Artist Yang Jung-uk has been selected as the recipient of the 《Korea Artist Prize 2024》, co-presented by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Korea (MMCA) and the SBS Foundation.
 
Established in 2012, 《Korea Artist Prize》 is Korea’s preeminent art award. Each year, four skilled visual artists who focus on contemporary aesthetic and social issues are chosen as finalists and provided with opportunities to create and exhibit new works, with one among them selected as the final awardee. This year, the exhibition featured Hayoun Kwon, Jiyoung Yoon, Jane Jin Kaisen, and the final awardee, Yang Jung-uk.

This year’s awardee, Yang Jung-uk, shares images of a life worth aspiring to through warm stories captured in the medium of moving sculpture. Yang has drawn the attention of many viewers with his works of various dimensions that fill the gallery, ranging from his large-scale new works Someone I Know, in His Garden I've Never Seen (2024) and A Cherishing Heart (2024) to simpler works such as Temporary Map (2024) and Ardent Record (2024), which exemplify Yang’s methodology of “technology originating from sincerity.”
 
The stories in the gallery show the artist’s humane perspective imbued in each work, conveying the meaning of life in the gestures of people striving to withstand the difficulties of day-to-day living.

Seong Eun Kim, Supervisor of the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art and Chair of the Jury, praised Yang's work, stating, "The emotional depth and strength conveyed in the work are highly commendable." Haeju Kim, Senior Curator at the Singapore Art Museum, remarked, "The work serves as a reminder of the power of art to provide solace." Ruba Katrib, Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1, noted, "Yang is an artist with the potential to further expand their presence on the international stage."
 
Charl Landvreugd, Head of Research & Curatorial Practice at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, praised the works, stating, "It was moving to see how both large-scale works and the modest pieces created from residual materials connected and functioned together." Cosmin Costinas, Senior Curator at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), commented, "The work excellently demonstrated the joy that art can provide."

Kim Sunghee, director of the MMCA, notes that Yang “renders the most human of worlds by combining exceedingly simple and ordinary images of life with beautiful dreamscapes.” She also expressed her gratitude “to all four finalists for proving the outstanding capabilities of Korean contemporary art through the Korea Artist Prize 2024 exhibition.”
 
Following the audience-participatory roundtable Artist & Juror Talk on 11 February, the awardee of the Korea Artist Prize for 2024 was selected through a final review lasting approximately three hours on 12 February. The 《Korea Artist Prize 2024》 exhibition will continue at MMCA Seoul until Sunday, 23 March 2025.

References

• 국립현대미술관 보도자료 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Press Release)
• 양정욱, Yang Jung-uk (Artist Website)

Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.