The Body and Food
Debbie Han, Food and Sensuality, Starting 2005 via Art Radar
Want to know more about contemporary art in South Korea?
Art Radar Asia is holding a give away! Click here to enter by February 29!
Last summer I saw a fantastic exhibition of works by Chang Jia at Gallery Jungmiso which is my vote.
Sunday Morning Coffee (Pink Splash on a Monday Morning)
Ex-North Korean artwork shown in the U.S.
Speaking of North Korea, please check out this project! Young Sun Han is an SAIC grad and currently lives in Chicago. Some of his family is from North Korea and a portion of the proceeds from his sales go to Life Fund for North Korean Refugees. (Yes, Zane Davis, I am highly recommending you watch the short video.)
On the Wallstreet Journal Blog, Singapore Considers “No-Censorship Zones”
Art Radar’s 16 most searched Asian artists from July-December 2011. It looks like Ai Weiwei was number one but they also reported a surge in searches for Korean artists (I hope thats not just me doing thesis research!). Lee Yong-baek is number 8 on the list, I am in the midst of writing a chapter on him.
Saturday Morning Coffee (Oatmeal with Kim Joon)
For my thesis research I have found the Korean Eye exhibition catalog very useful. It is an exhibition that was created because someone (outside of Korea) thought that Korean artwork is not well represented in the global art world. Kim Joon’s artwork is on the cover.
Kim Joon, Bird Land – Chrysler, 2008
What brought me to Kim’s work this morning was a list of the 20 most searched Asian artists on Art Radar Asia. Here is the list. Out of the twenty, two artists from South Korea were listed–Meekyoung Shin and Kim Joon. At quick glance I was taken in by Shin’s work, though I do find her use of materials interesting. Kim Joon’s work, on the other hand, is hard to not stare at for a bit. Art Radar did an interview with Kim in 2009, it is a quick read and interesting. Because of my own research, I was particularly interested in what he said about using the body and his statements about contemporary art (global and South Korea). Regarding the body, he did not “intentionally create erotic images” but it is hard to avoid sexual connotations when dealing with idealized nude figures.
Anyways, work time.