2012.2.23 MUSEUMS&GALLERIES

KOREA GALLERIES ART FAIR

Hall D at COEX, Gangnam District

Today to Sunday: This art fair, now in its 30th year, is the oldest art fair involving local galleries. It will feature about 3,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, photos and installations by 500 artists represented by 90 local galleries. The participating galleries include major institutions such as Gana Art, Gallery Hyundai, Kukje Gallery and Hakgojae.

Admission is 10,000 won ($8.90) for adults.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Samseong Station, line No. 2, exit 5 or 6

(02) 6000-0114, www.seoulartfair.net

KIM WHANKI

Gallery Hyundai, Jongno District

To Sunday: This large-scale retrospective of Kim Whanki, one of the most important and beloved visionaries of Korean modern art, features about 60 of his oil paintings, including four that have never before been unveiled to the public.

On display at the gallery’s older building are Kim’s 1937-56 paintings of his time in Seoul, his 1956-59 paintings of his time in Paris and his 1959-63 works depicting his time back in the Korean capital. The works from the Paris era and the second Seoul era are well-known, half-abstract, half-figurative paintings featuring objects that frequently appeared in traditional Korean paintings, such as the moon, mountains, cranes, plum blossoms and moon jars.

The gallery’s new building shows abstract paintings in blue tones on wide canvases that were created by Kim in New York from 1963 to his death in 1974.

Admission is 5,000 won.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays.

A tour in English will be offered at 2 p.m. every Sunday and tours in Korean will be offered at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily.

Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 1, and walk for 10 minutes.

(02) 2287-3500, www.galleryhyundai.com

ACCESS TO LIFE

Hangaram Art Museum (Seoul Arts Center), Seocho Disrtict

To March 4: This exhibition displays 550 works including photographs and documentary films that are part of a collaborative effort by Magnum Photos; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and an international financing organization.

American photojournalist Steve McCurry and seven other acclaimed photographers went to nine different countries - Vietnam, India, Peru, Haiti, Mali, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Russia - to capture images of patients before and after receiving AIDS treatments.

Tickets cost 10,000 won for adults; 8,000 won for high school and middle school students; and 5,000 won for students under 12.

Nambu Bus Terminal Station, line No. 3, exit 5

(02) 2277-2438, www.accesstolife.seoul.kr

WORK IN PROGRESS

Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Tongeui-dong

To March 18: Even those who don’t know much about high fashion are likely to know of Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of French fashion house Chanel. But few will know that the 73-year-old designer, who is the force behind Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous brand, is in fact a renaissance man. Not only has he taken photographs of his own fashion collections since 1987, he has published books, done illustrations and recorded music.

Admission is 5,000 won for adults and 3,000 won for students.

Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Monday.

Go to Gyeongbokgung Station, line No. 3, exit 3 and walk for five minutes.

(02) 720-0667, www.daelimmuseum.org

DUTCH MAGIC REALISM: PAST TOWARD CONTEMPORARY

Seoul National University Museum of Art, Gwanak district

To April 12: The exhibition shows 70 paintings and one sculpture by modern artists in the Dutch Magic Realist movement and the contemporary artists who have inherited their art. The works on display also reflect the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century and earlier paintings that feature realistic depictions and mystic symbolism.

The exhibition is divided into three sections of portraits, still lifes and landscapes.

The still lifes in this exhibition employing realistic painting techniques and a meditative mood will remind viewers of earlier Dutch masters known for their “breakfast pieces.” Many of the portraits in the show have an Expressionist mood, but they, too, can be linked to the 17th-century Dutch portraits, which abstained from the rhetoric of more aristocratic portraits yet also exposed the sitter’s emotions.

Admission is 3,000 won for adults.

Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays to Sundays.

Go to Seoul National University Station, line No. 2, exit 3, and take green bus No. 5511 or 5513.

(02) 880-9504, www.snumoa.org

Information is culled from the galleries and other online sources.