Austrian artist Erwin Wurm rose to prominence in the early 1990s with his One Minute Sculptures, an ongoing series of works where the artist provides instructions to participants to perform awkward poses with everyday objects―a theme that was the focus of Wurm’s presentation for the Austrian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. This translated into the essence of his practice: investigations into ephemeral and participatory sculptures that comment on the importance of a viewer’s engagement with works of art as a necessary agent for their completion.

– Lehmann Maupin, Seoul

Seoul Museum of Art’s curatorial project Compulsion to Repeat, or Compulsion2 explores how a simple concept of “repetition” takes shape in contemporary art, highlighting the psychological obsessions that make and possess us.

– Seoul Museum Of Art

Embroidered pads, in particular, bore colorful patterns including phoenixes and mandarin ducks as the symbol of harmonious and loving marriage, peonies to wish for wealth and prosperity, and Chinese characters that signify longevity, fortune, and happiness. The beautiful patterns were unfolded on the palm-sized cloths in colorful threads, like brush strokes sliding over a white paper. One can find how the patterns became unique creations, born again each time through the embroiderers’ signature compositions or techniques, and how their shapes also have evolved over generation.

– Space*c, Coreana Art and Culture Complex

It will offer an interesting moment to experience new perspectives on how the objects in the remote past have so much in common with those of today, how the past continues to affect the future, and the similarities and differences in the material cultures of the two distant regions of Korea and Finland.

– National Museum of Korea

Gana Art Hannam is pleased to announce a solo exhibition featuring the recent works of SangJun Roh (b. 1976) who wittily portrays diverse day-to-day scenes of nature and human beings. He attempts to change the medium from paper, which has been the main material for his previous work, to wood, and reveals the resultant pieces of sculpture for the first time to the public in the exhibition. As seen in the title 《Summon: Forgotten Gods》, the artist summons the forgotten gods of the past to the present by using China’s oldest geographical and mythological collection, 『Chan Hai Jing(山海經)』(Classic of Mountains and Seas) as the source of his work. He focuses on the description of ancient Korean geography and mythical beings who lived there, imagining the past beings depicted in the book and visualizing them with wood. We hope that this exhibition, summoned by the gods of the past who wished for a good harvest, defeated evil, and defended the village, is a good opportunity to appreciate the recent works of SangJun Roh and an auspicious beginning to the new year.

– Gana Art Center, Hannam

Min Jung-hwa, an illustrator who works mainly with art books, picture books, and various printing works, is based in Germany and works in Korea. The Ornamental Plants series, which has been immersed since 2018, is the first painting project that Min Junghwa will attempt and will be the second solo exhibition in Korea after Berlin (WESERHALLE, Berin, 2019).

– Factory 483

From Monet to Cezanne: Jerusalem Israel Museum Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces is a 19th-century Impressionist exhibition held by the Jerusalem Israel Museum, the world’s largest museum, rather than a collection of European art galleries. Their collection, which is viewed from a non-European perspective, will be an exhibition of how impressionist works and writers, a branch of the art movement centered on France in the late 19th century, influenced contemporary art.

– Seoul Arts Center

These works leave a subtle yet resounding impression even to us in the present — they impart warm sensibilities of the Korean people that survived the pains of Japanese Occupation, the Korean War, and democratization movement, the joy and sorrow of individuals in their respective lives, and the love and caring among families.

– Gallery Hyundai

KMCA has brought over <Calder on Paper> from the Saatchi Gallery as it was a circulating exhibition. However, with the generous participation of private collectors, we were able to further expand the number of artworks more than 150 pieces. Also the collective date for the artworks spans further than any exhibition has sought, which bumps this exhibition as the first-ever largest retrospective exhibition of Calder in all of Asia. The exhibition will feature over 150 pieces of Calder’s gouaches and paintings spreading from 1920 to 1976.

– KMCA

Gathering is a story of Korean art and disasters. In the aftermath of disaster or in the midst of disaster, which requires a systemic reflection on modernity, what kind of language can art put into practice? Before providing a conclusive answer, this exhibition examines the essential conditions of this question. Who constituted the modern/contemporary museum, and where and why? What does the ocean mean to us after the Sewol Ferry disaster? How can we represent invisible radioactivity? How are these questions connected to one another?

– MMCA

The Square: Art and Society 1900-2019 is a special exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). Jointly held at the museum’s three branches of Deoksugung, Gwacheon, and Seoul, this exhibition explores the role of the public square in contemporary Korea. The two other MMCA exhibitions (to be held at Deoksugung and Gwacheon, respectively) examines the public square in the first half of the twentieth century, culminating in Korea’s liberation in 1945, and in the latter half of the twentieth century, beginning with the Korean War (1950-1953).

– MMCA

This exhibition continues the legacy of the 2012 and 2017 Deoksugung Outdoor Project, acclaimed for presenting contemporary art in the context of the old palace, and is the first edition after the last year’s agreement with Deoksugung Palace Management Office (Director Kim Dong-Young) of The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) to hold regular exhibits. The exhibition introduces five works by five architect groups active in Asia: Space Popular, CL3, Bureau Spectacular, OBBA, and Obra Architects.

– MMCA

Venetian Rhapsody—The Power of Bluff, a work designed to mimic the flashy neon signs in the famous gambling city Las Vegas. The scenery of the Venice Biennale overlaps with the cityscape of Las Vegas in that the authoritative art biennale and its excavation of star artists ultimately serve as means to turn art into a business. Adopting advertisement techniques—the key elements of capitalism—the installation scathingly lampoons the shadow of capitalism cast over contemporary art.

– MMCA

Museum of Color is a pop-up museum with the theme of color. In this special exhibition that only opens for 100 days, the colors [are] reinterpreted as a beautiful place in itself. Sky, sea, forest [from] the same nature to artificial buildings like palaces and buildings. Museum of Colors lets you move from room to room. It is a new world that changes every time.

– Museum of Colors

LOTTE Museum of Art boldly brings to you a special exhibit, presenting a wealth of space-themed artworks centered around Snoopy from Peanuts – the very beagle who accompanied the astronauts on NASA’s Apollo X mission approximately half a century ago. Peanuts, which turns 70 this year, has long been hailed as a contemporary classic due in part to its distinct outlook on the world. Best known for the iconic beagle Snoopy, the legendary comic franchise was originally created by American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz as a series of four-panel comic strips, featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy as the two mainstays along with a gang of young friends. Peanuts ran for 50 years from 1950 to 2000, and was enlisted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most published comic strip in the world.

– Lotte Museum