Urban Break 2021 -- Asia’s largest art fair focused on contemporary urban art -- will kick off Thursday at Coex in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul showcasing a variety of urban artworks and programs that feature VR. Some 300 artists from around the world are presenting about 25,000 creations at this year’s annual fair. Following the VIP opening Wednesday, the event will open to the general public Thursday and run through Sunday. Participating artists include a New York-based doodle a

With final location to be announced by year-end, experts call for more plans for proposed space

A large quantity of pioneering sculptor Kwon Jin-kyu’s artworks has been donated to the Seoul Museum of Art after the artist’s bereaved family had struggled for decades to find a place to house his sculptures. The donated 141 artworks consist of the 96 sculptures, 10 paintings, six drawings and 29 sketch books, as well as five artworks produced by Kwon’s wife, Kasai Tomo. Kwon’s family has founded Kwon Jin Kyu Commemoration Foundation to manage the artist’s work

If tokenized, it will make history as the first Korean NFT cultural artifact

Two national museums simultaneously kicked off exhibitions highlighting works from late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee's massive art collection Wednesday, allowing the public to take a peek at Korean masterpieces of various eras and formats. "A Great Cultural Legacy: Masterpieces from the Bequest of the Late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee" and "Lee Kun-hee Collection: Masterpieces of Korean Art," taking place respectively at the National Museum of Korea (NMK) and the Seoul galle

Some of the artworks from the collection of highly prized art donated by the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee and his family in late April were unveiled to the press Tuesday in a special exhibition preview. A total of 135 masterpieces, including a number of National Treasures, are being shown in exhibitions at two state-run museums in Seoul from Wednesday. “A Great Cultural Legacy: Masterpieces from the Bequest of the Late Samsung Chairman Lee, Kun-hee” will be held at th

Works donated by the late Lee Kun-hee contribute significantly to the museum’s own collection, MMCA

Members of the press look at the 19th century “Ten-panel Folding Screen with the Ten Longevity Symbols” during a press preview of the exhibition “A Great Cultural Legacy: Masterpieces from the Bequest of the Late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee” at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

Jeong Seon’s painting of neighborhood mountain is “most valuable” of the Lee bequest

This year’s Korea Young Architect Awards went to architects Choi Yeon-yung and Lee See-woong of Apparat-C Architects, Cho Yoon-hee of Gubo Architects and Kang Woo-hyun and Kang Young-jin of Archihood WxY. A total of 49 teams were considered for the annual prize, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in announcing the winners on Tuesday. The award program was organized jointly by the Korea Architects Institute, Korean Institute of Architects and the Korean Institute of Female

A large magnolia tree stands in front of MMCA Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province. The tree became diseased in 2019 and will be cut down soon as it has now died. Artist Han Seok-hyun revitalized the tree, transforming it into a work of art. He covered the dead tree with wood scraps -- cut timber and broken furniture, which ultimately come from other dead trees -- and added plants such as geraniums, trumpet creepers and even green onions in the spaces in this new covering.  The Cheo

Nam June Paik Art Center, the only art center dedicated to the video art pioneer, is showcasing two special exhibitions to help understand Paik’s philosophy when he was part of Fluxus -- an avant-garde art movement in the 1950s that challenged conventional art -- and how his legacy lives on today. The art center, located in Gyeonggi Province, kicked off “Open Codes: Networked Commons” this month in collaboration with ZKM Karlsruhe, a media art museum in Germany. The exhibitio

The government's plan to build a museum dedicated to late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee's massive art collection has stirred a debate among art circles as well as local governments that were vying to attract the facility. Last week, the culture ministry unveiled a plan to build the museum by 2026 or 2027 at two potential locations in central Seoul -- in Jongno and Yongsan wards. The announcement came roughly two months after Lee's family announced the donation of around 23,000 art pieces, includ

Sculptor Yi Hwan-kwon’s works easily catch people’s attention. His signature sculptures, made using 3D scanning techniques, create distorted illusions that provoke curiosity and are readily recognized by many people. While he has gained much popularity with his iconic sculptures, it hit him one day that he was finding it difficult to put his works into words. He then became skeptical about his own work. “Over the past several years, I strived to search for something. I don

The Arts Council Korea has announced that a new committee will be formed for the selection of the curator of the Korean Pavilion for the upcoming Venice Biennale after the previous committee resigned en masse over controversy surrounding alleged conflicts of interest in the screening process. "The selection committee members have decided to quit their positions in pursuit of fairness. It seems they felt pressured about the issue,” an official from the council told The Korea Herald