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. The exhibition at I...

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. MMCA admissions ticket holders will be admitted to the screenings on a fir...

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 ...

An art therapy program organized by Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul and the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office is helping wayward teens get back on track. The program could be improved by putting more effort into monitoring the teens afterward, according to a few members involved in the rehabilitation program. “Some of the participants from last year are now in the last year of hi...

SongEun ArtSpace is holding a group exhibition to feature young local artists the institution has supported over the recent three years. SongEun ArtSpace’s “Summer Love: SongEun ArtCube Group Exhibition” is the second such exhibition, following the first in 2015. The 2015 “Summer Love” exhibition was held to celebrate its fifth anniversary and highlight young local artists SongEun ArtCube had su...

Seoul National University Museum of Art holds exhibition ‘Oscillation: Between Korea and the United State’

Although “pungsu jiri,” a Korean version of Chinese feng shui that concerns correlation between life-force energy and its surroundings, is often regarded as superstitious, the idea is often reflected in the interior design of many Korean residences. The practice of integrating this intricate art of geomancy with housing, at the macro level, is usually done by building one’s home on an auspicious...

Herald Artday, a subsidiary of Herald Corp., is holding an online auction from June 23-28, presenting works by contemporary Korean artists. The auction will feature artworks by renowned artists, including Chun Hyuck-lim, Lee Ung-no, Lee Bae and Sa Suk-won. The collection also includes one artwork from Kim Tschang-yeul’s “Recurrence” series, in which sparkling droplets emerge against a backgroun...

Amorepacific’s newly built headquarters will play a key role in the redevelopment of Yongsan, central Seoul. Yongsan has been undergoing significant changes in the past few years, particularly after the announcement that the US military will be relocating out of Yongsan Garrison, which is to be transformed into a park in the future. Since then, the area has been seeing its old low-rise buildings...

Retro-inspired interior design is booming among hipsters in Korea