Museums are more than exhibition spaces for art these days, as they increasingly add various kinds of live performances to attract more visitors, as well as to offer a better museum experience. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Seoul branch, for example, is hosting ballet performances and lectures from Friday to Saturday. Members of the Korea National Ballet perform at an out...

Dark-colored columns and planes lie on giant linen and cotton canvases. Upon a close look, one can see the gradation of colors on the rough textures of the canvases. Late monochrome painter Yun Hyong-keun’s paintings are a result of hardships and emotions that grew out of suffering. As in Mark Rothko’s paintings, Yun’s works, too, evoke religious and mythical stirrings in the viewers. Perhaps, Y...

Coco Capitan’s first Asia solo exhibition at Daelim Museum creates interesting crossover between art and commercialism

As the summer weather turns sultry, exhibitions can provide a cool escape. Recent exhibitions in Seoul have been creating hype as renown and talented artists take over the local art scene. Here are five must-see exhibitions in Seoul: "Penking: Making Mistakes” Aug. 8, 2018 – Sept. 4, 2018 (WTFM) Up and coming artist Penking is set to exhibit his black comedy art at Backroom in Hannam-dong, S...

The late artist Bahc Yi-so’s career was short-lived. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 47, two decades after launching his career in New York in 1984. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Gwacheon branch is holding a retrospective exhibition that highlights works of Bahc, as well as an archive of materials he left behind. “Bahc Yi-so: Memos and Memories,” the artist’s firs...

People often write journals not just to record the daily grind but to look back and understand various encounters, experiences and phenomena. Titled “Jet Lagged,” the latest exhibition at Arario Gallery’s Ryse Hotel branch is an exhibition that presents works of young artists striving to find their way in their cultural, historical and personal surroundings. Opened on July 19, “Jet Lagged” is a...

With the two Koreas in a peace mood, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion is considering ways to use design to support better inter-Korean ties. Eune Ju-hyun, KIDP president and CEO, revealed a plan to enhance inter-Korean cooperation -- if the right opportunity were to present itself -- at a press conference in central Seoul on Tuesday. The press conference was held to mark 90 days in offic...

Artist Hong Sung-dam was on the Park Geun-hye administration’s blacklist of artists, which included a total of 9,473 names that were to be excluded from receiving state funds or support. His controversial painting “Sewol Owol” is now being shown for the first time in Seoul at Insa Art Center, as part of his solo exhibition “Sewol Owol and Candlelight,” which opened Thursday. Artist Hong Sung-da...

The Gwangju Biennale on Tuesday said it has recently received the Ministry of Unification’s approval to contact three North Korean artists. The messages have been sent to invite them to a North Korean art exhibition to be held in September at the biennale, it said. “Gwangju Biennale made a request to the Unification Ministry in June and received the approval in early July to contact the individu...

Embracing a childlike perspective and naive expression in their work, artists like Paul Klee and Chang Uc-chin explored a then-undiscovered area of art. Minhwa paintings have similarities characteristic of the aforementioned artists. Instead of being restrained by artistic and cultural orthodoxies, late Joseon-era minhwa -- or folk paintings -- show forms of expression that are rough yet free an...

Movie buffs will soon have a rare chance to watch old films in Technicolor on proper widescreen. Starting Wednesday, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul will hold “The History of Visual Magic in Technology Pt. 2: Technicolor,” featuring 12 films produced in Technicolor from the 1930s to the 1950s. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.) Technicolor...

Produced on the occasion of the 1993 Venice Biennale, Paik Nam-June’s “The Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan” is one of the artist’s pseudo-robot sculptures that foresaw the coming of an age. Riding a bike instead of a horse while wearing a diving helmet and carrying TVs on his back, the Kahn of the 20th century suggested a new paradigm of exchanges between human lives and multimedia technologies an...

Exhibition sheds light on now-shut Kaesong industrial park

With dark-and-bright contrasts throughout, young local painter Jwa Hae-sun’s portraits of ordinary people remind us of our own memories of numerous overlooked encounters. Her portraits of unknown people have the power to evoke questions on the otherness of the others and the solitude that we feel among a crowd of unknowns. Jwa’s solo exhibition “The Most Ordinary Stories,” which opened Thursday ...

Voices of the oppressed and marginalized from around the world fill the Seoul Museum of Art in downtown Seoul. A cacophony of sounds from different video and installation works startle the visitors entering the building. The dissonant mixture of sounds is a choir of the voiceless, who speak through works of art. The ongoing exhibition, “Voiceless: Return of the Foreclosed,“ has on display some ...