Exhibit closes the gap between genres

“Walking on Air” (2010) by Lee Ji-yen is part of the “Korea Tomorrow” exhibition that starts today. Provided by Hzone

An exhibition that aims to develop communication between the Korean art world and the global art scene starts today.

The “Korea Tomorrow” exhibition, which runs until Monday at Setec, a convention and exhibition complex in southern Seoul, features paintings, video art, furniture, design and architectural sketches by more than 70 contemporary Korean artists. It was curated by a local and foreign curator.

“We can no longer think of fine art, design and architecture as being utterly separate from each other,” Lee Dae-hyung, the local curator of the exhibition and president of the curatorial company Hzone, told the press on Friday. “Fine artists should learn how to communicate from designers, designers should learn about spatial innovation from architects, and architects should learn the avant-garde spirit from fine artists.”

The exhibition is divided into eight sections.

The Hybrid Reality section features popular artists, including Cho Duck-hyun, who incorporates images from old photos, and Hong Sung-chul, who builds images of intertwined body parts with layered rubber bands onto which photos are printed.

This section also includes works by Jang Seung-hyo, who makes collages of incongruous images culled from photographs, and Lee Myoung-ho, who creates inverse trompe l’oeil photos. In Lee’s “Tree” series, a tree looks like a life-sized photo of a tree printed on a white screen set up in an empty field - but the tree is actually a real tree with a screen behind it.

“Hybrid Reality explores the self identification, fragmented social constructs and blurred temporality that are a part of contemporary life,” Thomas Arnold, the foreign curator of the exhibition and director of New York’s Mary Boone Gallery, said on the exhibition Web site.

The Club MOW section, which is about nature and the environment, features famous artists such as Lee Jae-hyo, whose works made of wood and steel are in between furniture and sculpture, and Lee Lee-nam, who makes animated projections of Korean traditional paintings and Western paintings on LED screens.

The Red Complex section examines social taboos of politics and gender with works such as those by Wee Young-il, who depicts hybrids of well-known superheroes in erotic poses.

The Strange Photos section contains surrealist images and photos that experiment with perspective. These include works by Lee Ji-yen. When seen at a distance, the works look like an abstract painting with many dots, but actually are a combination of numerous photos of passersby.

Arnold said on the Web site that the exhibition “activates an important dialogue on the direction of contemporary art in Korea today, and its standing on the international stage.”

*The exhibit runs until Monday. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Go to Hangnyeoul Station, line No. 3, exit 1. For details, call (02) 567-6070 or visit www.koreatomorrow.org.

By Moon So-young [symoon@joongang.co.kr]