2012.5.31 MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

DO HO SUH: HOME WITHIN HOME\

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

Yongsan District

To Sunday: This solo show of Do Ho Suh, now one of the hottest Korean artists in the international art scene, features 43 of his works, including drawings and video. A good number of the works are sculptures and installations related to homes, most of which have rarely been shown in Korea due to the difficulty of exhibiting such large pieces.
Among the works on display are life-size sculptures made of translucent fabric, a model of a hanok (traditional Korean house), recreated apartment units, the façade of a Western-style building and other structures.
These spectacular pieces feature surprisingly elaborate details, ranging from the decorative frames of the hanok’s doors to a basin in the apartment.
Admission is 7,000 won for adults. A day pass including admission to the permanent exhibitions is 13,000 won.
Hours are from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Tuesdays to Sundays. A docent leads tours in English at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Hangangjin Station, line No. 6, exit 1.
(02) 2014-6900, www.leeum.org

THE FORGETTING MACHINE

Hakgojae, Jongno District

To June 10: The solo show of Noh Suntag is about remembering and forgetting the May 18 Gwangju democratization movement.
The exhibits include a collection of black-and-white portraits, whose faded, damaged and distorted faces make for ghostly and haunting images. Noh created them by retaking funeral portraits put in front of the tombs of those who were killed during the movement.
The exhibition also includes photos of various landscapes and scenes related to the Gwangju democratization movement. It ends with photos of stone Buddhas lying in Unju Temple in Hwasun County, South Jeolla, and a man sleeping on a grass field of the temple whose pose resembles that of the Buddha. The artist said he heard that many bereaved family members of the victims of the Gwangju massacre have visited the temple to seek consolation.
Admission is free.
The show is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, and it closes at 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 2, and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 720-1524~6, www.hakgojae.com

THE PIONEER OF KOREAN

ABSTRACT ART: YOO YOUNG-KUK

Gallery Hyundai, Gangnam District
To June 17: The show, held to mark the 10th anniversary of Yoo Young-kuk’s death, features 60 paintings by Yoo, one of Korea’s most important first-generation abstract painters.
Yoo studied and created abstract art consistently throughout his life, unlike his close counterpart, Kim Whanki, who painted half-figurative and half-abstract paintings before moving to pure abstraction.
Still, Yoo’s paintings reveal moderately different styles within the broader abstract category.
The paintings of his abstract expressionism period (1957-67), such as the 1965 oil “Spirit,” consist of color fields filled with light. But from the early 1970s, they were geometrically abstract and based on nature — especially the mountains in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang, where he was born. Admission is 5,000 won. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Mondays.
Go to Apgujeong Station, line No. 3, exit 2 or 3, and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 519-0800, www.galleryhyundai.com

60-YEAR HISTORY OF FOREIGN ART EXHIBITIONS IN KOREA

Kim Daljin Art Research and Consulting, Seodaemun District

To July 14: This exhibition looks back on the history of foreign art shows in Korea since 1950 through leaflets, books, posters and related news articles.
Surprisingly, a Belgian exhibition held during the Korean War — the 1952 “Exposition d’Art Moderne Belge”— was the first foreign art exhibition held after Korea’s liberation from Japan.
The exhibition also presents foreign exhibitions picked by experts for their influence on the Korean art scene such as “Biennial Whitney in Seoul” in 1993.
Admission is free, and hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
Go to Hongik University Station, line No. 2, exit 8 and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 730-6216, www.daljinmuseum.com

Information is culled from the galleries and other online sources.