Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Small beings, vast universe: Jeju’s Podo Museum contemplates our shared fragility

SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island — Inside the Podo Museum, there is a copy of the March 23, 2025, edition of The New York Times that can't be read. Where rigid columns of text and photographs would normally recount the day’s events, the entire page has been drowned in a field of velvety black. Cutting through this darkness is a single serpentine curve of glowing red-orange light. At first glance, it could be many things — a river of lava or a solar flare seen from outer space. Only when you flip the page does its origin come into focus: a photograph of wildfires tearing through southeastern Korea last spring. Such “visual translations” have become the daily ritual of artist Sho Shibuya. Each morning, from the rooftop of his Brooklyn apartment, he reads The Times and paints over its front page with an image born from the story that grips him most that day. On the cover of another newspaper, he conjures a vast, unbroken sky as it appeared above him that morning. Placed side by side, the two pages speak in quiet contrast: the violence of human affairs, from wars to mass shootings, set again

Aug 15, 2025By Park Han-sol

Small beings, vast universe: Jeju’s Podo Museum contemplates our shared fragility

ReviewABBA anthems, heartwarming story keep musical 'Mamma Mia!' thriving in Seoul

More than two decades after its West End debut, the smash-hit musical "Mamma Mia!" is still packing theaters in Seoul with audiences enjoying the sounds of ABBA's greatest hits. Its current run at LG Art Center Seoul shows that the mix of nostalgia, humor and heart can still move audiences to their feet — even if the production may have begun to show the slightest signs of aging. First premiering in London in 1999, "Mamma Mia!" has since been staged worldwide, including a long run on Broadway. Its Korean rendition opened back in 2004 at the Seoul Arts Center and surpassed 2 million cumulative viewers by 2019. Built around the legendary Swedish pop group's anthems, the musical follows Donna, an independent single mother running a small hotel on a Greek island, and her daughter Sophie, who is preparing to marry her boyfriend at the young age of 20. The plot unfolds as Sophie finds Donna's old diary, then proceeds to invite three men from her mother's past — each of whom might be her father — to the wedding, hoping to learn the truth about her parentage. What follows is a lighthearte

Aug 12, 2025By Pyo Kyung-min

ABBA anthems, heartwarming story keep musical 'Mamma Mia!' thriving in Seoul

Culture minister pledges comprehensive support to globalize K-musicals

Chae Hwi-young, minister of culture, sports and tourism, is pledging to strengthen the support system for Korean musicals, from their creative beginnings to their entry into international markets, to help them find more audiences on global stages. "To ensure Korean musicals are competitive on the global stage, we need a seamless support system that connects the creative phase with overseas market entry," Chae said Saturday during his visit to a performance of the Korean musical “Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon!” in Seoul. He said the ministry would provide "all-around support for this entire process." This visit is part of a broader trend of the minister engaging directly with the arts community, having also recently visited a play at the Myeongdong Arts Theater on Aug. 3 to inspect working conditions and hear opinions from artists. The domestic musical market has shown steady growth as ticket sales in 2023 reached 459 billion won ($330 million) and accounted for over 70 percent of all performing arts ticket sales, according to data from the Korea Arts Management Service’s 2024 survey

Aug 10, 2025By Baek Byung-yeul

Culture minister pledges comprehensive support to globalize K-musicals

Hair salon, death drop and hurricane: How Mark Bradford keeps abstraction tethered to life

Sprawled across the 600-square-meter gallery floor of the Amorepacific Museum of Art is a vast, undulating field of cloth strips. Step closer, and the kaleidoscopic surface reveals each strip’s crude urban origins: weathered posters, canvas scraps, torn flyers and newspapers — all stitched and knotted together with coarse hemp rope. Rather than having to observe this curious patchwork from behind a cordon, viewers are invited to walk directly over its bright, breathing surface as much as they like. But the path is far from smooth. Cloth curls into tangled ridges here and there, and ropes snag your feet. One careless stride, and you’re down in a slapstick stumble. Every movement demands focus, with your gaze fixed on the terrain underfoot. The simple act of walking thus becomes a slow, deliberate choreography — attuned not only to your sense of balance, but to the material memory unfolding beneath your feet, made from the city’s everyday detritus, now stitched into something monumental. Such is the tactile and inevitably political experience that Mark Bradford’s “Float” of

Aug 9, 2025By Park Han-sol

Hair salon, death drop and hurricane: How Mark Bradford keeps abstraction tethered to life

New face of Korean ceramics to find spotlight at Seoul Auction

Seoul Auction, in partnership with the Korea Ceramic Foundation, is set to host an online sale that shines a spotlight on the expressive possibilities of contemporary Korean ceramics — a medium long overshadowed in the local art market. Running from Aug. 14 to 20, “The Ceramic” marks the first collaboration between the auction house and the public foundation. The weeklong auction presents 35 works by seven rising stars who are defining the boundaries of the form: Kwon Hye-in, Shin Won-dong, Yang Ji-woon, Lee Song-am, Lim Jae-hyeon and Jeong Young-yu. The featured pieces range from modern interpretations of time-honored shapes — “buncheong” stoneware, luminous moon jars and black porcelain — to experimental sculptures created via 3D modeling. At their heart is a shared aim: to reframe ceramics not as relics of the past, but as vessels of bold artistry. Among the highlights are Kwon’s classical ceremonial vessel-inspired jars and Shin’s organically pleated vases. For those wishing to witness the works in person, a free preview show will be held from Aug. 15 to 20 at Seoul

Aug 7, 2025By Park Han-sol

New face of Korean ceramics to find spotlight at Seoul Auction

Korea to hand out 2.1 mil. cultural vouchers Friday

Starting Friday at 10 a.m., 2.1 million discount vouchers for performances and exhibitions held across Korea will be up for grabs. Launched by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in partnership with the Korea Arts Management Service and the Arts Council Korea, the initiative seeks to make cultural experiences more accessible to all. A total of 500,000 performance vouchers — each worth 10,000 won ($7.20) — and 1.6 million exhibition vouchers — each worth 3,000 won — will be available on a first-come, first-served basis through five online ticketing platforms: NOL Interpark, Melon Ticket, Time Ticket, Ticketlink and YES24. Each person can claim up to two vouchers per platform, and the offer is also open to both foreigners and minors. Eligible performances include plays, musicals, classical music concerts, traditional Korean music (gugak) and dance. K-pop concerts won't be eligible. Exhibition vouchers apply to museum shows, art fairs and biennales nationwide. To receive the discount, vouchers must be applied at the time of online booking by Sept. 19, and are valid only for e

Aug 7, 2025By Park Han-sol

Korea to hand out 2.1 mil. cultural vouchers Friday

What comes after politics? Artists turn toward personal at Atelier Hermes

We live in a time when contemporary art exhibitions are churned out at a dizzying pace, many orbiting what have become familiar axes: social inequality, the climate crisis, the tangled bonds between humans and nonhumans, digital culture and artificial intelligence (AI). These are, as Atelier Hermes’ artistic director Ahn So-yeon notes, urgent and necessary conversations that are rightly at the forefront. Yet, within this trend, Ahn offers a quieter shift. Rather than placing art in the service of political virtue or social critique, she turns its gaze inward — to the personal, the intimate, the introspective. For her, the way an individual life stretches, fractures and reshapes beyond the bounds of sociopolitical discourse opens up a different, but no less vital, line of inquiry. Gathered under her curatorial vision are five Korean artists and collectives — Bek Hyun-jin, Han & Mona, Lee Yona, Park Min-ha and Kim Bo-kyung — for the group exhibition “The Second Life” at Atelier Hermes in southern Seoul. Tucked inside the flagship store of the French luxury design house, the gal

Jul 31, 2025By Park Han-sol

What comes after politics? Artists turn toward personal at Atelier Hermes

Disconnect to reconnect: Contemporary dance ‘OO-LI’ to explore identity

Feeling overwhelmed by fast-paced, hyperconnected life in the sweltering summer heat? A new contemporary dance performance, “Haeni, Mr. Kriss on Sync Next 25,” at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts invites you to pause, disconnect and reconnect — not through meditation, but through movement. Also titled “OO-LI” — meaning “we” in Korean — the performance brings together 30 dancers to represent two individuals seeking to understand themselves and communicate with one another. Each “individual” is symbolized by a group of 15 dancers, who come together in a 60-minute work composed of a series of abstract scenes. Audiences can expect a fusion of breakdance, hip-hop and other movement styles, set to a rich soundscape blending neo-classical and electronic compositions by Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm, as well as live ambient music by Korean musician Mohani. “I hope people can feel something deeply in their hearts, even if they don’t put it into words,” choreographer and team leader Kim Hae-ni said at a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. “Through this perfo

Jul 29, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

Disconnect to reconnect: Contemporary dance ‘OO-LI’ to explore identity

Gwangju Biennale’s new president eyes next 30 years

The Gwangju Biennale, which debuted in 1995 as Asia’s first contemporary art biennial, now marks its 30th year. Reflecting on its journey, Youn Bum-mo, the new president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, laid out his vision for the road ahead — from refining the event’s distinct identity to launching year-round programming to keep it more in the cultural present. “I served on the founding executive committee for the Biennale’s inaugural edition. In the years since, it has grown into one of Korea’s most prominent art events, resonating far beyond our own borders,” he said at a press conference in Seoul, Monday. “Now, standing on the shoulders of that legacy, I’m stepping into this role to help shape the biennial’s next 30 years.” At the heart of his vision is a renewed focus on the “Gwangju Spirit,” a foundational ethos rooted in the city’s history as the site of the May 18 democracy movement in 1980. “Gwangju and the greater Honam region [including North and South Jeolla Provinces] are also steeped in artistic tradition, long regarded as Korea’s cultura

Jul 28, 2025By Park Han-sol

Gwangju Biennale’s new president eyes next 30 years

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

To Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010), painting was like flying a kite — a soaring act of freedom, yet always tethered to the ground. The image could drift high into abstraction, but it must never lose its thread to life below. “If the painting completely breaks the connection between human feeling and the object portrayed,” he once said, “the kite string has been broken. I try to keep the line unbroken.” One of the most towering figures in 20th-century Chinese art, Wu devoted his career to bridging Eastern ink traditions and Western modern abstraction. His works hover between the tangible and the transcendent, drifting, like a kite, on the wind of two worlds. Now, 17 of his masterpieces, all from the Hong Kong Museum of Art’s (HKMoA) collection, have landed at the Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum for his first exhibition in Korea. Aptly titled “Between Black & White,” the show traverses his oeuvre through an achromatic spectrum of silvery gray, white and black. Vigorous yet restrained, his paintings are proof that the convergence of Eastern and Western aesthetics does not need to be a