Lifestyle - The Korea Times

INTERVIEW Sotheby's returns as Korea's art market regains luster

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest auction houses along with Christie’s, made a comeback to Korea this week with the opening of a new space in Seoul nearly three decades after its initial withdrawal.

Sep 22, 2023By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] Sotheby's returns as Korea's art market regains luster

INTERVIEW Seoul becomes magnet for global galleries despite fluctuating market

INTERVIEW Seoul becomes magnet for global galleries despite fluctuating market

Scattered across a scenic rooftop garden of newly-opened Whitestone Gallery in central Seoul's Yongsan District on a cloudless September afternoon were moon jars made by rising Korean ceramicist Shin Won-dong.

Sep 20, 2023By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] Seoul becomes magnet for global galleries despite fluctuating market

INTERVIEW Sotheby's returns as Korea's art market regains luster

Chang Uc-chin's lifelong pursuit of beauty in the mundane traced in his largest retrospective

Sometimes, two bite-sized paintings are all that it takes to encapsulate an artist’s decades-long quest to find beauty in the mundane and the simple.

Sep 20, 2023By Park Han-sol

Chang Uc-chin's lifelong pursuit of beauty in the mundane traced in his largest retrospective

Japanese colonial company-turned-museum in Daejeon celebrates opening with Anselm Kiefer

“Herbst,” Korea's first museum showcase of German post-war master Anselm Kiefer, opened at Heredium in Daejeon, Sept. 8. Built in 1922, the building originally operated as the Daejeon branch of imperial Japan's Oriental Development Company during Japanese colonial rule (1910-45) as a state-led economic enterprise to exploit Korea's land and resources. Yonhap By Park Han-solDAEJEON ― It was in 1908, shortly before Japanese colonial rule (1910-45) began, when imperial Japan established the Oriental Development Company in the heart of Seoul as a state-led economic enterprise to control and exploit Korea's land and resources.As years went by, its business grew rapidly, prompting the company to set up outposts in other cities across Korea, including Mokpo in South Jeolla Province, Busan and Daejeon.The Daejeon branch's two-story building ― an eclectic blend of Japanese and Western architectural features with a pitched roof and structures built with reinforced concrete an

Sep 17, 2023By Park Han-sol

Japanese colonial company-turned-museum in Daejeon celebrates opening with Anselm Kiefer

New MMCA director named

New director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Kim Sung-hee, right, poses with Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon during her appointment ceremony at the Seoul branch of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Friday. The ministry named Kim to lead the nation's flagship art museum for three years, starting Monday. Kim was a professor at Hongik University and served as executive director for the CAN Foundation, a nonprofit art center. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Sep 15, 2023By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kim Soo-ja's 'Concentric Circles' offers quiet response to noisy world

Kim Soo-ja's "Beyond the Forest" is drawn with the simple yet profound medium of colored pencils. Courtesy of the artistBy Kwon Mee-yooIn an era where the hustle and bustle caused by social network services fills our days, Kim Soo-ja, an illustrator whose career dates back 40 years, invites visitors to pause and reflect on at her latest exhibition "Concentric Circles."The exhibit, running through Sept. 20 at Gallery Dam in central Seoul, presents 26 artworks Kim created with her simple yet profound medium of choice ― colored pencils ― to share her personal journey through illness and recovery.Commonly seen as the first step for children into the world of art, colored pencils actually have a history that go back to ancient Greece. Kim finds a connection between the simplicity of colored pencils and her own approach to art and uses these ancient drawing tools to erase the "stains" left by the fast-paced digital era.Kim's works, mostly on circular canvas, are results of countless hand movements, painstakingly crafted to give a glimpse of the “essence of life beyond the tangible wo

Sep 15, 2023By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kim Soo-ja's 'Concentric Circles' offers quiet response to noisy world

REVIEW Musical 'Rebecca' celebrates decade on stage with stellar artists

A scene from the musical "Rebecca" / Courtesy of EMK Musical CompanyBy Pyo Kyung-minPoster for the musical "Rebecca" / Courtesy of EMK Musical CompanyEntering its remarkable 10th year on stage, the musical "Rebecca" has achieved a significant milestone by captivating more than 1 million viewers in Korea.Originating from Daphne du Maurier's classic novel and reinvented by Alfred Hitchcock's film, the musical has been a staple in Korea's theater scene since its premiere in 2013. After attracting more than 950,000 viewers across its first six seasons, the production crossed the 1 million audience mark in its 10th year.Set in the grand Manderley mansion, the musical revolves around Maxim de Winter, an English gentleman haunted by the memory of his late wife Rebecca, and "I," an unnamed narrator who falls in love with Maxim. After a fateful encounter at a resort, their love story takes a dark turn upon their return to Manderley, where they are greeted by the disturbing presence of Mrs. Danvers, the mansion's long-serving butler.A scene from the musical "Rebecca" featuring Shin Young-sook,

Sep 15, 2023By Pyo Kyung-min

[REVIEW] Musical 'Rebecca' celebrates decade on stage with stellar artists

INTERVIEW How cosmic vision and lost histories collide in Tavares Strachan's art

Installation view of Tavares Strachan's solo exhibition, "Do and Be," at Perrotin Seoul / Courtesy of the artist and PerrotinBy Park Han-solEntering Tavares Strachan's first solo exhibition in Asia at Perrotin Seoul is like a cosmic experience.The ethereal galactic constellations gracing the gallery's walls hint at the Bahamas-born artist's long-standing fascination with the cosmos.And Strachan has certainly done more than just stargazing to satisfy his curiosity.Bahamas-born conceptual artist Tavares Strachan / Courtesy of the artist and PerrotinHe once spent months being trained as a cosmonaut in Russia's Star City. In 2018, he even launched his artwork ― a golden bust bearing the likeness of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African American astronaut who died in a plane crash before undertaking his mission ― into outer space.To the artist, stars suggest “boundlessness ” ― an idea that mesmerized him since at a young age as he grew up with an acute awareness of the geographical and cultural limitations of his hometown in the Bahamas.But in his art, they are also win

Sep 14, 2023By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] How cosmic vision and lost histories collide in Tavares Strachan's art

INTERVIEW Yue Minjun's canvas evolves from laughing faces to blooming flowers

Even just a cursory glance at Yue Minjun’s “self-portraits” reveals what has made the 61-year-old painter an enduring icon of Chinese contemporary art.

Sep 12, 2023By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] Yue Minjun's canvas evolves from laughing faces to blooming flowers

Miguel Chevalier invites audiences to interact with immersive art

French media artist Miguel Chevalier is holding his second solo exhibition "Digital Beauty 2023 Season 2" through Feb. 12, 2024. Courtesy of Ara Art CenterBy Lee Gyu-leeFrench media artist Miguel Chevalier is back in Seoul with another solo exhibition “Digital Beauty 2023 Season 2” in Seoul, inviting audiences to an immersive experience of his digitally created artistic vision. A photo of "Magic Carpets," one of the installations by Miguel Chevalier at the exhibition "Digital Beauty 2023 Season 2" / Courtesy of Ara Art CenterChevalier, a pioneer in the uncharted realm of digital art since the late 1970s, put on display 14 immersive installations that span the Ara Art Center's five floors. Each piece is designed to engage with the architectural nuances of the venue, offering a colorful and ever-changing visual experience.Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are welcomed by “Complex Meshes,” a three-sided screen installation colorfully covered in different layers of patterns and shapes that change every minute, representing a universe of interconnected network

Sep 12, 2023By Lee Gyu-lee

Arts & Theater