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Kwon Mee-yoo

Korea Times Politics & City Reporter

Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.

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Warm, heartfelt gift ideas for Christmas

Bliss of handmade craft at 'Key' By Kwon Mee-yoo Christmas is a perfect time to prepare unique, handmade gifts for someone special. “Key — New Artist’s Original,” located in Seogyo-dong, near Hongik University, is the ideal place to find gift items to share the Christmas spirit. Opened in July, the shop is an ambitious project of Living & Art Creative Center, the organization that operates Free Market. Key is a combination of a small gallery and a shop, introducing young artist’s works for sale from paintings and digital prints to ceramics and plush dolls. Manager Lee In-gu said he tries to explain about the artists and their works to visitors to the store. “At first, we thought of putting up tags with details about each object, but we changed the plan to explaining things directly,” Lee said. “We don’t push the visitors to buy something but aim to introduce young, new artists and stories related to their works. For instance, illustrator Eun-mi’s dolls all have names, birth certificates and different personalities.” Key offered classes for handma

Dec 15, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Korean Heritage

National Museum of Korea reopens prehistory section

By Kwon Mee-yoo The National Museum of Korea in Yongsan reopens its Paleolithic Period Gallery and Neolithic Period Gallery today. Located in the permanent Prehistory and Ancient History Section of the museum, the revamped galleries are set to display some 1,100 artifacts of which 600 items are being viewed by the public for the first time since excavation. As part of the museum’s overhaul, this effort is to provide a comprehensive historical perspective. Kim Young-na, director of the National Museum of Korea, said the remodeling aims to add a modern touch to the exhibit. “Stone Age men are considered primitive, but they had enough sense to overcome a barren environment. I hope the new display can explain the development of primitive culture in an easy, fun and accessible way,” Kim said at a press preview Monday. A text timeline is supplemented by a video explaining the history of Korea and a 23-centimeter-long hand ax, excavated from a prehistoric site in Jeongok-ri, Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, in a glass showcase lures visitors in the main gallery. “The Jeongo

Dec 12, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

’Translation is process of finding second best’

By Kwon Mee-yoo Many Broadway and West End musicals are staged in Korea and the majority of them are licensed Korean-language productions. Some of them are translated well, smoothly conveying the original message while others are poorly rendered with mistranslation and do not even have the translator’s name in the program. However, there are a few credible translators on the Korean theater scene and Park Chun-hwi is one of them. Park, 40, is the translator of two hot musicals currently being staged in Seoul — “Zorro” and “Next to Normal.” Though completely different in style, the two shows are receiving critical acclaim as well as applause from the audiences. Park is a translator and composer, but surprisingly, he majored in math at Yonsei University. “A borrowed LP of the musical ‘Les Miserables’ led me to the world of musicals,” Park said in an interview with The Korea Times. “I really loved the music and did not return the record for a year until I got my own copy from abroad.” Other works he translated into Korean include Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” a

Dec 11, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Kwon finds inspiration in Oriental painting

By Kwon Mee-yoo In front of Gallery Hyundai Gangnam Space in southern Seoul, a round-faced, smiley character on a flower-patterned box greets visitors. The simple yet playful face belongs to Dongguri, a signature character of Korean artist Kwon Ki-soo, who is holding a solo exhibition “Reflection: The mind is as bright and clean as a stainless mirror” at the gallery. Some 40 pieces of Kwon’s work from paintings and sculptures to installations and videos are presented at “Reflection.” A new series of paintings themed reflection are mostly on the first floor. The paintings might look similar to the artist’s previous works full of colorful flowers, bamboo trees, boxes and boats, but when looked at carefully, the viewer can see a reflected image of Dongguri and other objects on the lower part of the canvas. Dongguri is a pared-down character with a round head, dot eyes and always smiling. The name Dongguri came from Korean word “donggeurami,” meaning round or circle shape. Though the use of color and character might misrepresent Kwon as a pop artist, the artist clarifie

Dec 7, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

’Doctor Zhivago’ staged in musical

By Kwon Mee-yoo A musical version of Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago” will be staged in Korea in January 2012 at the Charlotte Theater in southern Seoul. Best known for the 1965 movie adaptation featuring Omar Sharif as Doctor Yuri Zhivago, the story revolves around Zhivago’s life and love amid the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War. The musical began as a tryout at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006 as “Zhivago”; and the first major production — “Doctor Zhivago” — premiered after revision at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney, Australia in February 2011 with Anthony Warlow as Zhivago and Lucy

Dec 5, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Artists-in-residence researches urban issues

By Kwon Mee-yo Eight artists present their perspective on city and urban life at the "Reflections of an Outsider on Outsiders" exhibition, which will continue through Dec. 13 at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon in Doksan-dong. The title of the exhibit comes from a 1971 article of the same name written by Gregory Pai and published in the Journal of the Korean Urban Management Association. Instead of displaying cliches of urbanity such as photos of apartment complexes and landscapes of the city seen from a road, the exhibition looks into social and cultural issues. Seoul Art Space Geumcheon was a printing factory, but reborn as an artists' residence with 19 studios and five rooms. The institute exchanges artists with overseas organizations including Arts Chiyoda 3331 in Tokyo, Japan; RuangRupa in Jakarta, Indonesia; Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne, Australia; and Hangar in Barcelona, Spain. "We had set the theme of urban research and asked the institutes to send us artists who have researched city issues," Seoul Art Space Geumcheon manager Kim Hee-young said. "Interestingl

Dec 2, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

K-pop translation on smartphone app

By Kwon Mee-yoo Responding to the demand for more information on K-pop, Pop!gasa, a website with translations of K-pop song lyrics, has released a mobile application. It is one of the fastest sources for English translations of K-pop lyrics, having already posted a version of IU’s new album “Last Fantasy.” The site is operated by two young college graduates who love K-pop — Sung-eun Grace Lee, 23, and Jenny Kim, 23. Lee went to Syracuse University in the United States and met second-generation Korean-American Kim there. “Kim was interested in Korean culture, especially K-pop. She suggested establishing a site translating lyrics of K-pop songs to English, as the demand for K-pop was rising, and I thought it was a good idea. There are a few blogs providing the Romanization of K-pop songs, but there was a shortage of English lyrics translation,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times. After having opened on June 17, the website already has an archive of more than 1,000 K-pop lyrics translated to English. Lee majored in biophysics and Kim now works at an

Nov 30, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Invitation to theater for boys and girls

‘The Stones,’ ‘Good Morning School’ portray youth’s struggle By Kwon Mee-yoo There are fun, educational plays and musicals for children and more glamorous or serious ones for adults. However, teenagers are somewhat excluded from the theater scene, as adults tend to guide them instead of thinking from a juvenile perspective. This winter, two theatrical works — “The Stones” and “Good Morning School” — bring teenagers’ growing pains to the stage ‘The Stones' The Korean rendition of “The Stones” is being staged through Dec. 4 at the Baik Soung-hee and Chang Min-ho Theater in Seogye-dong, central Seoul. The National Theater Company of Korea (NTCK) opened a subsidiary Research Institute of Theater for Young Audiences in May and adapting “The Stones” for Korean audience is its first project. It is a two-man show written and directed by Stefo Nantsou and Tom Lycos from Zeal Theatre of Australia and has received critical acclaim in some 20 countries since its premiere in 1996. The play, inspired by the 1994 trial of two teenagers who killed a passing mot

Nov 29, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
People & Events

Lee Hyo-ri dating Lee Sang-soon

By Kwon Mee-yoo Iconic K-pop singer Lee Hyo-ri, 32, is dating singer-songwriter Lee Sang-soon, 38. The two have been together for about five months. They have known each other for about a year and started dating in June when Lee Sang-soon wrote the song "Remember" for Lee Hyo-ri's talent donation project. It is said that they both are interested in protecting abandoned animals and the mutual concern led them to date. Lee Hyo-ri adopted a stray dog and named her Sun-sim, who often accompanies her. Lee Hyo-ri is one of the top female singers in Korea, once a member of now-disbanded girl group Fin.K.L. Her solo album "10 Minutes" was a big hit in 2003. She has a sexy image as a singer, but at the same time has an easy-going nature shown in variety shows such as "Happy Together" and "Family Outing." Lee Sang-soon is a musician who debuted as a member of a three-person band Rollercoaster in 1999. He studied jazz guitar at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and released a project album "Verandah Project" with Kim Dong-ryul last year. He now hosts a radio show featuring world mu

Nov 28, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Korean, Aussie contemporary art meets

By Kwon Mee-yoo It has been 50 years since Korea and Australia established diplomatic relations and the friendship is now blooming on the art scene, with two exhibitions “Tell me Tell me” and “City within the City.” The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) hosts “Tell me Tell me: Australian and Korean Art 1976-2011,” in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, at its main building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, through Feb. 19, 2012. The exhibition was first held at the National Art School in Sydney from June 17 to Aug. 24 before travelling to Korea. Co-curated by Glenn Barkley of the MCA and Kim In-hye of MOCA, the title of the exhibition came from Korean girl group Wonder Girls’ song by the same name. “We hope the exhibition will explain the relationship between the two countries and we are happy to introduce young Australian artists to Korea,” Barkley said. In the exhibition, not only do Australian and Korean cultures meet, but so do the times of 1976 and 2011. “Though Australian art is not well-known in Korea, it has hidde

Nov 21, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
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