In Korean society, internationalization and globalization emerged as major national agendas between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s. The 1988 Seoul Olympics was a symbolic event through which Korea began to present itself to the international community in a more visible and active way. In the 1990s, Korea rapidly entered the global order through democratization, market liberalization, cultural exchange, and participation in international organizations.
2026.07.07
One of the most significant stories in the global art world recently has been Pace Gallery’s large-scale staff reductions and restructuring of its artist roster. Across the international art community, the news was widely interpreted as a sign of crisis within the mega-gallery model.
2026.06.23
Recently, major media outlets including The New York Times, the international contemporary art platform Ocula, and ARTnews have extensively reported on the large-scale restructuring of Pace Gallery, one of the world’s leading mega-galleries. In particular, remarks by Pace CEO Marc Glimcher describing the current gallery model as not merely “broken” but effectively “unfixable” have sent ripples throughout the global art world.
2026.06.09
Fine art engages with society, the market, and institutions, but its mode of existence cannot be reduced to commodity production or the provision of services. An artist is not someone who produces works in order to satisfy the demands of a specific customer, and an artwork is not a product made to provide functional utility
2026.05.26
On April 30, 2026, all five members of the international jury for《In Minor Keys》, the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, resigned just nine days before the exhibition’s opening. Led by jury president Solange Oliveira Farkas, the jury members Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi released a brief statement of resignation through e-flux.
2026.05.12
Over the past few years, the landscape of the Asian art market has been rapidly reshaped. Seoul has drawn increasing attention from the international art world through Frieze Seoul, Kiaf Seoul, and Seoul Art Week, while Hong Kong, despite political changes and the impact of China’s economic slowdown, continues to maintain its position as a powerful transactional hub.
2026.04.28
This text is not written to introduce or defend Korean contemporary art. Nor is it intended to declare a new movement or to predict future artistic forms. The point of departure for this series is a more fundamental question: Under what conditions has contemporary art operated, and are those conditions still valid today?
2026.01.13
If modernism grounded art in formal innovation and historical progress, and postmodernism dismantled that narrative by foregrounding difference and the relativization of meaning, contemporary art today no longer functions as a framework capable of articulating new aesthetic principles or a coherent historical direction.
2025.12.30
Today’s art market operates on a vast speculative structure camouflaged by the language of “investment.” Artworks are no longer read as products of emotion or thought; instead, they are interpreted as indicators of price volatility.
2025.12.09
Today’s contemporary art scene has been rewritten in the language of capital. Artworks have become units of transaction rather than outcomes of thought, and the artist’s creative act is adjusted somewhere between private desire and market demand. The spiritual value of art—the inner form where human perception meets reflection—is gradually losing its ground.
2025.11.11
In the previous essay, “The Age of Role Reversal,” we examined how essence is obscured by the non-essential. This chapter turns to the loss of value—a deeper layer of that same inversion. Here, “value” does not refer to market price. It signifies the belief in authenticity, autonomy, and inner necessity that once made art possible as art—a shared yet invisible agreement that sustained the meaning of artistic creation.
2025.10.21
Today, contemporary art appears more dazzling than ever. Art fairs around the world draw hundreds of thousands of visitors, and record-breaking prices are set at auctions. In Korea as well, Frieze Seoul has become a focal point for the Asian art market, while regional fairs such as Art Busan and Art Gwangju continue to expand. Social media feeds are flooded with exhibition snapshots, and blockbuster shows draw long lines of eager visitors.
2025.09.23
