, on Thursday 25 September, is Chihwaseon (2002), Im Kwon-taek's bio-pic of one of Korea's most famous painters, Jang Seung-eop, also known as Owon.
The film features two of Korea's most well-known actors, Choi Min-sik as Owon and Ahn Sung-ki as his patron Kim Byung-moon.
Synopsis:
During the 1850s, KIM Byung-moon saves young Seung-up from being beaten by a group of drifters. Seung-up draws him a picture to explain the reason for his being beaten. KIM looks carefully at Seung-up's rough yet extraordinary talent... and years later, KIM encourages Seung-up to pursue the life of a true artist and gives him a pen name, Oh-won. Seung-up meets Mae-hyang, a daughter of a declined Yangban who attracts him deeply. ...
Free Words at Mayfair Public Library
20-Aug-08
When I went to the Free Words exhibition at Mayfair Public Library it was a grey Friday evening, and consequently did not see the works at their best. It was the last day of the main show, and the artwork seemed to have been forgotten in a rather drab-feeling, unloved public-sector space on the top floor. Sumer Erek’s work, Newspaper House, was in an unadvertised and unlit side room which looked as if no-one ever went in there. The stairway and main exhibition space was dominated by Marko Stepanov’s fifteen life-size photographs of individual activists at Hyde Park’s Speakers Corner, clearly consistent with the exhibition’s main theme. Quieter but more thought-provoking were Marisol Cavia’s paper sculptures, the most striking ones ...
Suh Do-ho in Psycho Buildings
31-Jul-08
Psycho Buildings is a cosmopolitan collaboration in which artists from as far afield as Tokyo and Cuba “take on” architecture. Suh Do-ho (right) is one of the diaspora of Korean artists working in various countries around the world. Like Baik Nam June, Suh has chosen to make his home in America.
Suh’s work has in the past explored aspects of identity, from his Some / one sculpture of a warrior crafted out of US military dog-tags, to his floor made of tiny figures holding up a sheet of glass. In another group of installations, his trademark is the recreation of interiors and exteriors of domestic spaces by carefully hanging sheets of diaphanous silk or nylon. He has created both western and ...
Dae Hun Kwon in The Situation
16-Jul-08
There’s some sort of funky alternative event being held at the funky alternative end of Clapham on Thursday, to do with London Lit Plus:
The Situation: Back to Basics
July 17, 2008 7:00 pm to July 18, 2008 1:00 am. The Situation presents the dialectical unification of art and life: art / music / performance / social / life at arch635, 15-16 Lendal Terrace, Clapham North tube, SW4.
If you can work out what it’s all about, please leave a comment below. But the reason why I’m mentioning it here is that one of my favourite Korean artists working in London is participating in it.
I first came across Kwon Dae-hun’s work at I-MYU in November last year (pictured left) – rather intriguing sculptures ...
Impossible landscapes
07-Jul-08
Recently in London we’ve seen two seemingly very different responses to traditional Korean and Chinese landscape painting. In March we had Lim Taek (임택) at I-MYU; just finished at Union we had Lee Sea-hyun (이세현). Both artists portray the familiar mountains, the occasional ancient pavilion dotting the landscape. But Lim’s mountains are simple blocks of white against a rich blue sky, and while Lee respects the conventions and has a blank background against which his carefully delineated peaks are set, he defies conventions in another way by presenting his landscapes in a ghostly red. Considering the two responses side by side allows some interesting similarities and contrasts to be highlighted.
Left: Lim Taek: Transferred Landscape. Right: Lee Sea-hyun: Between Red
Stand in ...
Francesca Cho in “Free Words”
04-Jul-08
Francesca Cho will be participating in the group exhibition 'Free words' at the Mayfair Public Library, 15 - 31 July.
This is the first exhibition to be held in the library space and complements nicely the National Year of Reading. 'Free words' explores the censored word, printed matter and use of language as means of expression, through the interpretations of five artists, with site specific installations, painting, photography and sound pieces:
Marisol Cavia
Francesca Cho
Sumer Erek
Marko Stepanov
Katie Sollohub
Mayfair Public Library is at 25 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London W1K 2PB [Map]. Opening hours 11am-7pm weekdays, 10:30am-2:00pm Saturdays.
Cho's installation is sponsored by Rolawn, who also sponsored her previous turf installation at Conran's Bluebird shop
Links:
Free Word Show channel on YouTube
Notice of exhibition on City of ...
The Union Gallery behind Tate Modern has been showing Sea Hyun Lee's vivid red landscapes since last month. Katie Kitamura has been beavering away on a catalogue for the exhibition. That's now ready, giving an opportunity for a mid-show celebration: the catalogue will be launched at an evening event on 26 June, 6:00-9:00pm.
The Union's press release follows:
UNION is pleased to launch a new catalogue by Korean artist Sea Hyun Lee.
Sea Hyun Lee’s paintings are a constant and obsessive shuffling of recurring fragments. His unmistakable series of landscapes are rendered in delicate but pervasive washes of red - large swaths of unmarked white meandering between islands of crimson land. The blank spaces are harshly set against the carefully detailed fragments ...
Recycled jeans raise $232,000
27-May-08
Records were tumbling at the Christie's auction of contemporary Asian art in Hong Kong on 24 May. As was to be expected, most attention (and cash) was focused on Chinese artists, but auction records were also set for individual artists from Indonesia, India and South Korea.
One of the Korean artists featured was Choi So-young (b 1980), who has a show coming up at the Union Gallery later this year. Choi specialises in creating panoramic landscapes out of recycled denim. Her 3 meter wide cityscape (below) was sold for the equivalent of USD232,714.
The Union Gallery are still collecting your old jeans to be transformed into Choi's next creation. See here for details.
Other artists whose work was sold last week were (images ...
Beccy Kennedy reports
Britain’s first Triennial of Asian Art launched earlier this month, when a gaggle of global art goers gathered in the grandiose foyer and atrium of Manchester Art Gallery to preview the outstanding art installations from Korea. Of the five Asian countries selected by galleries in Manchester: China, India, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, the largest gallery chose striking art works by Korean artists, Gwon Osang and Choe U-ram.
Upon entering the foyer of Manchester Art Gallery, Gwon Osang’s shiny photo montaged life sized figures greet the visitor wearing their casual clothes and animated poses, as they stand, on their plinths on either side of the staircase. Gwon visited Manchester last year and was inspired by a performance by Mancunian musician, ...
Lee Ufan at Lisson Gallery
26-Mar-08
A notice of an upcoming exhibition at the Lisson Gallery
Lee Ufan
2 April -- 10 May 2008
52-54 & 29 Bell Street
Lisson Gallery is pleased to present new works by Lee Ufan in his latest solo exhibition in London. One of the most significant Asian artists of his generation, Lee's exploration of "the art of emptiness" results in works of beautiful and thought provoking simplicity.
This exhibition will use the three gallery spaces in their entirety incorporating new paintings and works on paper and a selection of sculptures from the last twenty years. Following his critically acclaimed solo exhibition at the 52nd Venice Biennale last year, Lee's new paintings continue his "Correspondance" and "Dialogue" series: minimal white canvases that are defined by one ...
Korean artists in South Bank group shows
18-Mar-08
First, those who missed Kwon Dae-hun's intriguing paper-and-light sculptures (above: Lost in the Forest) at I-MYU last year have a second opportunity to view his work at a Coin Street gallery.
The exhibition Electric Blue at Bargehouse near the OXO tower runs from 13 - 30 March.
Electric Blue is a cleverly engineered sensory and interactive art exhibition from over 30 creative and inventive national and international artists. Artwork has been carefully selected from all over the UK and overseas. The exhibition features light, sound and interactive installations, photography and paintings, site specific artwork, live performances and sculpture.
The Bargehouse is at Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, London SE1 9PH.
Second, another 30 artists from around the world are exhibiting in the group show ...
Good Evening, Ms. Jiyoon Lee!
11-Mar-08
Matthew Jackson reports from last Thursday's gallery talk at the KCC
I had assumed that the Nam June Paik talk by Jiyoon Lee would take the form of a tour around the gallery itself. The schedule of the evening was fuller than I had expected, and required the setting of the 'Sejong Room' on the basement level, newly fitted out with lecture-room tables and an LG flat screen TV of considerable proportions.
The talk material had evidently been prepared very carefully for a non-Korean audience, which was much appreciated by those non-Koreans who did make it (in spite of the late announcement).
Jiyoon Lee is an independent curator, and director of the London-based SUUM Project, which brought us Through the Looking Glass at ...
A visit to the Whanki Museum (환기 미술관)
23-Feb-08
The Korea Tourist Office website advises us that Kim Hwan-gi (1913-1974) (known internationally as Kim Whanki -- and he signs his paintings just plain "Whanki") "was Korea's top artist of modernism". It is therefore frustrating that when you go into the Tourist Information Offices in Insadong no-one has heard of him, still less of the museum that was built specifically to house his work. On two occasions now (a year apart) I've struggled to get the helpful staff to believe that there really is such a place, and that I'd really like to know how to get there. I have to spell out the website address, www.whankimuseum.org, and make sure they type it into their browsers correctly, before they believe ...
We look forward to lunchtime
17-Feb-08
An assessment of "Good Morning, Mr Paik Nam June"
Korean Cultural Centre, UK, 1 Feb - 2 Mar, Mon-Fri 9:30 - 5:30
It must be a very attractive prospect to be offered the job of curating a prestigious exhibition at the high-profile launch of a cultural centre. Having a blank canvas to work on certainly must be appealing. But the flip side of the deal is that, when you only know the exhibition space from the designer's drawing board rather than in real life you are working with rather an unknown quantity. And when the inevitable nightmare comes, and you are trying to hang the show as builders struggle to finish the job, you must start to wonder if you were wise ...
Good Morning, Mr Choi
01-Feb-08
Congratulations to Choi Kyuhak and all at the Korean Cultural Centre UK on the opening of their very splendid new premises off Trafalgar Square. The formal opening ceremony took place on 30 January - a report is coming soon from Jennifer - and there was another party last night to launch their first cultural event, Good Morning, Mr Nam June Paik, an exhibition featuring works by Korea's best known video artist together with work by other established and emerging Korean artists.
It was impossible in the crowds to enjoy the art work (artist Kang Seunghee was understandably concerned about her vulnerably-placed screen, shown last year at Gallery Yujiro), but downstairs it was quieter. Also taking refuge down there was the designer ...
YouTube Korea - Fighting
26-Jan-08
Congrats to the Metropolitician and Bum Lee on their YouTube Korea welcome video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QLnzlbR-E[/youtube]
When I walked past the new Korean Cultural Centre the day before yesterday the windows were still covered up, and, through the gaps in the covers, you could see the builders inside racing to finish before the grand opening day.
The Centre officially opens at the end of the month, at a ceremony to be attended by Vice Minister Park Yang-woo from the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, and Ambassador Dr Cho Yoon-je, in one of his last official duties before returning to Seoul in February. From the official press materials:
With generous support from the Korean Ministry of Culture & Tourism and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Cultural Centre will showcase world-class examples of work from every ...
Francesca Cho’s January shows
11-Jan-08
Korean-born artist Francesca Cho is exhibiting work in two group shows, in London and Bergamo, this month. The London show, Sacred, in the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre London Bridge (73-81 Southwark Bridge Road, SE1 ONQ [map]) near the Financial Times offices in Southwark Bridge Road -- two minutes' walk from Tate Modern -- is to mark World Religion Day (celebrated on the third Sunday in January).
World Religion Day is practiced in all countries. Its mission is to foster the establishment of interfaith understanding and harmony by emphasizing the common denominators underlying all religions. The event was instituted by the Bahai community in 1950.
Sacred explores these common denominators and also the differences between religions and belief systems; the interweaving message throughout ...
From East to East: Time Space Extension
04-Dec-07
Arcadia
A group exhibition with Korean and British artists: Dae Hun Kwon, Victoria Hall and Jin Kim
22 Novemeber 2007 - 12 January 2008
I-MYU Projects, 23 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PB
Review by Beccy Kennedy
Globalisation theory uses the term "time-space compression" ((Harvey, David (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.)) to elucidate the concept of a new world without distinct nations, where borders are malleable and hours are reconfigured into seconds through the single tap of a plastic key, where won transmogrify to dollars through the single swipe of a plastic card. Each single transaction is at once plural. Each plurality is a reoccurrence of regime but not of a moment. The art works ...
Arcadia at I-MYU
19-Nov-07
23 November -- 12 January
Victoria Hall / Jin Kim / Dae Hun Kwon
Opening Reception 22 November 6-8pm
Tuesday-Saturday 10-6pm or by appointment
I-MYU Projects is pleased to present the second exhibition of emerging Korean artists at its permanent gallery space in London. Artists Jin Kim and Dae Hun Kwon will be joined by UK artist Victoria Hall in an exhibition that looks to the margins of the classical and the contemporary landscape.
Titled Arcadia the works inform a continued historical reinvention of the term Arcadia by artists, writers, and musicians drawn towards the past. Specifically relating to the landscape the term Arcadia has remained, through history, one step removed from civilization, originating in Greek mythology as the birthplace of the God Pan, also ...
The Minimalist Fringe
08-Nov-07
Lee Ufan: Resonance
Palazzo Palumbo Fossati
Collateral Event in the 52nd Venice Biennale, 10 June - 21 November 2007
The Venice Biennale "Collateral Events" programme (Fringe, to you and me) is crammed with free exhibitions funded by generous sponsors. For example, while Tracy Emin flew the flag for Britain in the official British pavilion, there were fringe shows by Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish artists dotted around the islands.
Lee Hyungkoo's work in the official Korean pavilion was complemented by émigré minimalist artist Lee Ufan, now resident in Japan. The exhibition, in a tired Palazzo near the Gritti palace, was jointly funded by the Korea and Japan Foundations.
While much of the artwork elsewhere in Venice dealt with issues and problems of the real world, ...
Pseudo-scientist inventing reality
07-Nov-07
Lee Hyungkoo: The Homo Species
Korean Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale, 10 June - 21 November 2007
In a Biennale dominated by the theme of war, AIDS, destruction and desolation, it was comforting to find some of the country pavilions conforming to national stereotypes. The French pavilion dissected a love letter written by a rather callous man terminating a relationship with his mistress. The British pavilion, as befits a nation of shopkeepers, used the event as an opportunity for retail therapy: outside was a stall selling Tracy Emin memorabilia -- shopping bags and stick-on tattoos. The Koreans? Plastic surgery, obviously.
Lee Hyungkoo's work in the Korean pavilion was influenced by his sense of physical inferiority when studying abroad in the US, surrounded by so ...
To the furthest verge
17-Oct-07
I-MYU's new gallery space was launched last week with a show by two Korean and one Korean-American artist. The gallery itself is situated in the slightly unfashionable north-east fringes of the City. Unfashionable at least from the perspective of us City types, but if your eyes stray slightly northwards on the map from I-MYU's street the nearest "village" is trendy Hoxton, home of a lively arts scene.
The artists exhibiting in this opening show all address the past in various ways -- in fact Traditional yet Contemporary can almost be seen as the theme for many Korean artists over the past forty years. Yet they also explore other aspects.
Debbie Han's work on display falls into two categories: ceramics and photography. In ...
It is a commonplace observation that Korea is caught between two larger neighbours. Similarly, in marketing terms, the Korean events at the British Museum last Saturday were dwarfed by the blitzkrieg advertising for the Chinese "First Emperor" and the Japanese modern design exhibitions, both also at the British Museum at the same time. But although the façade of the museum was plastered with giant posters of terracotta warriors, all eyes were on the Korean festivities in the museum forecourt.
Most people could tell that all the jollifications were Korean. "Korean Harvest Festival" was hastily written in front of the changseung (totem poles) which formed the centrepiece of the first performance in the forecourt. And more importantly, the large group of helpers ...