Lifestyle - The Korea Times

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

Jul 28, 2025By Park Han-sol

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

Korean musical 'Swag Age' makes UK debut in one-night-only concert

The award-winning Korean musical “Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon!” will make its London debut this autumn in a concert performance at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Sept. 8. Titled “Swag Age in Concert,” the one-night-only staging will bring the genre-bending production to a global stage for the first time, introducing U.K. audiences to a unique fusion of Korean history, hip-hop and the universal message of resistance and freedom. Set in a fictionalized Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), the musical imagines a society where sijo — a traditional poetic form once embraced by common people as a way to endure life’s hardships — is banned in the wake of a political conspiracy. The story follows the revival of sijo through a national poetry competition and a secret rebel group known as Golbindang, who risk everything to reclaim artistic expression and cultural identity from the grip of a powerful court official who monopolizes the genre. “It is truly meaningful to have this piece held in London at this amazing venue through ‘Swag Age in Concert,’” playwright Park Chan-min said in

Jul 24, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Korean musical 'Swag Age' makes UK debut in one-night-only concert

Key art exhibitions to catch in Korea for season ahead

The first half of 2025 began with a thunderclap in Korea’s art scene, marked by blockbuster exhibitions that revealed a cultural appetite more fervent than ever. At the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), “Ron Mueck” — the Australian sculptor’s largest retrospective in Asia — drew over 530,000 visitors across three months, averaging a record-setting 5,000 attendees per day. Mueck’s silicone sculptures are eerily lifelike, with every wrinkle, vein and pore rendered with surgical precision. Unsettling yet hypnotic, these hyperrealist bodies have struck a chord with a new generation of viewers. The works have found an especially vivid afterlife online among those in their 20s and 30s, for whom the art of image-sharing on social media is second only to the art itself. Another standout earlier this year was the rare retrospective of Jeong Seon (1676-1759) at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Titled “Gyeomjae Jeong Seon,” the exhibition marked the most comprehensive presentation to date of the 18th-century master. Assembled under one roof

Jul 24, 2025By Park Han-sol

Key art exhibitions to catch in Korea for season ahead

Hilma af Klint painted for spirits — and century later, world is finally looking

BUSAN — The origin of modern abstraction has long rested on a handful of towering names: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich. Men whose legacies are etched into museum walls and art history textbooks, whose breakthroughs are hailed as the beginning of it all. But some revolutions bloom in silence. And they wait for history to catch up — even if it takes a century. Several years before Kandinsky painted what he would call “the world’s first-ever abstract picture” in 1911, a Swedish woman named Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was already conjuring ellipses and spirals floating across vibrant fields of color — works that broke free from the visible world and the rules of representational art. Unlike her celebrated male counterparts, however, the swirling cosmologies she began painting in 1906 went virtually unseen. With no audience and no precedent, af Klint worked with only one conviction: that her art was meant for a time beyond her own. In her will, she requested the pieces not be shown until 20 years after her death. But the world still wasn’t ready and those two decades quietly stre

Jul 20, 2025By Park Han-sol

Hilma af Klint painted for spirits — and century later, world is finally looking

Ex-MMCA director takes helm of Gwangju Biennale Foundation

Youn Bum-mo, former director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), has been named the new president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. The foundation cited his scholarship on Korean art rooted in the Minjung art movement and his leadership of major institutions such as the MMCA as key factors behind his appointment. Minjung art was a politically charged, participatory practice that took shape during Korea’s pro-democracy struggles in the 1980s. An art critic and historian, Youn has played an instrumental role in the opening of various major cultural institutions in the country, including Hoam Gallery, which was the precursor to the Leeum Museum of Art in the Yongsan district of Seoul; Seoul Arts Center; the Lee Ungno Museum in Daejeon; and the Solgeo Art Museum in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. He was also on the founding executive committee of the inaugural Gwangju Biennale in 1995 and later served as artistic director of the 2018 Changwon Sculpture Biennale. First tapped as director of the MMCA in 2019, Youn was reappointed in 2022 but stepped do

Jul 18, 2025By Park Han-sol

Ex-MMCA director takes helm of Gwangju Biennale Foundation

‘The Great Gatsby’ readies to roar to life in Seoul in August

After dazzling audiences in New York and London, “The Great Gatsby” is making its way to Seoul, marking a rare moment in theater history where a Broadway-originated production runs simultaneously in three global capitals. The 15-week Seoul engagement begins with previews on Aug. 1, before officially opening at GS Arts Center in southern Seoul on Aug. 8. The musical, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel, was first brought to life on stage by Korean producer Shin Chun-soo. In 2024, Shin made history as the first Korean and first Asian to serve as a solo lead producer on Broadway. Just one year later, the show premiered in London’s West End. Now, with its Seoul debut, Shin admitted that unveiling the show in his home country comes with a unique sense of pressure. “To be honest, I feel even more nervous here than I did for Broadway or the West End,” he said during a showcase at Mood Seoul on Some Solvit, Tuesday. “There, it was an exciting kind of tension. But here in Korea, it's more of an anxious kind of tension — because this is my home turf and I feel the wei

Jul 15, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

‘The Great Gatsby’ readies to roar to life in Seoul in August

2 European dealers join forces for new Seoul gallery

Two European art dealers are joining forces to unveil a collaborative gallery space in Seoul this September, ahead of international art fair Frieze Seoul. Berlin’s Meyer Riegger and Paris-based Galerie Jocelyn Wolff will open Meyer Riegger Wolff on Sept. 1 in the Hannam-dong neighborhood. The launch comes as the tides are shifting for international galleries in Korea, with the broader art market continuing to weather a prolonged downturn. Some have pulled back entirely. Various Small Fires exited the city earlier this year, while Peres Projects, whose operations span Berlin, Milan and Seoul, is reportedly preparing to shut down its Seoul outpost by the end of the year. Others, however, are doubling down. Portugal’s Duarte Sequeira and Berlin-headquartered Esther Schipper have both expanded into new, larger spaces in Hannam-dong, citing their continued faith in the city’s creative potential. Amid these diverging moves, Meyer Riegger Wolff reflects a deeper investment in the region. According to its two eponymous European dealers, the new gallery is an extension of their shared vision

Jul 14, 2025By Park Han-sol

2 European dealers join forces for new Seoul gallery

Musical ‘Yellow Wind’ to premiere at Theater Kum

Musical “Yellow Wind” will premiere at Theater Kum on July 18. Produced by nonprofit charity organization Asian Friends, the musical is expected to blend documentary-style realism with expressive choreography and original music to portray Gaeseong Industrial Region laborers’ experience — torn between economic opportunity and ideological pressure. The production concludes with a poignant reflection on resilience, loss and reconciliation. It is directed by Hong Jeong-min, with music composed by Kim Jong-gyun. “The musical is part of the Asia Friends’ efforts for unification through assimilating the two Koreas’ cultural differences,” an Asian Friends official said in a press release. “We portray North Korean workers’ lives and their working environments with ‘Yellow Wind.’ Reconciliation between South and North Korean workers is another point of attraction from the show.” Shows are at 7 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends at Theater Kum near Hyehwa Station in Seoul. It will run for 10 days. Asian Friends has produced a variety of musicals since 2019, including on

Jul 11, 2025By Jhoo Dong-chan

Musical ‘Yellow Wind’ to premiere at Theater Kum

CJ ENM to adapt film 'Dancing Queen' to musical, sets sights on global stage

CJ ENM is set to turn its 2012 hit film “Dancing Queen” into an original musical with ambitions beyond Korea, tapping top-tier Broadway creatives to bring the story to life on stage. Leading the charge is Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, best known for Broadway hits such as “Kinky Boots,” “Hairspray,” and more recently “Boop! The Musical” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” Joining him is New York-based Korean American composer Helen Park, who made history as the first Asian woman nominated for Best Original Score at the Tony Awards with “KPOP.” Playwright Cho Min-hyung, behind Korean musicals such as “Let Me Fly” and “ChaMe,” will write the book. Originally released in 2012, the film “Dancing Queen” features Uhm Jung-hwa and Hwang Jung-min in a heartwarming comedy about a woman who reignites her dream of becoming a singer while juggling life as a politician’s wife. “This story, grounded in the belief that dreams have no expiration date, is universally resonant,” Mitchell said in a statement Tuesday. “I see great potential

Jul 8, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Arts & Theater