Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Korea, from 12th century to present, highlighted at major US museums
Ham Kyung-ah's "What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities" (2015) / Courtesy of the artist, Philadelphia Museum of Art
By Park Han-sol
Korean art shows to open at Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Met
From 12th-century Goryeo-era artifacts to present-day installations reflecting on the poignant state of the Korean Peninsula’s division, Korean art is set to come under the spotlight at major museums in the United States this fall.
The exhibition, “The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989,” hosted by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, delves into the transformative changes that have reshaped the country’s sociopolitical landscape since the late 1980s through the works of 28 Korean artists.
The late 1980s marked a profound turning point for Korea as it witnessed the end of decades of military dictatorship and the lifting of an international travel ban. This period was a watershed moment in the art world, enabling creatives to engage with their global counterparts beyond national borders.
“Korea has a growing and vibrant art scene, so including the Korean voice is crucial to a more fully realized and inclusive global art narrative,” the museum’s Director and CEO Sasha Suda said, adding that the show focuses on “introducing new voices – ones that have experienced this pivotal place and time in history firsthand.”
“The Shape of Time,” which opens on Oct. 21 and runs through Feb. 11, 2024, features artists – including Suki Seokyeong Kang, Park Chan-kyong, Do Ho Suh, Ham Kyung-ah and Chang Jia – who explore layered themes of inter-Korean relations, gender and sexuality, displacement and historical legacies.
Ham presents “What you see is the unseen/Chandeliers for Five Cities,” an oversized needlework of a luminous chandelier, created through smuggling and covert collaboration with North Korean embroidery crafts artisans.
The Philadelphia museum also commissioned Shin Mee-kyoung’s “Eastern Deities Descended” for the show, where the artist employs her signature material of soap to breathe life into the unrealized projects of American sculptor John Gregory, thereby raising questions about cultural translatability.
Artist Shin Mee-kyoung works in a studio in this photo taken by Elizabeth Leitzell this year. Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Arts of Korea gallery with the exhibition, “Lineages: Korean Art at The Met.”
Scheduled to run from Nov. 7 to Oct. 20, 2024, it brings together 30 works spanning from the 12th century to the present, centered around the four intertwined themes of lines, things, places and people.
The show has been organized by Eleanor Soo-ah Hyun, who assumed the position of the museum’s associate curator for Korean art in September as a result of the first endowed curatorship funded by the Korea Foundation and the Samsung Foundation of Culture.
The Met established its first permanent gallery dedicated to Korean art in 1998. It currently houses a collection that includes a Goryeo-era inlaid lacquer box and Buddhist paintings, as well as a mid-15th-century patterned “buncheong” ware.
Suh Se-ok's "People" (1988) / Courtesy of MMCA
Suh Se-ok’s ink painting, “People,” depicting a sea of abstract human characters in repeated brushstrokes, serves as a prelude to the exhibition.
The show then proceeds to trace the legacies of the country’s centuries-old calligraphy, ink painting, ceramics, landscape art and portraiture, while simultaneously putting them in a direct dialogue with modern and contemporary creatives – such as Kim Whanki, Paik Nam-soon, Park Soo-keun and Byron Kim.
“By pairing historical with modern and contemporary artwork, the show poses the question of how new lineages and legacies have been shaped by Korean artists responding to the past, their present, and looking toward the future,” stated Max Hollein, the museum’s director and CEO.