Frieze, Kiaf mark third collaboration in September

Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul mark their third collaboration in early September as they bring together a variety of art programs across the city, with some 320 galleries from around the world participating. Internationally renowned art fair Frieze Seoul and the home-grown international art fair Kiaf Seoul will kick off at Coex in southern Seoul on Sept. 4. Frieze Seoul will run through Sept. 7 and Kiaf Seoul through Sept. 8. The two art fairs will co-host a talk program in collaboration with the K

July 17, 2024

Daniel Arsham gives glimpse of thousand years from now

One rarely imagines how the present world would be remembered and seen a thousand years later. American artist Daniel Arsham’s solo exhibition at Lotte Museum of Art in Seoul does just that. Arsham has shown works based on the concept of “fictional archaeology” that he created inspired by archaeologists. The artist imagines everyday objects of today as artifacts excavated in the future, creating an ambiguity about the period we inhabit. The exhibition titled “Daniel Arsha

July 16, 2024

Korean media art to be featured in Paris during summer Olympics

Korean media art will be presented in Paris in July to coincide with the 2024 Summer Olympics featuring video art founder Paik Nam-june and leading Korean contemporary media artists. The exhibition “Decoding Korea, La Coree Decodee” will be held from July 26 to Aug. 25 at the Grand Palais Immersif, an art center dedicated to digital art in Paris, hosted by the South Korean Culture Ministry and organized by the Korea Arts Management Service. A total of 18 media artworks by 11 artist

July 14, 2024

[Well-curated] Discover your perfect colors, Banksy and unique pies

Flattering colors How do you put together clothes, makeup and jewelry to look your absolute best is an everyday question for personal color consultants. They recommend colors that are flattering to you based on your complexion, draping fabric swatches across your shoulders to screen which shades -- there are numerous variations to a color -- light up or drain your face. At Color Signal in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, six such consultants -- some fluent in English or Chinese -- run personal color sessions

July 12, 2024

National Museum holds exhibition of East Asian lacquerware

The National Museum of Korea is holding a biennial joint exhibition on lacquerware as part of an effort to showcase cultural artifacts common to Korea, Japan and China that began in 2014. The exhibition entitled “Lacquerware of East Asia” opens Wednesday, featuring 46 lacquerware pieces from the NMK, the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of China. The three countries have long used the sap of lacquer trees, which renders a durable, shiny finish once painted onto wooden ob

July 9, 2024

[Herald Interview] Illustrator’s reinterpretations of hanbok prize originality

When Wooh Na-young, a graphic designer-turned-illustrator, quit her work at an online game publisher in 2012 after a decade in the industry, she suffered an identity crisis. But she at least knew that being a game graphic designer was not fulfilling for her. “I had to find what I wanted to do or be, and hanbok caught my eyes,” Wooh said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald, explaining her love for the hanbok silhouette -- the elongated lines and broad shapes. A want for her wo

July 7, 2024

Yang Hae-gue to have first UK survey show at Hayward Gallery

Internationally renowned Korean artist Yang Hae-gue will have her first major museum exhibition in the UK at the Hayward Gallery in October, surveying her artistic practice from the early 2000s to date. The exhibition at the gallery located on the South Bank of the River Thames in London, “Haegue Yang: Leap Year,” arranged in five thematic sections, will include three new commissions for the exhibition as well as some of her most notable series: “Light Sculptures,” &ldquo

July 4, 2024

Dutch state museum shows Korean Buddha statue for first time

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is showing an 18th-century Korean Buddha statue, its first showing of a Buddha statue from Korea. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, on loan from the National Museum of Korea, will be displayed at the Asian Pavilion of the Rijksmuseum for two years, through May 2026. Korea’s state-run museum arranged the loan as part of efforts to help museums around the world establish a more diverse collection of Korean artifacts, the museum said Wednesday. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisat

July 3, 2024

Gagosian to show Derrick Adams at gallery's first Seoul exhibition

Gagosian, one of the largest international galleries today, will hold its debut exhibition in South Korea in September, presenting new works by multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams, whose work expands narratives of Black life and culture. The exhibition “Derrick Adams: The Strip” will kick off Sept. 3 at APMA Cabinet, a project space on the ground floor of the Amorepacific Headquarters in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. The exhibition will coincide with the third edition of Frieze Seoul

July 2, 2024

Virtual tour recaps Notre Dame history ahead of reopening

An exhibition exploring highlights of Notre Dame Cathedral’s history ahead of its reopening in December following an April 2019 fire will run through Sept. 1 at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul. The exhibition, “Notre-Dame de Paris, the Augmented Exhibition: 850 Years of History and Resilience at Your Fingertips,” offers an immersive and interactive experience, explained Bruno de Sa Moreira, CEO and co-founder of Histovery, a French startup that specializes in augme

July 1, 2024

Artist Aatchim turns limited vision into art with silk

Gladstone Gallery in Seoul is currently showing the first solo exhibition of emerging Korean artist Kim Jo-eun, who goes by Aatchim as her pseudonym. Aatchim explores silk as her artistic medium, often depicting compassionate scenes in which the subjects provide comfort to others with warm gestures or embraces. Aatchim channels her congenital eye condition – intermittent strabismus, a condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned -- into her artistic drive. Her visual experiences

June 30, 2024

[Weekender] Traces of war, migration, otherness everywhere at Venice Biennale

VENICE, Italy -- Depending on where you live, you may or may not directly feel the effects of the world's wars in your daily life. But you will gain a stronger awareness of them walking around the Giardini in Venice, one of the main sites of the Venice Biennale, the world's oldest international art biennial. Though the Venice Biennale attracts artists, curators and art aficionados every other year -- an architecture biennale is held on alternate years -- this year feels different, with

June 29, 2024

Winners of CICI's New Korea Ideas competition revealed

A proposal inspired by the aesthetic beauty of Hangeul won the top prize in a competition of new ideas to represent Korea, organized by the Corea Image Communication Institute as part of its 15th Culture Communication Forum, held at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Monday. Also at the event, an AI-generated image of a Korean person wearing a blend of traditional and modern clothing won the grand prize in the Korea Image Created by AI Contest. The winners were selected through online voting by the forum pa

June 25, 2024

Qatar shows its collection of video art, cinema in Venice

VENICE, Italy -- Built in 1565, Palazzo Franchetti overlooking the Grand Canal, the main waterway of Venice, is a splendid piece of Gothic architecture, including a beautiful garden. The building has turned into a very different space to coincide with the 60th Venice Biennale from April to November for the exhibition, “Your Ghosts Are Mine: Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices,” which takes people to explore the Arab world, Africa and South Asia through film and video works by filmmake

June 25, 2024

Choi Goen wins 2024 Artist Award at Frieze Seoul

Korean installation artist Choi Goen has won the 2024 Artist Award and her work will be on display at the fair's venue at Coex in southern Seoul, Frieze Seoul announced Monday. The third edition of the global art fair is to be held from Sept. 4 to 7 at Coex, bringing together some 110 galleries from across the globe. The global art fair takes place in collaboration with the country’s homegrown international art fair, Kiaf Seoul. “The award enables an emerging or mid-career artis

June 24, 2024

Songzio returns to womenswear at Paris Fashion Week

South Korean avant-garde menswear brand Songzio unveiled a womenswear collection for the first time in 25 years at the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris Men’s Fashion Week. The collection revealed Friday was titled “Bright Star” in reference to the North Star, an enduring source of inspiration and a symbol of a hopeful future. Each creation was pieced together using asymmetric geometric shapes for vibrant and youthful exuberance, Songzio said. Such unfettered self-expression by youth, S

June 24, 2024

[What to see] Explore galleries in Yongsan

Yongsan-gu in central Seoul is a place for gallery hopping. Thaddaeus Ropac, Gallery Baton and Esther Schipper's current summer exhibitions are all worth a visit. Between touring the galleries, you can pop into the cafes and restaurants of the neighborhood to cool off. Andy Warhol at Thaddaeus Ropac Thaddaeus Ropac in Hannam-dong presents a selection of American artist Andy Warhol’s portraits of German avant-garde artist Joseph Beuys, revisiting the earliest meeting of the two artis

June 22, 2024

Curator showcases Indigenous perspectives

Words like “variety” and “innovative” will hopefully describe the afterthoughts on Korea’s first-ever exhibition on Native American arts, an associate curator at the Denver Art Museum who helped organize the show said. Dakota Hoska -- who holds dual citizenship from the US and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota -- said visitors to the exhibition “Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People in America” would be able to discover the talent t

June 21, 2024

Korea, US museums team up to promote Joseon

The National Palace Museum of Korea has joined forces with local and US museums to raise awareness of the Joseon era (1392-1910) in a three-year renewable deal focusing on joint exhibitions and research on the topic. The Joseon Dynasty Heritage Project involves the state-run NPMK, the Gyeonggi Ceramic Museum and Amorepacific Museum of Art, as well as two US museums, the Denver Art Museum and Cleveland Museum of Art. “The aim is to establish a cooperative relationship between the institutio

June 18, 2024

How Paik Nam-june's 'Transmission' was finally shown in Korea

Video art pioneer Paik Nam-june’s “Transmission” was shown for the first time in Korea last August, more than 20 years after its premiere at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City in 2002. The 8-meter-tall laser masterpiece was shown alongside "32 Cars for the 20th Century: Play Mozart’s Requiem Quietly," also by Paik, re-creating the 2002 Rockefeller exhibition in the backyard of the Paik Nam June Art Center from Aug. 31 to Dec. 3 last year. The exhibition, which o

June 17, 2024