The best of wishes for the new lunar year. Like January, February is currently looking to be pretty quiet. But keep checking our Facebook group or sign up for email updates in the sidebar of LKL’s front page – we only find out about some things pretty late in the day and those events don’t make it onto this monthly list: a case in point was January’s theatrical release of Nam A-rum’s documentary K Family Affairs: that was well worth a trip to the Bertha Dochouse for, and we’d be surprised if we see a better documentary this year.
Of the February events we know about so far, the British Korean Society has the pick of the crop: a visit to the Korean collections at Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum and Bodleian Library. If you’re not a member already, you should be.
Seasonal events
There are Lunar New Year celebrations in New Malden’s United Reformed Church, and a kimchi pancake workshop at the Malden Centre, both on 1 Feb
Exhibitions
- The KCC has extended its Bestselling and Beloved: Korean Literary Treasures exhibitions until 21 March
- Knitted together: the Korean lives and legacies of Richard and Joan Rutt is in Durham’s Oriental Museum until 4 May
- Mire Lee’s Hyundai Commission is at Tate Modern until 16 Mar
- K-Women: Celebrating Korean Female Artists is at Kingston Museum until 8 Mar 2025
- Lee Youngsil’s Ceramic Gardens in Bloom is at Mokspace until 3 Feb
- Cha Jongrye and Park Ji-Eun feature in Pontone Gallery’s group show The Quiet Within until 15 Feb
- Over 60 Korean artists, ceramicists and jewellers will have their work on display at Collect, 27 Feb – 2 Mar
- The BKS’s Oxford visit is on 7 Feb.
Performance
- KARD member BM performs in London’s Steel Yard on 4 Feb
- Violinist Mee-Hyun Esther Park gives an early evening recital at St Pancras New Church, 12 Feb
- At St George’s Bristol guitarist Sungbin Cho gives a lunchtime recital on 13 Feb and violinist Hyeyoon Park performs with Sinfonia Cymru on 15 Feb
- Eun-me Ahn’s Dragons starts its nationwide tour on 24-25 Feb in Southampton before moving to Canterbury 28 Feb – 1 Mar
Books expected
- Han Kang’s We Do Not Part tr Emily Yae Won is due from Penguin on 6 February
- The Emplantation of Catholicism in Pre-modern Korea: Texts, Teachings and Gender Relations, by Kevin Cawley pub Bloomsbury.
- The Bloomsbury Handbook of North Korean Cinema, ed Travis Workman, Dong Hoon Kim, Immanuel Kim pub Bloomsbury