Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Korean Art Odyssey Evolving face of Korean exhibitions on global stage

DENVER, Colo./SALEM, Mass. — During the 1990s and 2000s, a new era for Korean art began to unfold. With the vigorous support of the government-affiliated Korea Foundation (KF), the first major wave of permanent Korean galleries opened across museums in the United States. Among them was the Arts of Korea Gallery at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, inaugurated in 1998, where Soyoung Lee started her career as the museum’s first curator of Korean art. “During that period, a lot of the focus and activities revolved around Korean collections that U.S. museums had already built, which were mostly pre-20th century,” recalled Lee, who now helms the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. This meant the KF and the National Museum of Korea helped drive the emphasis on the country’s traditional art by supporting loans, exhibitions, research and curatorial residencies. Yet this momentum soon met its natural limits, Lee noted. The available body of pre-20th century Korean works was finite, even within Korea itself, and there were growing ethical concerns over what should — or should no

Nov 14, 2025By Park Han-sol

[Korean Art Odyssey] Evolving face of Korean exhibitions on global stage

Korean Art Odyssey 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

ZURICH — In Switzerland, where many first encountered Korean pop culture through the K-drama “Crash Landing on You” — featuring iconic scenes filmed at Iseltwald, Jungfraujoch and the Munster Bridge — a different kind of Korean phenomenon took hold this year. Museum Rietberg in Zurich drew an unusually varied audience for “Hallyu! The Korean Wave,” a traveling exhibition that ran from April to August and offered a glimpse into how global perceptions of Korea are shifting. On a typical August afternoon, the museum buzzed with an eclectic mix of visitors from elderly subscribers wandered through the show with catalogues in hand to a costume enthusiast lingered over the intricate folds of hanbok (traditional Korean attire). Teenagers decked out in K-pop merch took selfies in front of multicolored light sticks and idol costumes and their parents followed an on-screen dance tutorial for PSY’s “That That,” while nearby visitors paused to read about Korea’s rapid modernization. “We saw this exhibition on Instagram,” said Stray Kids fans Lena, 17, and Winona, 16, from

Nov 14, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

[Korean Art Odyssey] 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

Star vocalists dazzle at The Korea Times musical gala

Under the soaring ceiling of Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul's Songpa District on Monday evening, three of Korea's finest vocalists gathered for a night of theatrical brilliance. The Korea Times marked its 75th anniversary with its gala concert, "The Musical." Guided by veteran music director and conductor Kolleen Park, soprano Kang Hye-jung and musical theater stars Michael K. Lee and Choi Jae-rim turned the night into a sweeping celebration of theatrical artistry and the newspaper's lasting legacy. Anticipation was palpable long before the curtain rose, as concertgoers — some affiliated with the English daily but many simply drawn by the promise of great music — began crowding the gates hours ahead of showtime. As the High Tone Symphony Orchestra opened the performance with the "Titanic Suite," Kang appeared in a green gown, the newspaper's symbolic color, her crystalline voice filling the hall as she sang "My Heart Will Go On." The opening unfolded like a history of modern musicals, with Broadway passion meet orchestral splendor. Lee first took the stage for "Out There" from "The Hunc

Nov 11, 2025By Pyo Kyung-min

Star vocalists dazzle at The Korea Times musical gala

Korea Foundation brings architecture, digital art lectures to US, UK

The Korea Foundation, a government-affiliated nonprofit that fosters cultural exchange and public diplomacy, will host a series of lectures exploring the intersections of Korean art and technology across the United States and United Kingdom this month. Titled “KF LAB Series: Lectures on Arts and Beyond,” the weeklong program is set to run from Nov. 12 to 19 at five institutions, with an aim to deepen global academic engagement with Korean culture. A talk on Korean architecture will take place in the U.S. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Nov. 12), the Korea Society in New York City (Nov. 17) and New York University Institute of Fine Arts (Nov. 18-19). Led by Pai Hyung-min, professor of architecture at the University of Seoul, the lecture will trace the historical context and major currents of the country’s modern and contemporary architectural landscape. Pai previously curated the Golden Lion-winning Korean Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale and the inaugural edition of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2017. Meanwhile, the program’s a

Nov 11, 2025By Park Han-sol

Korea Foundation brings architecture, digital art lectures to US, UK

ReviewMusical 'Death Note' returns with new faces, sharper moral edge

Ten years after its premiere in Korea, the musical version of "Death Note" still remains one of the most eerily relevant stage works. Currently back at D-Cube Link Art Center in southwestern Seoul, the production transforms a simple "what if" into a haunting reflection on justice, morality and the unspoken human temptation to play god. Adapted from the acclaimed Japanese manga and anime of the same name, the production has remained a steady fixture in Korea's musical theater scene. Since its 2015 debut, the musical has continued to draw strong ticket sales under OD Company, which took over production in 2022. The story closely mirrors the original manga, following Light Yagami, a brilliant yet disillusioned high school student who discovers the Death Note, a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. Convinced he can rid the world of evil, Light begins executing violent criminals with a flick of his pen, only to be challenged by L, a young detective whose intellect rivals his own. What stands out most in the current 10th-anniversary run is a bold shift in its l

Nov 4, 2025By Pyo Kyung-min

Musical 'Death Note' returns with new faces, sharper moral edge

Abstraction in dialogue: Kim Whanki's dots, Adolph Gottlieb's bursts

It was in 1963, at the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil, that two abstractionists from opposite ends of the world first crossed paths. That year, each representing their nation’s pavilion, Korea’s Kim Whanki (1913-74) received an honorary prize, while American artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903-74) was awarded the Grand Prix. No record remains to tell whether the two actually came face-to-face at the international event, yet it was Gottlieb’s paintings that kindled a turning point in Kim’s life. Soon after, at the age of 50, Kim set out across the ocean for New York — a city where Gottlieb already stood as a pillar of the New York School alongside Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. There, Kim eventually entered the most defining phase of his career, birthing his now instantly recognizable pointillist paintings awash with an infinite constellation of dots. “The Language of Abstraction, The Universe of Emotion” at Pace Gallery Seoul gathers the works of these two 20th-century masters under one roof in a resonant dialogue. Organized in collaboration with the Whanki Foundation and the Ad

Oct 31, 2025By Park Han-sol

Abstraction in dialogue: Kim Whanki's dots, Adolph Gottlieb's bursts

Korean Art Odyssey How Korean art first entered Western museums

DRESDEN, Germany/SALEM, Mass. — Korean culture may be everywhere today, but the path to discovering Korea’s deeper story runs through museum galleries — rooms where celadon glows like moonlight, lacquer shimmers in shadow and history whispers from vitrines. Beyond Korea’s borders, however, these spaces have long been few and small, unevenly researched and eclipsed by the scale of Chinese and Japanese collections. But the tide is turning. A new generation of curators is rediscovering overlooked treasures, expanding collections through strategic acquisitions and reimagining how Korean art can be seen with digital tools and approached through pop-culture touchpoints to draw in new audiences. To understand how far Korean art has come on the global stage, one must first trace how it arrived there. The story of Korean collections in overseas museums is complex, shaped by diplomacy, colonial entanglements, scholarly pursuit and, at times, sheer serendipity. This opening chapter turns to the origins of that journey: who first collected Korean objects, how they were acquired and why they

Oct 31, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo and Park Han-sol

[Korean Art Odyssey] How Korean art first entered Western museums

Enduring bond between two abstract masters Kim Whanki, Adolph Gottlieb on view at Pace Seoul

Korean abstract master Kim Whanki (1913-1974) was already a well-established artist in Korea when he moved to New York at the age of 50. A relentless innovator in his own art world, Kim is said to be profoundly influenced by his encounter with the paintings of American abstract expressionist Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) at the 1963 Sao Paulo Art Biennial — an experience that left an indelible impression and partly prompted his move to New York later that year. This pivotal moment sparked a profound artistic kinship between the two, explored in the upcoming exhibition, titled "The Language of Abstraction, The Universe of Emotion," at Pace Gallery in Seoul. The dual exhibit brings together the artists' work from the 1960s and 1970s, spanning Kim's time in New York. According to the Whanki Museum, this was the period when "his search for the essence of nature evolved into a most pristine and complete form of abstraction." Pace Gallery explained Tuesday that Kim immersed himself in New York's dynamic art scene and "gradually eliminated figurative reference from his work, refining his languag

Oct 28, 2025By Yonhap

Enduring bond between two abstract masters Kim Whanki, Adolph Gottlieb on view at Pace Seoul

Sanctuary of stillness: Lee Ufan's new permanent space 'Silentium' finds home at Hoam Museum

“Silentium” means stillness in Latin. Minimalist artist Lee Ufan breathes his own philosophy into the word, rendering it as “默視庵” — the Chinese characters for “to behold within stillness.” It is a way of seeing that attunes the self to subtle movements within silence, thus echoing his larger, lifelong mantra: “When one lets go and empties oneself, a greater infinity unfolds.” This meditation on silence finds physical form at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. “Silentium,” a new permanent space nestled within the museum’s Hee Won garden, gathers three of Lee’s paintings and one outdoor installation in seamless harmony. As a pioneer of the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement, Lee has long engaged with natural and industrial materials like stone, steel, wood and glass, presented in their unaltered states. His arrangements direct the viewer’s attention to relationships — between the natural and the human-made, the object and the space it inhabits, and between the work and the observer. In his practice, it is this constant interplay, rath

Oct 28, 2025By Park Han-sol

Sanctuary of stillness: Lee Ufan's new permanent space 'Silentium' finds home at Hoam Museum

Birgit Nilsson Prize recognizes festival celebrating past and future of opera

STOCKHOLM — “Today’s stage is a music celebration that honors both the legacy of Birgit Nilsson and this year’s laureate, France’s Aix-en-Provence Festival,” said Susanne Rydén, head of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation, opening the 2025 Birgit Nilsson Prize ceremony at Stockholm Concert Hall on Oct. 21. Just 10 months after Korean author Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in literature on the same stage, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden once again took the podium, this time to present the world’s most prestigious classical music award. Established by legendary Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005), who donated her personal fortune to create the award, the Birgit Nilsson Prize is presented every three years to recognize outstanding contributions to classical music. Valued at 1 million dollars, it is the largest monetary award in the classical field. This year, the honor went to the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the first time a festival has received the prize rather than an individual artist. When announcing the laureate in May, the foundation said the festival “set a signifi

Oct 28, 2025By Hankookilbo

Arts & Theater