Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Nam June Paik as ‘The Communicator’ takes spotlight in New York

“My interest lies in the entire world. For me, every day is a matter of communication.” So declared Nam June Paik (1932-2006), the trailblazing pioneer of video art. In Paik’s prescient mind — one that foresaw the coming of the information age and the hyper-connected global village — art was never a stationary, self-contained field. Rather, it was a participatory site of super-connectivity where analog met digital, East met West and traditions conversed with modernity. This is the spirit that animates the new exhibition, “Nam June Paik: The Communicator,” at the Korean Cultural Center New York. Marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-45), the show is presented in collaboration with the Nam June Paik Art Center in Gyeonggi Province and the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation. The artist’s works, buzzing and radiant, sought nothing less than the liberation of the senses through technology — a freedom unbound by time, space or ideology. On view are 25 video installations and TV robot sculptures from the Nam June Paik Art Ce

Oct 1, 2025By Park Han-sol

Nam June Paik as ‘The Communicator’ takes spotlight in New York

'Water Lily and Chandelier': From Monet to Ai Weiwei at MMCA

Occasionally in Korea, museums present their exhibitions under two entirely different titles — one in the native tongue, the other in English — instead of having them simply mirror each other in translation. Such is the case with the new show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (MMCA) in Gyeonggi Province. Its English title, “Highlights of MMCA Global Art Collection,” does its job with plainspoken clarity: a survey of 44 works by 33 international masters from the museum’s holdings, etched with familiar names like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Niki de Saint Phalle. The Korean version, however, strikes another chord altogether. Translating to “Water Lily and Chandelier,” at once evocative and layered, it is less a description than an invitation, its spare words hiding more stories than they first let on. The title itself derives from two key works that bookend the exhibition: “The Water-Lily Pond” by celebrated Impressionist Monet and “Black Chandelier” by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Monet’s w

Sep 30, 2025By Park Han-sol

'Water Lily and Chandelier': From Monet to Ai Weiwei at MMCA

Antony Gormley's sculptures in dialogue with Seoul, inside and out

If you wander past White Cube this fall, in the heart of southern Seoul’s busy Cheongdam neighborhood, you’ll come face-to-face with a rusted iron humanoid. It isn’t tucked to the side or raised on a pedestal, but squarely in the middle of the walkway, as if the city itself must flow around its stubborn presence. You might bump into it if you’re not careful. You might pause and wonder: “What is this thing doing in my world?” Antony Gormley, the artist behind the piece, imagines the sculpture answering back: “And what, exactly, are you doing in my world?” “It’s important to me to place this ‘rock’ in the stream of daily life,” the British sculptor said during his visit to Korea, which coincided with Frieze Seoul. This visit marked his second return to Korea in a single year, following the June opening of “Ground,” his vast underground dome at Museum SAN in Gangwon Province. In Seoul, the lone street-side figure is part of Gormley’s first solo exhibition in the city, “Inextricable,” which unfolds simultaneously across White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac galler

Sep 28, 2025By Park Han-sol

Antony Gormley's sculptures in dialogue with Seoul, inside and out

Asian American actor Mason Yang challenges conventions in 'Treasure Island'

When Mason Yang was little, he would sit on his grandfather’s foot and listen as he told stories of the “Secret War” in Laos. “He used to tell stories about him in the Secret War," the young actor told The Korea Times. "The way he told the stories was just so captivating. I don't think he was incredibly expressive, but his tone and the way he told the stories was great.” For Yang, now 18, those stories weren’t just family history; they were his first lessons in what it meant to hold an audience. Yang’s grandparents were among the thousands of Hmong refugees who came to the United States after the Vietnam War. Growing up in Minnesota, he carried both that legacy of resilience and the challenges of being a third-generation Hmong American in a world where Asian actors were rarely in the spotlight. Yang acknowledges that despite this, he is still motivated and committed to pursuing a career on the stage. “I know there are more Asian American faces that are now in media, but I could probably still count the number of actors off of my hand, especially in theater," he said. "It

Sep 26, 2025By Antonia Giordano

Asian American actor Mason Yang challenges conventions in 'Treasure Island'

3 fall exhibitions to see in Seoul after September art tide

The tidal rush of art that swept through Seoul with the Frieze and Kiaf fairs in early September may have ebbed, but that doesn’t mean the city’s creative scene has gone quiet. Here are three exhibitions by Korean artists that may offer a chance to catch echoes of that earlier frenzy — this time in quieter, more intimate forms. ‘Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me’ What threads link the work of Seoul-born artist Lee Kang-seung and American artist Candice Lin? For Lin, they run along two paths: “One is a reclamation of queer history, often little known or speculative, because it was not recorded. The other is the idea of thinking of an archive as something that lives not only in papers but also in the body itself,” she said at Gallery Hyundai, where the two creatives unveil their first-ever joint show, “Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me.” Through gold-threaded embroidery, assemblages of material fragments and graphite drawings, Lee has long mined the overlooked legacies of modern LGBTQ+ history and AIDS activism. In doing so, he has sketched a

Sep 24, 2025By Park Han-sol

3 fall exhibitions to see in Seoul after September art tide

Iconic artist Chun Kyung-ja reevaluated at Seoul Museum exhibition

The Seoul Museum is set to open a major posthumous retrospective highlighting the diverse art of late artist Chun Kyung-ja (1924-2015), one of the country's most prominent female artists, who pioneered an unconventional path with her colorful and fantastical paintings. Titled "The 101st Page of My Sad Legend," the exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of her death. It is the artist's largest show since her final 2006 exhibition, "The 82 Beautiful Pages of My Life." The new exhibition brings together some 80 color paintings — the most important genre of her artistic career — in addition to a diverse collection of archival materials, including her writings and book illustrations. The museum said Tuesday the event aims to reevaluate her legacy, particularly as "the first Korean artist" to donate the copyrights of her works to society. Ahn Byung-gwang, the museum's founder, shared the emotional weight behind the exhibition. "At a time when it can take a lifetime to build a reputation but only a second to lose it, the thought that our opportunity to reevaluate was expiring was heart-wrenc

Sep 23, 2025By Yonhap

Iconic artist Chun Kyung-ja reevaluated at Seoul Museum exhibition

InterviewTeresita Fernández peels back erased histories of landscape

For artist Teresita Fernández, a landscape is never just a benign stage of rock and soil. It’s a charged site, layered with history, politics and fraught cultural assumptions. “The land, the ocean, the water — these are never really neutral places. Even though we may think of a landscape or a seascape as this beautiful, free image, it’s always loaded with histories that are not just invisible but deliberately erased,” she told The Korea Times in an interview coinciding with “Liquid Horizon,” her new solo show at Lehmann Maupin Seoul. “So when I’m looking at a place, I tend to think about how this place lives in our imagination and what’s being left out, what isn’t being told — geographically, racially, economically.” In some of her installations, Fernández works with gold and pyrite, the shiny yellow mineral long nicknamed “fool’s gold,” to conjure scenes that shimmer with deceptive serenity. Yet beneath that gleam lies her meditation on how the Americas were violently remade through westward expansion and colonization, all in pursuit of these radiant m

Sep 16, 2025By Park Han-sol

Teresita Fernández peels back erased histories of landscape

Hong Kong Week 2025 to bring music, dance to Seoul

Major orchestras and leading dance companies from Hong Kong will visit Seoul this fall to take part in Hong Kong Week 2025 @ Seoul, a tourism roadshow highlighting cultural elements. The event will open on Sept. 26 with the Hong Kong Ballet’s performance of "Romeo & Juliet" at the National Theater of Korea, marking the troupe’s first appearance in the country. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, students from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Sungkyunkwan University’s Department of Dance will present the experimental "Collab Asia Project" at Sungkyunkwan University. The same performance will take place also at a park in the nearby Daehangno neighborhood on Oct. 3 and 4. Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra will perform on Oct. 11 at Lotte Concert Hall, joined by pansori singer Kim Soo-in, organist Park Joon-ho, mouth organist Chen Yiwei and the Wizard Children’s Choir. The program will include works by Tan Dun, the Chinese-American composer and conductor known for blending Eastern and Western traditions. On Oct. 19, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will appear at the Seoul Arts Center with

Sep 11, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

Hong Kong Week 2025 to bring music, dance to Seoul

Now in Seoul, Wu Guanzhong's landscapes dance between East and West

InterviewSeoul 'natural' fit for first-ever MoMA Bookstore

In the restless tide of Seoul’s Gangnam District, a new venue peeks out like a jewel on the sidewalk, its face split between two worlds. To the left, a honeycomb of golden shelves brims with design objects and whimsical curiosities; to the right, a sleek white chamber presents art books with the quiet precision of a gallery. This is MoMA Bookstore — the first of its kind in the world from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). While MoMA Design Stores have already taken root in New York and Japan, this is the museum’s first dedicated bookstore, where visitors can find a trove of eye-catching objects alongside more than 200 MoMA-published titles, from exhibition catalogues to graphic works. Why Seoul, of all places? According to Sarah Suzuki, the museum’s associate director, the city’s fertile cultural landscape is hard to overlook. “When I come to Seoul, I always go around to a lot of museums, galleries and cultural spaces. To see those spaces so vibrant, so full of visitors of all different ages really engaging with what’s on view, it’s really special,” she told The

Sep 10, 2025By Park Han-sol

Seoul 'natural' fit for first-ever MoMA Bookstore

‘Swag Age in Concert’ brings Joseon flair to London’s West End

LONDON — The Gillian Lynne Theatre rang with a defiant “Oh-eh-oh!” on Monday night as “Swag Age in Concert” made its U.K. debut. For one night only, London audiences were swept into an imagined Joseon-era world where free expression was banned and poetry became an act of rebellion. The Korean musical “Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon!,” condensed from its full 170-minute version, was staged on a bare set, giving full focus to the performers. At times this meant captions were hard to follow alongside the fast-moving action, but the show’s energy lay elsewhere, in the blend of music, movement and character. Acrobatics and ensemble movement helped fill the space, with performers leaping across the stage and weaving through the audience, keeping the atmosphere playful and unpredictable. Traditional Korean instruments like the piri (a double reed instrument) and gayageum (zither) were fused with rap and hip-hop beats, while the choreography mixed hip-hop, locking and breakdancing with traditional Korean rhythms. That balance between modern and traditional was also reflected in the

Sep 9, 2025By Jiji Ahn

Arts & Theater