2018.12.12 Museums & Galleries
Daam, Mapo district
Through Dec. 27: This solo show of artist Kyoung Lee features six pieces of poetic photographs and one video piece about the memory of her deceased mother. They capture old-fashioned dresses hanging on trees and fluttering in the wind or young girls in the dresses.
“When my mother passed away, I didn’t burn her clothes, but began to take photos of the clothes after putting them on trees in the nearby mountain. I took my mother’s clothes dancing in wind and sunlight,” the artist said. “I also took photos of my nieces in my mom’s clothes, thinking about my mother who was once a young girl, but I never know her as young girl.”
“By doing this, I want to remember my mother in these photos as a person before she was a mother... not only my Mom but also many women who had to live as a nameless mother,” she added. “This is part of my ‘nowhere’ series.”
The artist is a filmmaker who won the First Prize at the 1999 Seoul International Women’s Film Festival with the film “ To Be / Not To Be” and has focused on photographic works in the recent years.
Daam is a cultural space in the Yeonnam neighborhood focused on urban regenerations in the area.
Admission is free. The complex is closed on Monday. It is located at Yeonnam-ro 11gil 41 and is a 20 minute walk from Hongdae Station, line No. 2.
CHOI JEONG-HWA: BLOOMING MATRIX (MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES 2018)
MMCA Seoul, Jongno District
Through Feb. 10: Choi Jeong-hwa, 57, one of the most internationally renowned Korean artists, is famous for piling up objects made of cheap plastic in inventive ways and at an expansive scale.
For his new exhibition, the objects he uses go beyond plastic, ranging from wooden antique candlesticks from Korea’s Joseon period (1392-1910) to English cauldrons of iron, wooden chairs from Africa, Chinese rubber shoes and modern frying pan handles to build 146 large and small columns. Together, these sculptures are called “Blooming Matrix” and are arranged in rows in a gallery of the MMCA Seoul. They might remind a viewer of a primitive shrine full of cairns or totem poles.
Admission is 4,000 won ($3.75). Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 1 and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 3701-9500, www.mmca.go.kr
THE GREAT CHAPBOOK II
Arario Museum in Space, Jongno District
Through Feb. 10: The solo show of Noh Sangho, 32, who is best known for making the album cover art for indie band Hyukoh, features a vast collection of paintings - 1,500 pieces in total - at the Underground Gallery in Arario Museum. Most of the works are A4-size paintings, which the artist painted daily based on images he encountered on the Internet or on social media.
The highlight of the exhibit are 2.7-meter (8.86 feet) tall paintings he created by combining the images of his everyday paintings.
“In this way, I make my own archive of the images I have encountered in contemporary culture and share them with others,” he said.
The exhibit also includes the original painting he made for the cover of Hyukoh’s sixth album.
Admission is 10,000 won for adults, which covers the entire museum. Go to the Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 3 and walk for three minutes.
(02) 736-5700, www.arariomuseum.org.
MMCA Gwacheon, Gyeonggi
Through Feb. 17: Curated by William Ewing, a renowned photography writer and curator, and Holly Roussell, an art historian and curator specializing in Asian photography and art, the photography exhibition - featuring over 300 works by 135 artists from 43 countries - looks at civilization in the 21st-century, which stands at the crossroads of evolution to either a new level or self-extinction.
The show seems to challenge the iconic 1955 photography exhibition “Family of Man” curated by Edward Steichen, in its large scale, elaborate installation and ambitious attempt to help answer the question of where humanity stands and where it is going.
The 135 participants include world-renowned artists such as Candida Hofer, Thomas Struth, Olivo Barbieri, Richard Misrach, Simon Norfolk and Wang Qingsong, as well as Edward Burtynsky. They also include famous Korean artists Han Sungpil, Noh Suntag and Yeondoo Jung.
The exhibition is divided into eight sections; “Hive,” “Flow,” “Alone Together,” “Persuasion,” “Control,” “Ruptures,” “Escape” and “Next.”
Admission is 2,000 won. The museum is closed on Monday. Get off at Seoul Grand Park Station, line No. 4 and take the shuttle bus from exit 4.
(02) 2188-6114, www.mmca.go.kr
NEW WAVE II: DESIGN AND ENGAGING COMMUNITIES
Kumho Museum of Art, Jongno District
Through Feb. 20: For this exhibit, the museum displays the work of seven design studios in Korea who have designed products that think about the community at-large and the betterment of society.
The seven teams - 6699press, Garagegage, Zero Space Inc., Mun Seung-ji, COM, yang-jang and flat.m - focus on delivering the best product, but in a way that goes beyond the simple pleasure of a single user.
For instance, furniture designer Mun’s chairs are designed in a way to leave no waste behind, while Zero Space Inc. uses the parts that are left over from other manufacturers to make their cushions and bags. Garagegage on the other hand, uses a minimal amount of wood to make their products as simple and effective as possible.
Admission is 5,000 won for adults. Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 1 and walk for 10 minutes.
(02) 720-5114, www.kumhomuseum.com
Museum Ground, Yongin, Gyeonggi
Through March 24: Museum Ground, a new art museum founded by Korean artist Chun Kwang Young, has chosen Jean Boghossian’s solo show for its inaugural exhibition. Although the Brussels-based Lebanese artist of Armenian descent is better known in Korea as president of the Boghossian Foundation for charity and art patronage, he is well-known as an artist in Europe and the Middle East and was exhibited in the Armenian Pavilion at the prestigious 2017 Venice Biennale.
In 2010, the 68-year-old artist began to use techniques of fire torching and perforation to create unique abstract paintings. “For the last eight years, my work has been defined by flame, fire and smoke,” he said. He also burnt books, wood and polystyrene panels, using various instruments - including blowtorches - to create sculptures. His solo exhibition features 46 of such works.
Meanwhile, Museum Ground consists of three galleries: a cafe and an art shop, gardens (including a sculpture garden) and a building used as a studio by Chun.
Admission is 8,000 won for adults. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed on Mondays. The artist’s studio is not open to the public.
www.museumground.org
Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Jung District
Through March 17: Though Keith Haring died at a young age of 31, it didn’t stop him from his efforts to bring art closer into the people’s lives.
Faithful to his goal and motto - “Art is life, life is art” - Haring took to the New York subways everyday, and drew quick on-the-spot drawings on empty advertisement boards for 40 minutes using white chalk.
The exhibition features 175 works loaned by the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection, including some original pieces of the chalk drawings taken from the ‘80s, as well as his later paintings that received much applaud.
The last part of the exhibition features 17 silk-screen pieces that had not been well known beforehand.
Created just before a month before he died, the paintings show how Haring’s social activism took place through wit and humor that he marked down on his canvas.
(02) 577-8415, www.ddp.or.kr
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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