Poster image of “2023 Title Match: Dongi Lee VS. Sangwoo Kang” at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. (November 23, 2023 – March 31, 2024). Courtesy the museum.Title Match, an annual exhibition organized by the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, one of the branches of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), brings together two Korean artists to compare and explore their artistic worlds, seeking communication.
The 2023 Title Match invites artists Dongi Lee and Sangwoo Kang, who have been researching and working with images and various narratives based on popular culture. The exhibition illuminates the works of the two artists who reconstruct the world around us by either “appropriating what is appropriated” or revealing the “trivial and fragile backside” of mass media images.
Both artists contemplate the logic and visual elements entrenched in our subconscious through the influence of mass media and popular culture. While drawing inspiration from diverse artistic experiments of Pop Art centered around the United States and Europe, they also express the impact of Korean mass media and the multifaceted aspects of new media in their works.
The artist Dongi Lee (b. 1967), who has been active in the art scene since the early 1990s, has long worked with a character image called “Atomouse,” combining the images of Japan’s Astro Boy and the United States’ Mickey Mouse. Atomouse reflects the artist’s childhood experiences in 1970s Korea. During that time, Korea developed a hybrid cultural identity due to the proliferation of mass media, rapid economic growth, and the influx of foreign popular culture.
Sangwoo Kang (b. 1977) creates works incorporating advertising, comics, movies, music videos, and figurines based on his memories of animations, comic books, and advertisements he encountered on TV during his childhood. He particularly engages in reinterpreting and reconstructing various stories and memories deeply imprinted in popular culture. Through his works, he manifests diverse memories lingering in his emotions after being exposed to various media.
