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| Artist Lee Seul-gi / Courtesy of MMCA |
By Park Han-sol
Artist Lee Seul-gi has won the 2020 Korea Artist Prize, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) announced Thursday.
The 49-year-old artist's new installation artwork, "Dong Dong Dari Gori," has captured the attention of viewers by incorporating the aesthetics of Korean architectural elements and traditional dancheong crafts techniques into a large painting on a door frame of the exhibition wall.
A hint of playfulness is also added through the melodies of the Korean folk song, "Dari Segi (Counting Legs)," filling the space and the display of the traditional French game "Bagatelle."
Lolita Jablonskiene, one of the jury members and chief curator of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, commented that Lee's work creates a unique mood by "reflecting the artist's double layers of identity as someone who continues to travel back and forth from Korea to France," while expressing "harmony between tradition and playful elements."
"Based on traditional elements such as dancheong and sliding door frame, she has put a modern twist on the concept of 'the beauty of blank space,'" MMCA director Youn Bum-mo said.
Christopher Lew, curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, added, "It is meaningful in itself that the artist whose identity can be in a way defined as a migrant was selected as the finalist."
The Korea Artist Prize is an annual award that was established in 2012 and is co-organized by the MMCA and SBS Foundation. Each year, it draws up a shortlist of four individuals or teams of artists who partake in the exhibition held at the MMCA, and announces the final winner based on an extensive jury review.
The exhibit of four artists, including Lee, will run until April 4.
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| Lee Seul-gi's "Dong Dong Dari Gori" is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) until April 4. Courtesy of MMCA |
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