Moving beyond Orientalism entails more than shifting the center from the West to Asia. It requires transforming the structure through which particular actors have classified and evaluated the art of other regions, while developing new values and criteria grounded in diverse histories and experiences. What is needed is a new system of knowledge—one that recognizes the achievements of Western art history as a shared global legacy without treating them as the sole standard of judgment.
 
The future of Korean contemporary art likewise extends beyond introducing more artists abroad. The Korean art world must move beyond creating artworks and discovering and supporting artists to build an ecosystem in which discourse, exhibitions, criticism, archives, the market, and education operate organically together.
 
 
 
The Post-Contemporary as a New Condition
 
The post-contemporary is an analytical concept that describes the present condition in which the relationships between center and periphery, West and non-West, and the universal and the regional are being reconfigured. Rather than designating a particular style or art movement that follows contemporary art, it provides a framework for understanding the changing structures and power relations of the global art world.
 
Contemporary art has broadened its scope by embracing diverse regions, cultures, and identities. Yet the authority to interpret artworks and assign them art-historical value remains concentrated in a limited number of Western museums, biennial organizations, galleries, art schools, publishing institutions, and art media.
 
For Asia to move beyond a position in which it is selected and interpreted within established discourses, it must participate in shaping the concepts and directions of global contemporary art. The core of the post-contemporary lies not simply in expanding diversity, but in reconfiguring the authority to produce meaning and establish standards.
 
 
 
From “International Expansion” to “A Site of Production”
 
For decades, the Korean art world has regarded overseas exhibitions, participation in international art fairs and biennials, and representation by foreign galleries as major indicators of internationalization. These activities have played an important role in expanding Korea’s connections with the international art world and increasing the visibility of Korean art.
 
What now matters is not only the number and scale of overseas exhibitions, but also the records, research, and critical outcomes they leave behind. Exhibition materials, critical texts, and information about artworks must be systematically preserved if these achievements are to lead to further research and future exhibitions.
 
The globalization of Korean contemporary art requires an environment in which new agendas and knowledge are developed in Korea and subsequently cited and used throughout the global art world. The Korean art world must not only introduce its artists internationally but also become a producer, publisher, connector, and standard-setter within the global art world.
 
 
 
A Critical Language for Korean Contemporary Art
 
To establish a lasting presence in the global art world, Korean contemporary art needs a critical language that emerges from Korea’s historical and social experiences and expands into contemporary concerns shared across the world.
 
Korea’s experiences of modernization and industrialization, national division and the Cold War, democratization, compressed economic growth, urbanization, and digital transformation are historically specific, yet they also intersect with changes experienced across many other regions. Repeatedly interpreting Korean art through limited categories such as Dansaekhwa, tradition, meditative practice, or Eastern spirituality can obscure the complexity and contemporary relevance of the works themselves.
 
Expanding Korea’s historical and social experiences into concepts and agendas that can be discussed internationally requires the sustained participation of scholars, critics, curators, translators, editors, and publishers. Critical studies of artists, exhibition criticism, and art-historical research must be made available as accurate, high-quality English-language resources that can be accessed, searched, and cited internationally.
 
 
 
Building Records and Archives
 
The art-historical positions of artists and artworks are established through interconnected records of exhibitions, criticism, research, transactions, ownership, and conservation.
 
Materials on Korean artists are currently dispersed among artists, galleries, museums, media outlets, and numerous online platforms. Standards for recording titles, dates, media, dimensions, exhibition histories, and collections also vary widely. Even for many established artists, reliable resources covering their artistic practices and careers—particularly in English—remain insufficient.
 
Artists’ archives extend beyond the preservation of the past. They provide the foundation for future research, exhibitions, publications, artwork authentication, and confidence in the art market. The standardization of artwork information, digitization of exhibition records, management of image rights, and accumulation of critical writing and critical studies of artists must proceed together. International visibility creates opportunities for discovery, while international accessibility and citability sustain art-historical continuity.
 
 
 
The Roles of Art Institutions and the Market
 
Public museums, universities, and nonprofit institutions must function not only as exhibition venues but also as producers and repositories of knowledge. When international exhibitions and overseas invitations lead to research, publications, translations, and archives, individual events can become part of the long-term foundation of Korean contemporary art.
 
Public museums should systematically develop research materials on major artists and artworks and make them accessible both domestically and internationally. Universities and research institutions should undertake long-term studies connecting Korean contemporary art with international discourse, while nonprofit organizations and private platforms can identify artists and materials that have yet to receive sufficient institutional attention.
 
Confidence in the art market is likewise built on accurate documentation and evaluation. Galleries must systematically manage artists’ career and artwork records, while auction houses and other market participants should establish standards for verifying authenticity, provenance, and transaction histories. The long-term value of artworks can be sustained when art-historical assessments developed by museums and research institutions are supported by transparent market information.
 
 
 
A National-Level Public Platform
 
Korea needs a public platform that systematically connects information and research on Korean art and makes these resources accessible both domestically and internationally.
 
Such a platform must extend beyond exhibition listings and news. It should organize information on artists, artworks, exhibitions, criticism, publications, collection histories, and artistic activities according to international standards. Korean- and English-language records, consistent data standards, regular updates, verification procedures, and copyright management should form its foundation.
 
An open and interoperable structure based on shared public standards would allow data held by museums, universities, galleries, and private platforms to be connected. Each institution could retain the autonomy and specialist character of its own records while contributing to a broader system of knowledge. International art professionals would then be able to follow developments in Korean contemporary art and directly access the artists and materials relevant to their work.
 
Korea’s emerging media, archival, and artist-networking platforms already reflect this need. Their individual efforts should now develop into a nationally coordinated framework involving public institutions, universities, museums, galleries, private platforms, and artists.
 
 
 
Who Shapes the Future of Global Art?
 
The discourse surrounding Orientalism is ultimately connected to the operation of power: who looks, who interprets, and who confers value. The future of Korean contemporary art does not lie in replacing the West on the throne. It lies in creating an order in which different histories and experiences participate equally in shaping the standards and directions of global art.
 

 
For Korean contemporary art to become a major site of production in the global art world, it must move beyond the international promotion of Korean art. Korea must become a place where major artists and agendas in global contemporary art are researched, where new discourses and exhibitions are developed, and where the resulting knowledge is cited and used internationally. This is the post-contemporary condition that Korean contemporary art must shape as it moves beyond Orientalism.

Jay Jongho Kim graduated from the Department of Art Theory at Hongik University and earned his master's degree in Art Planning from the same university. From 1996 to 2006, he worked as a curator at Gallery Seomi, planning director at CAIS Gallery, head of the curatorial research team at Art Center Nabi, director at Gallery Hyundai, and curator at Gana New York.

From 2008 to 2017, he served as the executive director of Doosan Gallery Seoul & New York and Doosan Residency New York, introducing Korean contemporary artists to the local scene in New York. After returning to Korea in 2017, he worked as an art consultant, conducting art education, collection consulting, and various art projects.

In 2021, he founded A Project Company and is currently running the platforms K-ARTNOW.COM and K-ARTIST.COM, which aim to promote Korean contemporary art on the global stage.