Art critics have often labeled his early work “critical realism,” a term that encompassed a number of Chinese artists in the early 1990s that used satire to juxtapose capitalism and consumerism with Chinese communism.

Minjun says that the laughing character of his work was developed in response to the changes that China experienced since 1989.

“It has a lot to do with the changes brought about by China’s reform. The changes cause the changes in people’s behavior, very fast changes too. People’s emotions are different too, full and stimulating. The laughing faces represent the emotional feelings of the people.”

– CNN

Lee Seung Taek (b. 1932) is a representative figure in Korean experimental art who has continued since the 1950s until today with a prolific body of work spanning installation, sculpture, painting, photography, land art, and performance art. Lee Seung Taek’s Non-Art: The Inversive Act is a large-scale retrospective that aims to shed new light on the sixty-year career of an artist who played a pioneering role in transforming Korean contemporary art. The exhibition title Lee Seung Taek’s Non-Art: The Inversive Act encapsulates a career spent inverting every kind of object and idea, challenging fixed notions of art. His artistic views are well expressed in his declaration, “My view was inverted. My thought process was inverted. My life in this world was inverted.”and through the concept of “non-sculpture” by which he strove to break free of existing sculptural contexts.

– MMCA

For Teenagers, Joffe presents a series that documents the vulnerability and insouciance of adolescents. The boys and girls depicted avoid a direct gaze, glancing to the side or looking at the floor from beneath heavy-lidded eyes, with arms and hands awkwardly poised as though the subjects are uncomfortable in the skin of their rapidly-changing bodies. The paintings portray a sense of intimacy―friendships budding or relationships and self awareness maturing. The psychology of Joffe’s portraiture is elusive, her subjects often pensive and sometimes self-absorbed. Laying bare the physical effort of their making and suffused with a palpable empathetic warmth, Joffe’s paintings deeply question ever-shifting human connections and the endless intricacies of looking. Ultimately, the subject of Joffe’s painting is life: she charts the process of living and aging, tracing the difficulties, disappointments, and small victories to be subtly decoded from the faces and gestures of her painted subjects.

– Lehmann Maupin

As one of the most talented and innovative artists of the twentieth century, Park Rehyun (1920–1976) transformed the entire field of Korean ink-wash painting by freely crossing the boundaries of ink-wash, printmaking, and tapestries. But following her untimely death from cancer, her art was gradually forgotten, until she was primarily remembered as the wife of Kim Kichang.

At a time when few Korean women could sustain a career as artists, Park Rehyun had to strive constantly to juggle her artistic production with her demanding life as a mother and the wife of a hearing-impaired husband. By incorporating domestic handicrafts and motifs from her daily routines into her works, she expanded the modes of artistic expression and achieved her own independent vision based on her identity as a mother, woman, and Asian.

This exhibition introduces the life and art of Park Rehyun, who overcame social restrictions on women while still embracing her domestic responsibilities. Both as a loving wife who mastered English, Korean, and lip-reading in order to help her husband communicate and as a pioneering artist who excelled in painting, tapestry, and printmaking, Park Rehyun was indeed a “triple interpreter.”

– MMCA

Every year, SeMA, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art invites two artists to hold an exhibition under the name of Title Match. For the past six years, Title Match has experimented with exhibition formats and sought new possibilities for competition, conversation, and collaboration between its two invited artists. This year, a theorist has been invited for the first time to change the format of the exhibition.

In its seventh anniversary this year, Title Match is joined by artist Yang Ah Ham and critic Dongjin Seo. The two try to converse on the theme of “How do we interpret today?” As a critical response to Yang Ah Ham’s work to research and analyze problems in the social system and predict the near future, Dongjin Seo brings the narrative of a Utopian past to usher in a new future. Within this conversational structure, the two hope to glimpse into each other’s creativity and imagination and draw out common ground on the subject in an atmosphere of respect and support.

– SeMA

10 Corso Como Seoul is pleased to present the exhibition “Charlotte Perriand, Photographer and designer”, curated by Enrica Viganò, in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand Archives, Admira, Cassina and Fondazione Sozzani. Architect, urban planner, designer, collaborator of Le Corbusier, ever solitary and tireless traveler, Charlotte Perriand, with a unique and unconventional wit, was a pivotal figure in design of the 20th century and influenced contemporary living in multiple ways.

– Fondazione Sozzani

Dust Clay Stone focuses on works that represent the complex issues of identity faced by individuals experiencing situations of migration, as well as the perceptions that are formed or lost in the course of such experiences. The four artists, Pia Arke, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Bouchra Khalili and Alexander Ugay, whose works appear in the exhibition either experienced migration due to personal reasons or historical circumstance or are still living in a situation of it. While each of them has diverse cultural background through the experience of having been born in different regions of the globe and migrated to different continents or countries, the artists reveal their interests in the complex identity, the individual and collective memories, post-colonialism and allyship in their works. The works are also inter-connected in their methods of creating works such as their deep exploration of the structure of languages, the representation of images, approaches to the archival references, etc.

– Art Sonje Center

The artist uses a technique called Hyperrealism to precisely depict the back of a woman in a hanbok. The hanbok, completed with a delicate touch, is as elaborate as it is before your eyes. The persistence that reminds us of the splendid costumes of the Baroque era captivates the audience. For some, the beauty of tradition according to the details, and for others, the pain imposed on maintaining the beauty. But that’s not all. Rather, it can be said that the artist’s intention is to leave various interpretations to the audience through an anonymous appearance. The woman in the work does not show any words or stories. Looking back at the silent object, each audience imagines their own story. This resembles the current trend of communicating with anonymous people through social media. It is difficult to confirm each other’s sincerity in a system that is connected through the act of’follow’. In the feed of SNS, there is only the packaged beauty shared by the other party. In the photos where all the sense of reality has been erased, nothing like scars, anguish, or sadness can be seen. Therefore, SNS becomes a kind of playground where each other’s hearts are not confirmed.

– Design Press

Through Woo Jung-soo’s various works in Where Is My Voice, we can see that the message he ultimately wanted to convey was about moving images. Like a navigator’s journey to find his lost voice, you can discover the artist’s attitude of Woo Woo Jung-soo, who finds a new way of dealing with the plane through the free use of icons and patterns, experiments with colorful colors and lines, textures and supports.

– Doosan Art Center

Heenang heesoo Kim presents a new title for the upcoming solo exhibition, “The Other Side of My Mind”, away from his usual theme of ‘normal life’. Kim normally works with everyday life as his main subject. For this exhibition, he carefully steps into exploring the negative side of our individual hearts and minds living the ‘unusual life’ in the recent months of pandemic.

– Everyday Mooonday

Parsons’ introspective paintings often offer glimpses into her personal environment, lived psychological processes, and the multi-perspectival identification of the self vs. the other. In her newest body of work, quotidian still lifes and interior scenes are populated by clusters of blooming flowers and flickering candles, metallic moons hovering against cavernous black backgrounds, and silhouetted figures often gilded in gold. Abstract single-toned swaths of color and geometric shapes—inspired by 80s and 90s graphics lining timeless New York storefront windows—are cut in contrast with loose brushstrokes that give the paintings an emotive, cinematic quality. Emanating from darkness, bits and pieces appear seemingly by candlelight, culminating as rapturous reflections of daily life from a recent memory or lucid dream.

– VSF

Gallery Baton is pleased to present “A Little After The Millennium”, a group exhibition by six contemporary artists who are internationally acclaimed: Liam Gillick (b.1964), Rebecca Warren (b.1965), Markus Amm (b.1969), Philippe Parreno (b.1964), Anne Collier (b.1970), and Tobias Rehberger (b.1966) from October 20th to November 20th. The exhibition began with the fundamental question of “Why does art exist?” in a situation where human lifestyle and social systems are threatened by the pandemic. Through a selection of works by the artists who have been at the forefront of the international art scene and broadened the horizons of contemporary art, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the existence of art to each of us at this point.

– Gallery Baton

Kim Tschang-Yeul, a master of Korean abstract art, has explored the essence of painting via his glistening water drops and use of the text from the Chinese Thousand Character Classic, thus embedding his work with the Eastern philosophy and spirit in a delicate manner. The relationship between the gallery and the artist began in 1976 when Gallery Hyundai held Kim’s first solo show in Korea. At the time, he was actively developing his career in Paris. The initial show introduced Kim’s ‘water drop’ paintings, which had already gained acclaimed in Paris, to the domestic audience for the first time. The reception caused a sensation that permeated the Korean art world significantly enhancing his recognition and stature in Korea. From that time, Gallery Hyundai has continued to work closely with the artists via solo exhibitions and support at the institutional level. These efforts to support bore fruit both domestically and internationally. Some major accomplishments include solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (1993), Jeu de Paume, Paris (2004), and the opening of the Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum (Jeju-do) in 2016.

– Gallery Hyundai

This exhibition introduces about 30 works by contemporary artists based on portraits. ‘Portrait’ has been a part of the history of art, inspiring many artists. Portrait works reproduced by artists working at the forefront of contemporary art convey many messages to us living today. Through their work, they constantly ask questions about schizophrenia, group madness, violence or paranoia, and the absurdities that we forget or try to pretend not to know.

– Space K

teamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective, an interdisciplinary group of various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world.

teamLab aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world and new perceptions through art.

In order to understand the world around them, people separate it into independent entities with perceived boundaries between them. teamLab seeks to transcend these boundaries in our perception of the world, of the relationship between the self and the world, and of the continuity of time. Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity of life.

– DDP

The LOTTE Museum of Art will hold a large-scale exhibition featuring “genius artist” Jean-Michel Basquiat, who displayed a passionate world of art while resisting social bias. Basquiat, who made a meteoric rise on the New York art scene in the early 1980s and left some 3,000 artworks, opened a new horizon for contemporary visual culture through his new art charged with the energy of freedom and resistance. More than 150 masterpieces by this artist, whose name has become a byword for youth, and who is loved by people around the world as a source of new inspiration.

– Lotte Museum Of Art

In Galaxy Express, Yangachi posits that digital art is a psychic medium allowing for communication with other universes. This exhibition presents a realization of such a “galaxy” of the not-too-distant future, manifested in futuristic tokens cast from religious icons, dolls, and sculptures and photos by the artist, all of which bear dozens or hundreds of eyes, mouths, and other sensory organs. Yangachi’s artworks guide us through the clues hidden within them, experimenting with the essence of “media” through their points of contact with a galaxy that, although imperceptible, exists.

In MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang – O₂ & H₂O, the artist attempts another leap toward “the abstraction of reality.” As the major energies of living organisms, air and water do not exist purely in natural states as chemical symbols. While O₂ & H₂O refers precisely to specific materials, the title feels abstract at the same time, metaphorically expressing the evolution of the artist’s persistent interest in tracing formless sensorial experience with the abstract language of art. O₂ & H₂O poses questions to contemplate in totality the world of scientific facts, the perceptual world including experiences and senses that venture beyond such facts, and the phenomenal world that is gradually pushed to the brink with the climate crisis and disasters.

– MMCA

Unflattening (working title) is organized for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. This exhibition seeks to examine overlooked testimonies surrounding the war and images of the people at the time, and to understand the nature of war from various perspectives.

The exhibition considers prisoners of war who chose a third country, dispatched servicemen who died in a faraway land, destruction of nature, women soldiers, and war orphans adopted to foreign countries. The MMCA has worked with researchers in women’s studies, history, performing arts, and other fields to discover stories of different people who faced the ills of war and will present new works by domestic and international artists. The exhibition will also introduce works that explore topics such as anti-communist ideologies and conscription of South Korean men to examine the effects of the ongoing Korean War on society.

– MMCA

Jinju Lee draws delicately and in detail the pieces of memories and symbolic objects of everyday life that contain traces of the past intact. Based on tenacious observation of life and reality, she creates a peculiar and unfamiliar landscape formed on reality.

We live our lives while perceiving the world subjectively within the framework of our own experience and thought. On the one hand, some things exist in a way that cannot be seen or that are invisible or unexplainable. Thus, the way that people view the world is essentially imperfect in that it is somewhat distorted or lacking. In this exhibition, Jinju Lee presents her work in a huge A-shaped structure that encompasses the entire space so that the images cannot all be grasped at once. As if admiring an open scroll, the viewers realize the inevitable existence of ‘the unperceived’ which exists but is invisible, as they move along with the work created at eye level. Viewers will have the opportunity to think about the structure of truth that exists in ways that cannot be explained in many areas of life.

Tiger Lives is a special exhibition consisting of cultural relics and paintings of tigers in the Coreana Museum of Art and the Coreana Cosmetics Museum’s collection, presented alongside contemporary videos, paintings, and installations. Taken from video artist Nam June Paik’s eponymous work, the title emphasizes the persistent belief in the tiger’s symbolic presence in its present-progressive tense. From tiger claws – known for their power to ward off ill fate – to tiger embroideries on the military attire, paintings of roaring tigers and their comical renditions in folk art, tigers occupy a wide spectrum of representations to encompass disparate classes and beliefs. The symbolism of the tiger, meanwhile, stimulates new explorations in the minds of contemporary artists, mediating discrete points of history, culture, and myth. We hope that the exhibition would present the visitors with an opportunity to experience the rich oeuvre of tiger symbolisms through traditional representations and contemporary recontextualizations. 

– space*c

Rim is recognized as a nature artist in Korean art scene, he has been considerably underrated and there has not been sufficient research about the artist. He has consistently pursued an art world of his own intergrating nature, life, and art as a persistent performer and meticulous archivist to overcome the limits of performance art. 

The city of Seoul plans to inaugurate Art Archives, Seoul Museum of Art, which will become the center of the collection, preservation and research of art document resources and has received a total of about 5,000 pieces of resources from the artist since 2018. Thus, the Seoul Museum of Art seeks to suggest a novel perspective to broaden the understanding about the artist by collaborating with Culture Headquarters, Seoul Metropolitan Government and unraveling the artist’s art resources from the 1970s to 2000s in an exhibition.       

– SeMA

Lost in Parody, Nugroho’s second solo exhibition in Seoul, Korea since 2013, is comprised of over 20 new and recent works. In the basement level of the exhibition hall are largescale embroidery works measuring over 3.5 meters in length, made using traditional embroidery techniques from a small village in Indonesia. In order to revive the traditional embroidery business, which did not seem sustainable in today’s society, the artist proposed a collaboration with the village and has been producing these “embroidered paintings” since 2007. Nugroho was able to revitalise the disappearing industry by collaborating with and providing new opportunities for traditional embroiderers. These works, initiated by questioning the societal role of art, now represent the value of local community and the artist’s belief in a renewed communal society.

– Arario Gallery

This show introduces the history of APMA through a wide range of artworks it has collected, encompassing paintings, metalcraft, woodcraft, and textile works. As the first exhibition dedicated to its traditional art collection, it attempted to show a large number of works to reexamine the value and historical significance of Korean traditional art.

– Amorepacific Museum of Art

The exhibition features 22 works across multifaceted categories, from sound installation, audience-driven performance, interactive sound installation, light art to visual music by 13 internationally recognized artists and collectives. With this exhibition, D MUSEUM is being reinvented as a new art platform where 13 sound spaces await to elicit awareness, sentiments and memories of individuals. In infinite yet transient aural world the audience will be reintroduced to the sense of hearing and guided into the journey of space, time and sound.

– D Museum