2014.7.10 MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
Published: 09 Jul. 2014, 20:42
Artsonje Center, Jongno District
To Sunday: Keum Hye-won, winner of the 12th Daum Prize in 2013, has traveled around Korea, Japan and the United States to record and contemplate how humans cope with the death of their pets. “Cloud Shadow Spirit” is the result. The exhibit includes photographs of dead pets taken during a U.S. company’s freeze-dry taxidermy procedure, which is done at the request of owners who want to be with their animals forever. Photos of pet cemeteries in the United States and pet funeral and memorial halls in Japan and Korea are featured in other parts of the show.
“My works argue nothing but are open to these various questions and lead people to think about them,” the artist said.
Admission is 3,000 won ($2.94) for adults. Opening hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday. The gallery is closed on Mondays.
Travel to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 1, and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 733-8945, www.artsonje.org
YAN HENG: HIGHWAY INN
Arario Gallery Seoul, Jongno District
To Sunday: “Highway Inn” is 32-year-old Chinese artist Yan Heng’s first solo exhibit in Korea. The young artist’s show is named after a camping area drivers use as a resting facility, but Heng changes its original meaning to represent a place to pause before further exploring an artistic journey. Through 15 paintings, Heng shares his experiences with the flaws and ironies of ever-changing Chinese society in a traditional painting style. The artist doesn’t aim to come up with a direct metaphor that can be defined but instead leaves room for the endless possibilities of today’s world. Keep an eye out for his repeated symbols such as crocodiles, which reflect the disjointed lives of struggling modern men.
Admission is free. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and closed on Mondays. Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit No. 2, and walk 10 minutes.
(02) 541-5701, www.arariogallery.com
CHUNG SANG-HWA
Gallery Hyundai, Jongno District
To July 30: Abstract paintings filled with minimal color and unusual textures, called dansaekhwa, dominated the Korean art scene in the 1970s. This is a solo exhibition of one of the most important dansaekhwa painters - 82-year-old Chung Sang-hwa. The show presents 45 single-color paintings by Chung, encompassing artworks since the 1970s to show his four-decade oeuvre. Chung paints kaolin on a canvas and waits until it dries completely. He then folds it up, which generates numerous cracks that make natural pattens, before embarking on a removal process. After a month of working on this, he paints each pattern and repeats the removal procedure. All in all, each work takes one year.
Admission is free. Opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Go to exit No. 1 of Anguk Station, line No. 3. and walk for 5 minutes.
(02) 2287-3500, www.galleryhyundai.com NEON GREY TERMINAL
Hite Collection Gallery,
Gangnam District
To Aug. 2: The solo show of Jina Park features her latest 20 paintings, which depict normal scenes in airports, such as people waiting in line for baggage wrapping or for someone’s arrival. “The new works of the airport series take the airport as somewhere in particular, in the sense that it does not belong to anywhere between one’s departure and arrival,” the gallery said in a press release. “The exhibition title, ‘Neon Grey Terminal,’ also expresses the particular color tones of airports that the artist came to realize.”
Admission is free. The gallery is closed on Sunday. Go to Cheongdam Station, line No. 7, and exit No. 14.
(02) 3219-0271
ITALY IN SONGEUN: WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN
SongEun Art Space, Gangnam District
To Aug. 9: “Italy” is a group show of promising Italian young artists, designed by two guest curators - Angelo Gioe and Maria Rosa Sossai. The title implies skepticism about Western-oriented modernity and belief in a linear progress of history. The exhibition, featuring 22 Italian artists born between the mid-1960s and mid-’80s, shows the expressive changes made by new Italian artists. According to the museum, the show is a process of analyzing the Italian art scene through five separate sections - “Uninventing modernity,” ”Plurality of worlds,” “Parallel cosmograms,” “Policies of nature” and “Thinking about the present.”
Admission is free. Opening hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday. The art space is closed on Sundays. Travel to Cheongdam Station, line No. 7, exit No. 9, and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 3448-0100, www.songeunartspace.org
THE TREASURES OF KANSONG
Dongdaemun Design Plaza,
Dongdaemun District
To Sept. 28: “The Treasures of Kansong” is the first exhibition of the Kansong Art Museum’s collection outside the museum itself. Established in 1938, Kansong is Korea’s oldest private museum and previously only opened its doors to the public twice a year for a fortnight at its home in Seongbuk-dong, northern Seoul. The exhibition organizers recently replaced one fifth of the 100 artifacts on display. Among the new works on display is “A Beauty” by Joseon painter Shin Yun-bok, which is one of the most beloved old paintings by Koreans and has inspired many movies and TV shows.
Tickets for adults are 8,000 won.
The exhibition opens every day at 10 a.m. It closes at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, while on Wednesdays and Fridays it stays open until 9 p.m. The plaza is closed on Mondays.
Go to the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, subway line Nos. 2, 4 or 5, exit No. 1.
(02) 2266-7077, www.ddp.or.kr
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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