Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Czech Film Week 2026 brings contemporary Czech cinema to Seoul

Czech Film Week 2026, a five-day showcase of contemporary Czech cinema, is underway at the Seongsu Art Hall in eastern Seoul through April 4. Presented under the theme “Beyond Movies, Meet Czechia,” this year's festival offers a carefully curated lineup of recent Czech films spanning genres, such as historical drama, documentary and animation, creating a unique platform to experience the richness of Czech filmmaking on the big screen. The event is co-organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Korea, the Czech Center Seoul and the Seongdong Foundation for Arts & Culture. It is also supported by the ČEZ Group, a major Czech energy company actively involved in strengthening cooperation between the two countries, particularly in nuclear energy. During the festival's opening ceremony, Czech Republic Ambassador to Korea Ivan Jančárek emphasized the significance of such cultural initiatives, noting that the partnership between the two countries continues to grow across multiple sectors. "Cinema is one of the most engaging ways to open a window into another society. Through stories

Apr 1, 2026By Anna J. Park

Czech Film Week 2026 brings contemporary Czech cinema to Seoul

National Museum of Korea ranks 3rd globally in visitor numbers in 2025

The National Museum of Korea ranked third in the world for visitor numbers in 2025, surpassing the British Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to industry data. The Korean museum drew 6.5 million visitors in 2025, a 70 percent increase from the previous year, the British art magazine The Art Newspaper reported in its annual visitor survey released Tuesday. The National Museum of Korea trailed only the Louvre in Paris, which topped the list with 9 million visitors, and the Vatican Museums with 6.9 million. The British Museum placed fourth with 6.4 million visitors, followed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with 5.98 million. Other Korean museums placed in the global top 100, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, at No. 35; the Gyeongju National Museum at No. 39; and the Buyeo and Gongju national museums at Nos. 78 and 89, respectively. The Art Newspaper described Korea as showing "the most remarkable growth" among all countries surveyed. The National Museum's touring exhibition of art pieces donated by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Ku

Apr 1, 2026By Yonhap

National Museum of Korea ranks 3rd globally in visitor numbers in 2025

ContributionBolshoi Theatre marks 250 years as pillar of Russian culture

On March 28, the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre celebrated its 250th anniversary — a milestone that underscores its enduring status as one of the foremost symbols of Russian culture and a cornerstone of the global opera and ballet scene. The theatre’s history dates back to 1776, when Empress Catherine the Great granted Pyotr Urusov, a provincial prosecutor, the exclusive right to oversee theatrical performances in Moscow. What began as a private enterprise would, over time, evolve into one of the most recognizable cultural institutions in the world. Long before it emerged as the defining architectural landmark of Theatre Square, the Bolshoi underwent numerous transformations, changing locations and repeatedly reinventing itself. Its journey from a modest stage on Petrovka Street to the iconic building known today reflects not only artistic ambition but also remarkable resilience. The threats of closure and financial hardship after the revolution, bombings during the Second World War — the Bolshoi has weathered them all, holding its ground as a symbol of artistic endurance and pers

Mar 30, 2026

Bolshoi Theatre marks 250 years as pillar of Russian culture

Peek into Korea's plan for 2026 Venice Biennale art exhibition

In the world of art, the Venice Biennale has long held an unrivaled stature. Dubbed the “Olympics of the art world,” the festival showcases avant-garde, multidisciplinary works that engage with political and cultural issues from across the globe. Since the opening of the first Korean Pavilion in 1995, Korea has provided more than 20 contemporary artists with a platform to present their ideas to an international audience. Participants have included Lee Wan, siren eun young jung, Hwayeon Nam and Kimsooja. With the 61st International Art Exhibition scheduled to run from May 9 to Nov. 22, the Arts Council Korea last week unveiled the theme of this year’s Korean Pavilion, along with its two featured artists. According to artistic director Binna Choi, who will curate the exhibition, the pavilion will transform some of the most turbulent chapters of Korea’s recent political history into a meditation on what “liberation” means in an age of democratic crisis. Titled “Liberation Space: Fortress and Nest,” the exhibition takes the 2024 martial law crisis as its point of departure, w

Mar 20, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Peek into Korea's plan for 2026 Venice Biennale art exhibition

Life, death and diamonds: Damien Hirst debuts 1st Asia solo show at MMCA Seoul

Damien Hirst’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Asia has opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, bringing the polarizing British artist’s signature explorations of life, death and belief to Korean audiences at a moment of intense debate over his relevance. Titled “Damien Hirst: Nothing Is True But Everything Is Possible,” the show is part of MMCA’s ongoing drive to introduce major figures of global contemporary art to the public and runs through June 28. It gathers some 50 works spanning four decades, from rarely seen early experiments to the controversial animal vitrines and recent paintings that continue to divide critics. MMCA officials acknowledged that choosing Hirst — a central figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement and a lightning rod for criticism over commercialization and spectacle — is a deliberate, even risky, move for a national museum. Yet, showing how Hirst persistently probes humanity’s bond with death, our drive to escape it, the money that exploits that urge and the systems that cloak such forces in

Mar 19, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Life, death and diamonds: Damien Hirst debuts 1st Asia solo show at MMCA Seoul

Trevor Paglen of US wins this year's LG Guggenheim Award

U.S. artist and geographer Trevor Paglen has been named the winner of this year's LG Guggenheim Award for his work combining art and digital technology, LG Group said Wednesday. Launched in 2023 through a partnership between LG Group and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the LG Guggenheim Award supports contemporary artists pushing the boundaries of digital art. The award winner receives a prize of $100,000. Paglen's work seeks to make visible the invisible structures of digital systems, helping audiences better understand modern technologies and their underlying logic, according to LG. He is the fourth laureate of the award, part of a five-year project as a cross-sector collaboration to support artists working at the intersection of art and technology. The inaugural LG Guggenheim Award went to Stephanie Dinkins, a Brooklyn-based artist, educator and AI practitioner, followed by Taiwanese American artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang and Korean artist Ayoung Kim.

Mar 18, 2026By Yonhap

Trevor Paglen of US wins this year's LG Guggenheim Award

Galleries Art Fair to open next month with record participants

The Galleries Art Fair, also known as the Hwarang Art Fair, is set to open for a five-day run with a record number of galleries participating, organizers said Tuesday. Established in 1979, the annual fair is the first of its kind in Korea and has long served as a barometer of the country's art market trends. The event will be held at the COEX exhibition center in southern Seoul from April 8-12, showcasing the year's defining art trends alongside a broad survey of contemporary Korean art. This year, a record 169 member galleries will join the event, presenting works by the artists they represent. In addition to individual booths, the fair will feature a special section spotlighting select artists from 19 galleries. There also will be "Zoom In Edition 7," an exhibition of emerging artists carefully chosen from a pool of roughly 700 applicants. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Galleries Association of Korea, a special exhibition chronicling Korea's art history will be on view, accompanied by a collection of archival materials.

Mar 17, 2026By Yonhap

Galleries Art Fair to open next month with record participants

At 91, chainsaw sculptor Kim Yun-shin still seeks to become one with wood

A muscular chunk of wood. A whirring chainsaw. A 91-year-old woman at the helm. It’s not exactly the combination you expect to see every day. And yet there she was. In Kim Yun-shin’s hands, the chainsaw was less a tool of destruction than of revelation. At an age when most hands have long grown still, hers were still carving life out of wood. That relentless drive is what has carried her through a seven-decade career, yielding more than a staggering 1,500 sculptures and paintings along the way. “That’s enough to stage at least three or four more retrospectives,” curator Tae Hyun-sun said with a smile. Of course, no exhibition can hold a lifetime of work in a single showing. The Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, has nevertheless mounted its most ambitious attempt yet, gathering 175 pieces for “Kim Yun Shin: Two Be One.” It may be just a fraction of her oeuvre, but it is indeed a compelling one. To give the works the room they deserve, the museum stripped away all partition walls on the ground floor, opening the galleries into one sweeping space. The decision pays

Mar 14, 2026By Park Han-sol

At 91, chainsaw sculptor Kim Yun-shin still seeks to become one with wood

You must change your life: 2026 Gwangju Biennale tightens focus

“You must change your life.” That’s the final line that crowns “Archaic Torso of Apollo” by the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. In the 1908 poem, the speaker gazes upon the shattered torso of the Greek god, now headless and limbless, yet strangely alive. From this broken remnant, the reader begins to imagine the statue as it once stood whole. What starts as contemplation then turns into something more unsettling: the sense that the ancient sculpture is not merely being observed, but observing in return, silently urging the viewer toward a reckoning. That mounting intensity erupts in the poem’s unforgettable final command: You must change your life. “However, rather than specifying and dictating how one should change, the poem leaves transformation open in its possibility. The viewer is compelled to change, but they must decide on their own paths of change,” said Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen during a press meeting Friday in Seoul. That imperative to change — forceful yet open — has inspired Ho as he prepares to helm the forthcoming edition of the Gwangju Biennale as

Mar 13, 2026By Park Han-sol

You must change your life: 2026 Gwangju Biennale tightens focus

Haegue Yang, LA Phil bring Yun Isang's 'Double Concerto' to life in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — The lights dimmed inside Walt Disney Concert Hall as the sound of wind drifted through the darkness Tuesday evening. Two narrow beams swept across the audience, racing from the back of the hall toward the stage before swinging back again like a pendulum. As the lights moved, the soundscape thickened, wind giving way to rain before swelling into the suggestion of a gathering storm. This five-minute “light prelude,” designed by internationally acclaimed artist Haegue Yang, served as a quiet overture before the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) performed composer Yun Isang’s 1977 composition, “Double Concerto.” The LA Phil New Music Group navigated the work’s restless currents under the baton of Korean Canadian conductor Earl Lee. Instead of a traditional melody, the oboe and harp move through shifting textures and sustained tones, circling one another in gestures that build tension rather than resolve it. Without a clear melodic anchor, the piece draws listeners into a landscape defined by texture and movement. When the final sound faded, the sold-out hall rose

Mar 13, 2026By Jane Han

Arts & Theater