The Korea Times

When hallucinations become art

Korean painter Lee Keun-min cracks open the border between illness and imagination in “Before It Becomes a Scene,” his first solo exhibition at PKM Gallery. The show turns decades-old hallucinations into searing, flesh-toned canvases that ask who gets to define a “normal” mind. On view through July 25 in the gallery in Seoul’s Jongno District, the show brings together 23 previously unseen works, including large-scale paintings towering nearly 3 meters high and a new series of drawings titled “Refining Hallucinations.” The works, all created since 2023, are being presented in Korea for the first time. Lee traces the origin of this feverish visual world back 25 years, when he was hospitalized after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. There, he confronted what he calls the “authority” of psychiatric language and the overwhelming force of his own hallucinations, populated by fragmented bodies, raw matter and nameless organic forms. He explained that he keeps painting his hallucinations to seize them “before it becomes a scene” — before a doctor names

Jun 11, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Arts & Theater

9 still life photographers claim new spotlight in AI era at Kukje Gallery

In an age when artificial intelligence (AI) can generate slick images in seconds, Kukje Gallery is highlighting the power of a patient gaze and an optical lens. The gallery’s new photography exhibition, “Objects in Oscillation,” brings together nine leading Korean photographers whose still life works reclaim a genre long sidelined in the country’s contemporary art scene. Curated by Koo Bohn-chang, a pioneering photographer and educator who has helped integrate photography into Korean contemporary art, the show is a rare case for a Korean gallery to devote its exhibition spaces solely to still life photography. Koo said he wanted to make visible a group of artists who have been quietly expanding the possibilities of still life while receiving far less attention than their peers in documentary or conceptual photography. “I wanted to show that there are photographers in Korea working in very diverse ways, and that they should receive the attention and evaluation they deserve,” he said during a press walkthrough. Instead of relying on heavy digital manipulation or generative AI,

Jun 10, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

9 still life photographers claim new spotlight in AI era at Kukje Gallery

Books

Seoul Real Book Fair launches as alternative to Seoul Int'l Book Fair

As Seoul’s popular “text hip” culture fuels record demand for book fairs, a group of independent publishers is launching an alternative event to challenge Korea’s largest literary festival scheduled for later this month. Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) is slated for June 24 through 28 at Coex in southern Seoul, while Seoul Real Book Fair will take place at Nodeul Lounge on Nodeul Island in Seoul from June 25 to 28. The alternative fair was born from mounting frustration among small and midsized publishers who have been unable to secure booths at SIBF despite the event’s surging popularity. “In recent years, SIBF has effectively become the name of a company with a handful of major shareholders, instead of a public festival cultivated by Korean readers and publishers for the past 50 years,” the organizing committee wrote on Instagram, criticizing SIBF for what they described as “privatization." The committee argues that the marginalization of independent publishers began in 2024 with the establishment of Seoul International Book Fair Inc. The event also dropped conside

Jun 9, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Seoul Real Book Fair launches as alternative to Seoul Int'l Book Fair

People & Events

Professor bridges Korea, Zimbabwe with lecture on culture

Korean scholar and English educator Min Byoung-chul has become a one-day lecturer on Korean culture for teenagers in Zimbabwe, Friday. At the invitation of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Zimbabwe, Min, an endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University and the author of “Land of Squid Game,” delivered a 70-minute interactive online lecture on Korean culture to Zimbabwean youth, explaining Korean customs and everyday expressions. Participants gathered in a lecture hall set up at the residence of Korean Ambassador to Zimbabwe Park Jae-kyung, where each segment of the talk reportedly prompted lively discussion. The session followed a simple loop — watching short YouTube videos from Min’s channel, followed by his commentary and a Q&A — but quickly turned into a two-way exchange as students compared Korean customs with their own. Min spotlighted everyday cultural codes — from the greeting “Have you eaten?” and birthday seaweed soup to missing fourth floors, chopstick taboos and the “ppalli-ppalli” (hurry-hurry) mindset behind Korea’s rapid postwar rise. What drew

Jun 9, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Professor bridges Korea, Zimbabwe with lecture on culture

Trends

How plogging turns eco-anxiety into lifestyle for young Koreans

As Koreans brace for another sweltering summer, a grim joke has taken hold in casual conversation: “This will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.” For many young people, that line is no longer dark humor but a blunt summary of how the climate crisis feels — relentless, immediate and deeply personal. Among Korea’s young generations, a wave of what experts call “climate anxiety” reshapes their daily lives, from how they exercise and shop to whether they plan to marry or have children. Rather than taking to the streets with placards in protest, many are turning their unease into what they describe as “liveable” eco-friendly lifestyles woven into ordinary routines. A 2024 study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found that more than 90 percent of Korean adults feel anxious about the climate crisis. Young adults in their 20s recorded the highest scores among all age groups. Researchers also noted a “functional” side to this anxiety: the more worried people were, the more likely they were to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, rather than disengag

Jun 6, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

How plogging turns eco-anxiety into lifestyle for young Koreans

Films

‘Pilgrims’: Korean SF animation utopia that chooses to fall short

What would it take to walk away from a world without grief, illness or heartbreak — and is that kind of paradise even worth staying in? “Pilgrims,” the new Korean animated feature adapted from Kim Cho-yeop’s widely translated short story of the same title, poses that disquieting question. The film centers around a group of young adults who abandon a meticulously utopian planet where pain and sorrow have been engineered out of existence for a flawed and wounded Earth and confront the emotional and ethical costs of a life without suffering. In recent years, Korean SF, particularly by female writers like Kim, has been increasingly recognized for centering questions of care, otherness and the limits of progress. Rather than racing toward distant galaxies or celebrating technological conquests, these works dwell on relationship, fragile bodies and ethical ambiguities of “improvement,” in quiet contrast to the long-dominant strain of Western mainstream SF. The film arrives with substantial anticipation against that backdrop. Kim’s “If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light,” whic

Jun 5, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

‘Pilgrims’: Korean SF animation utopia that chooses to fall short

Korean Heritage

5 must-see Korea-France treasures at National Palace Museum

An ongoing exhibition at the National Palace Museum of Korea called “Gifts and Records: 140 Years of Korea-France Friendship" offers visitors a rare glimpse into 140 years of Korea-France ties through a handful of carefully selected diplomatic gifts. The exhibition features a variety of items exchanged between leaders of both countries for more than a century. Among the numerous items on display, five objects stand out as visual symbols of Korea-France relations and its ups and downs. Wine bottle One of the most disarming objects in the show is a plump brown pottery bottle once used to serve alcohol. The earthenware vessel, now housed at France’s Sevres National Ceramics Museum, is linked to a shipwreck off the shore of today’s Shinan County, South Jeolla Province, in 1851, indicating face-to-face exchanges decades before the 1866 French invasion of Ganghwa Island and the 1886 Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. According to historic records, a French whaling ship, the Narval, drifted to the Korean coast after being battered by rough seas while sailing from Le Havre toward the Yello

Jun 4, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

5 must-see Korea-France treasures at National Palace Museum

Arts & Theater

Inside National Museum of Korea's boom: star director's special lecture makes heritage come alive

While the National Museum of Korea may be best known for its wildly popular souvenirs, there is something else that makes the place a hot cultural destination: its own director, You Hong-june, a star cultural commentator and public intellectual, and his popular public lectures. Over the past year and into early this year, You — former head of the national heritage agency, Korean art history professor and writer — has invited the general public to the museum for story-driven special lectures on the arts world and lives of the painters featured in the museum’s ongoing exhibitions. This week, he returned with a two-hour immersion in art and history about Danwon Kim Hong-do (1745-1806?), the beloved painter cherished for his vivid depictions of everyday life, landscape paintings and pioneering realism during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty. The 750-seat auditorium was filled to capacity, with a cross-generational crowd ranging from Gen Z students to middle-aged office workers and retirees with gray hair, many clutching exhibition leaflets and notebooks. Online registration for the free e

Jun 3, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Inside National Museum of Korea's boom: star director's special lecture makes heritage come alive

Arts & Theater

Korean struggles reflected in dueling renditions of Chekhov classic

Two versions of an unhappy uncle have drawn Korean theatergoers this May, as Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” arrived in Seoul in contrasting productions at two of the country’s best-known venues. The dueling “Uncle Vanya” productions opened weeks apart at LG Arts Center and the National Theater Company of Korea. The two stagings of the 19th-century Russian classic with television and film celebrities in key roles sparked buzz before the productions even opened. Both succeeded in attracting audiences and selling out performances for reasons that went well beyond their celebrity casts. Many Koreans found they could relate with Chekhov's weary uncle and circumstances he was in. 'Ajeossi' meets Chekhov’s worn-out Vanya The original work, first staged in 1899, centers on Vanya, who devotes his life to managing a rural estate in Russia for his late sister’s husband, a professor. He confronts the possibility that his sacrifices may have been in vain when the professor returns with his young, beautiful new wife Yelena, destroying the fragile peace Vanya has maintained with his niec

Jun 2, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Korean struggles reflected in dueling renditions of Chekhov classic

Politics

Broadcasters gear up for high-tech showdown on election night

Korea’s three major terrestrial broadcasters are gearing up for a high-stakes, high-tech ratings battle on June 3, as they are expected to roll out lavish election night specials for the nationwide local elections. Election night coverage has emerged as a signature battleground for Korean media in recent years, with broadcasters pouring resources into data visualization, star panelists and eye-catching graphics to distinguish their shows. This year, KBS, MBC and SBS are doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) to entice viewers and interpret the vote. For the first time, KBS will stage its election night broadcast from the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, turning a venue of recent cultural sensation into a symbolic arena for democracy. A special set around the museum’s central Mirror Pond will serve as a metaphorical pool reflecting public sentiment, while artifacts from the museum are expected to help visualize local voters’ choices. Inside the main studio, a massive LED screen, 30 meters wide and 7 meters high, will display

Jun 1, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Lee Hae-rin

Read more

When hallucinations become art

9 still life photographers claim new spotlight in AI era at Kukje Gallery

Seoul Real Book Fair launches as alternative to Seoul Int'l Book Fair

Professor bridges Korea, Zimbabwe with lecture on culture

How plogging turns eco-anxiety into lifestyle for young Koreans

‘Pilgrims’: Korean SF animation utopia that chooses to fall short

5 must-see Korea-France treasures at National Palace Museum

Inside National Museum of Korea's boom: star director's special lecture makes heritage come alive

Korean struggles reflected in dueling renditions of Chekhov classic

Broadcasters gear up for high-tech showdown on election night

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