This is the last in a six-part series highlighting the next generation of Korean artists active in the international art scene.-- Ed. Clicking through artist Kim Sung-hwan’s website is like searching through an archive of materials that seem somehow relevant to each other, only their connections are not quite apparent. Each click yields yet another interesting material -- a shot of a paragraph from a book, a black-and-white photo that captures a historical moment, the arti

Arts & Design Sept. 2, 2022

ICHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- When Lee Sang-il, 66, a hairdresser to celebrities, the artsy and ladies-who-lunch, retired some 10 years ago, he hinted that he was about to embark on a very big project. “Keep me posted,” I said. Over the years, he did indeed keep me posted with occasional text messages. And about five years ago, I received photos of a snow-covered hanok and an update: His resort was 90 percent complete. Then came an invitation to the opening party in early May. An h

Travel June 24, 2022

A young woman, born to a Korean mother and white father, stands in a Korean supermarket chain crying as she looks at the side dishes on display that her late mother used to make for her. It’s the scene that opens Michelle Zauner’s bestselling memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” and one that many Korean Americans will have no difficulty imagining. For Zauner, food formed an unbreakable bond between her and her mother. Her mother made Korean dishes for her Korean-born daughter wh

Books June 10, 2022

Front row from left: Didier Beltoise, president of Cs ; Hye-kyung Kim, vice-president of Enzychem Lifesciences ; Kim Young-jin, CEO of Tchai Kim ; Sripriya Ranganathan, Indian Ambassador to Korea; Choi Jung-wha, president of Corea Image Communication Institute CICI; Mukund Santhanam, RE 100 Strategic advisor; Mozes Csoma, Hungarian Ambassador to Korea and Nam Sun-mi, spouse of the Hungarian Ambassador, pose for a photo at the Indian ambassador‘s residence in Seoul on Tuesday before atten

Culture April 20, 2022

How many people can claim to have an entire festival dedicated to their birthday, and while they are still living to boot? Since 2005, rocker Han Kyung-rock, the bassist of iconic punk band Crying Nut, who is also known as Captain Rock, has been celebrating his birthday by hosting a large party in the Hongdae area of Seoul, a notorious center for indie music. Held every year on Feb. 11, Han’s birthday, what started out as a gathering of fellow musicians for drunken revelry and

Performance Feb. 3, 2022

The snow made me do it. After much vacillation over whether to visit the US side of my family over Christmas or to stay in Seoul, I had finally resigned myself to spending the holidays at home. I had booked my flights months in advance, in hopes that the pandemic situation would improve with time. After all, vaccines that can protect against the virus that causes COVID-19, or at least lessen the severity of an infection, were now widely available. We had also learned over more than a year of

Viewpoints Dec. 31, 2021

Photographer MJ Kim’s life has been a wild roller-coaster ride. From studying film in London to landing a job with singer Paul McCartney, a partnership that would last more than 10 years, to taking photos of everyday people and making an award-winning short film, Kim, 49, has done it all. With irrepressible optimism and enthusiasm. A soft bossa nova tune plays in Kim’s studio, his “man cave,” in the hipster neighborhood of Seongsu-dong in Seoul. The white walls of the ro

Culture Dec. 19, 2021

One day, out of nowhere, a son receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. One day, out of nowhere, a daughter receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. The stranger’s will contained no conditions to the bequests. One day, the father announces that he is taking the bequests from his children. He declares that since the children are part of the family and he is the head of the household, it is within his rights to do as he pleases with what was given

Viewpoints Nov. 28, 2021

A cacophony of images, a riot of colors. That is what I saw at an exhibition in Itaewon, central Seoul, heralded as a hip show. It surely had all the elements of an of-the-moment show: Provocative images, saturated colors, all the glamour of glossy artwork. “Toiletpaper: The Studio” at Hyundai Card Storage in Itaewon is a literal replica of the photography-based magazine Toiletpaper’s Milan studio. The exhibition is touted as the first to ever look inside the studio of Ita

Viewpoints Oct. 29, 2021

On a recent Sunday morning, I went for a leisurely stroll at Seooreung, a Joseon royal tomb in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, just outside Seoul. Entering the compound of five royal tombs, my husband mused about his elementary school field trips to Seooreung. Pointing to the huge mound on which the twin tombs of King Sukjong and his second wife sit side by side, he said the kids would run up the mound and then roll down. Korea in the ’70s did not have many grass fields and there were signs o

Viewpoints Oct. 15, 2021

For Seoulites, this weekend is a great chance to hike a somewhat challenging historical path in the northern part of Seoul. The 9th Hanyang Doseong Culture Festival under the theme “Sungseong: Embracing the Wishes” will be held both on and offline, including on-site participation for visitors. The festival begins Oct. 1 and continues for 10 days. Hanyang Doseong, also known as the Seoul City Wall, follows the ridges of Bugaksan (Baekaksan), Naksan (Naktasan), Namsan (Mongmyeoks

Culture Sept. 30, 2021

A colorful postcard bought in Amsterdam “just because it was so pretty,” notes and letters from friends and a large card with black-and-white graphics -- a ticket to a show by a Korean electronic music group from two years ago he kept because he was very impressed and wanted to remember it -- are lined up neatly inside violinist Yang In-mo’s violin case, affording a glimpse of his taste. “I think it is fun to decorate the interior with postcards like this,” he says

Performance Sept. 24, 2021

American artist Mark Dion -- who doubles as an amateur ecologist, archaeologist and naturalist -- showcased his first solo exhibition in South Korea at Barakat Contemporary in central Seoul after going through thorough on-site research in South Korea’s western and southern coastlines. Dion’s solo exhibition “The Sea Life of South Korea and Other Curious Tales” includes his new large-scale installations “Cabinet of Marine Debris” and “Sea Life of South

Culture Sept. 23, 2021

When I heard a friend who is a few years older say that she missed the chaos of the kitchen before “jesa,” or ancestral rite, I was incredulous. She described how the women of her family would line the kitchen floor with layers of old newspaper to prevent the cooking oil from splattering and set up an electric griddle on top of it. “I miss the sound of sizzling jeon and the smell of cooking oil that wafted through the house,” she said. The kitchen countertop was not lar

Viewpoints Sept. 18, 2021

  A photo of massive, foreboding, rocky mountains, barren except for a few bushes, with a truckload of soldiers carrying rifles is a lasting image I have of Afghanistan. I used the photo, clipped out of Time magazine, I think, to make a scrap book about various countries -- a middle school geography assignment. I don’t remember why I chose Afghanistan, among all the other countries that started with the letter A. Perhaps because this was in the early 1980s and the country was much in

Viewpoints Sept. 3, 2021