MMCA Exhibitions Make Their International Debut... and more
MMCA Exhibitions Make Their International Debut
Exhibitions from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) are making their way abroad. Earlier this year, MMCA announced its 2023 exhibition and project plans, emphasizing international connections to accelerate the impact of Korean art on the global art scene.
Last year’s special exhibition of Korean polychrome painting, Prayer for Life, held at MMCA Gwacheon, will be presented at the San Diego Museum of Art in the United States in October. The exhibition will be jointly organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, the Korean Cultural Center in LA, and the Overseas Culture and Information Service and will run from October to February 2024.
In 2021, MMCA held the DNA: Dynamic & Alive Korean Art exhibition, which brought together Korean cultural heritage and modern and contemporary art at MMCA Deoksugung. This exhibition is set to take place at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in November.
Haegue Yang's Artistic Endeavors on the International Scene
Haegue Yang, an artist active on the international art stage, is participating in the Performa Biennial, taking place in various venues across New York City from November 1 to 19, 2023. Founded in 2004 by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, Performa is a non-profit organization that presents new forms of art within the context of performance.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Performa Biennial invites world-renowned artists, including Korea’s Haegue Yang, as well as notable artists such as Julien Creuzet, Marcel Dzama, and Nikita Gale. Many of them are presenting works utilizing performance for the first time. Haegue Yang is scheduled to present a piece at the Guggenheim, where an actor will recite Marguerite Duras’ 1982 novel The Malady of Death.
On the beach resort of Comporta in Portugal, the renowned Brazilian gallery Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is hosting its third summer exhibition, and Haegue Yang is part of this group exhibition. The first part, which opened in early July, focused on the perception of the natural world and the relationship between organic spaces and architectural spaces. The second part, running from August 5 to 31, centers on the expression of bodily forms and cognitive processes.
In light of this, NEO2, a Spanish magazine with a 25-year history, has also covered Haegue Yang’s artistic world.
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Korean Modern and Contemporary Art to Be Exhibited at The Met in New York
Starting in November, approximately 30 works of Korean modern and contemporary art, including the Lee Kun-hee Collection, pieces from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Leeum Museum of Art, will be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York. This occasion is particularly significant as it represents the inaugural presentation of a Korean modern and contemporary art exhibition at The Met, which stands among the world’s top four art museums.
The Met has revealed plans to host the Lineages: Korean Art at The Met exhibition from November 7 to October 30 of the following year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Arts of Korea Gallery. The exhibition will feature works by artists such as Baik Nam-sun, Whanki Kim, Lee Ufan, and Lee Seung-taek, with the display being structured around four central themes. The Arts of Korea Gallery at The Met was established in 1998 with the support of the Korea Exchange Bank and the operating fund from the Samsung Cultural Foundation.
This Korean exhibition, curated by Eleanor Hyun, aims to showcase the struggles of artists who sought new identities by traveling between Korea, the United States, and France, which are reflected in their works from that era. In response to this, Hyun explained that amidst the turmoil of the Japanese invasion, war, and the influx of new culture, the artists of that time created a new tradition, and Korean modern and contemporary art continues to incorporate all these changes into its works.
