Jean-Michel Basquiat’s three paintings -- created in the transition from street artist to gallery success -- will be put up for auctions in May at Philips in Hong Kong and New York, and are worth as much as $87 million in total. The paintings have been unprecedentedly shown at auction events. Formerly collected by Francesco Pellizzi and the Pellizzi Family, the paintings will be shown at the auctioneer’s major evening sales in May in the two cities. Pellizzi is co-founder and edito

As the sun sets, a group of dancers and percussionists in the Maghreb region in Africa perform around a fire, the dance getting more fierce as the percussion rhythms grow faster and faster. The 10-minute film depicting the scene is played on six screens in a dark room. Viewers will be captivated by the performance, feeling as though they are standing among the dancers. When the camera moves closer to the fire, the whole room seems as though it is on fire. The dancing goes on until the sun rises.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea announced Tuesday four finalists for Korea Artist Prize 2024, the annual artist prize given to a promising Korean artist. The finalists – Kwon Ha-youn, Yang Jung-uk, Yoon Ji-young and Jane Jin Kaisen – will showcase their art at the exhibition from Oct. 25 to March 23, 2025 at MMCA Seoul as part of the award program. Their works will be reviewed by a jury of seven experts from home and abroad who will then announce a winner in

Although she may not yet be familiar to audiences in Asia, the late Brazilian artist Lygia Pape (1927-2000) is known as a pioneering contemporary artist in Latin America and one of the leading figures who founded the Neo-Concrete Movement in the region. The Neo-Concrete Movement in 1959 pursued a liberation from static form and a movement toward heightened sensuality through the interaction of objects in real time and space. “(Pape and other Neo-Concrete artists) really continued the explo

Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has acquired two media artworks by Jun So-jung and An Jung-ju, jointly marking the first acquisitions from a Korean artist since video art founder Paik Nam-june’s work for the museum’s collection. “We were one of the first museums in Europe to start a video collection and time-based media collection. We started that in the 1970s and built up quite a big collection -- about 2,000 time-based-media works in total," Rein Wolfs, director of the mus

Art Busan 2024, the largest annual art fair in Busan, will return in May, strengthening its exhibition program and locality amid a sluggish art market. The art fair also plans to tap into the global art market to expand its brand overseas. “It is a shame that the art market is assessed on its commercial aspects, although it is understandable. We will continue to do what Art Busan can do with our own programs,” said Jeong Seok-ho, managing director for Art Busan, at a press conference

Spring has come to Samcheongdong, where the cherry blossoms are just about to bloom. This is a perfect time to stroll around the neighborhood of galleries: Kukje Gallery, Hakgojae Gallery and Barakat Contemporary, to name but a few, which are all located within close walking distance of each other. Pioneering 89-year-old sculptor with chainsaw at Kukje Gallery Korean sculptor Kim Yun-shin has grabbed recognition at home and abroad at the age of 89. Kim has been working on "Add Two Add One,

Two major South Korean cities – Gwangju and Busan – will be filled with art, with two biennales in the regions coinciding later this year. The 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, directed by French curator Nicolas Bourriaud, will be held from Sept. 7 to Dec. 1, titled “Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century.” The biennale will bring together 73 artists from 30 countries; among the artists are 11 Korean artists Literally meaning “the noise from the public place,

Cyril Kongo’s first graffiti exhibition in Seoul French-Vietnamese graffiti artist Cyril Kongo’s first solo exhibition in Seoul kicked off March 14 at Museum Wave, bringing together some 45 works from the artist's early days to his collaborations with luxury brands such as Chanel, Hermes and Maserati. The artist became interested in graffiti during his adolescent years in the French Congo and launched his career as a graffiti artist in Paris in 1986. The exhibition, “Graff

When Seoul Auction held its inaugural auction in Hong Kong in 2008, there was only a “single goal” in mind -- to herald Korean art to the global art scene, introducing it to new collectors in Asia. For the past 16 years, the resolve has remained firm for Korea’s leading auction house. On Monday, at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, the auction house kicked off a preview of its "Contemporary Art Sale” scheduled to take place in Seoul at 3 p.m., Friday. “We have put in so m

American artist Ian Cheng has returned to Seoul with his recent simulation work, “Thousand Lives,” at Gladstone Gallery, two years after his first solo museum exhibition at the Leeum Museum of Art, where he showcased the integration of art and artificial intelligence. Upon entering the gallery, visitors encounter what appears to be a video game screen showing a turtle named “Thousand” wandering around a messy room. As visitors move closer to the screen and lean down, the

DOHA, Qatar -- As you near the National Museum of Qatar in Doha, a large-scale layered structure comes into sight. The museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is reminiscent of the “desert rose,” a crystal cluster of gypsum formed in the desert that indicates the presence of water. The museum, which opened in 2019, presents the story of Qatar from prehistoric times to the present, and also houses contemporary art collections that include some of the world’s most renow

Celebrating 100 years of operations, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington will present Korean artist Suh Do-ho’s Public Figures sculpture in the museum's Freer Plaza, where it will be installed for five years. The commissioned work will be unveiled April 27, becoming the first new sculpture to be displayed in front of the building in over three decades, the museum has announced. Suh has created a plinth for a monument with numerous small, individualized f

Sometimes one may desire to explore the type of art an artist previously pursued and examine how those past artistic practices have shaped their current art world. This notion underpins the recently unveiled “Edition R” project at Gallery Hyundai, a prestigious gallery in Seoul. “Incorporeal Landscape,” the first edition of "Edition R," invites three artists -- Kim Min-jung, Toh Yun-hee and Chung Zu-young -- who have had a relationship with the gallery spanning

More than 150 galleries based in South Korea will join the country’s oldest art fair in early April amid a slowdown in the art market. The 42-year-old art fair is the first major art fair of the year, providing a glimpse of the year ahead. The Galleries Art Fair 2024 will begin April 3 with a VIP and press opening and will run through April 7 at COEX in southern Seoul. The 153 galleries taking part encompass Korea’s leading galleries such as Gallery Hyundai, the Kukje Gallery and Hak

The National Folk Museum of Korea, located next to Gyeongbokgung in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, hosts a Korean folk performance every Saturday at 3 p.m. in the museum's theater. The performance is free and seating is allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Gracing the stage Saturday is the Korean traditional dance "Spring, Bloom as Dance," a presentation that captures the essence of spring and a myriad of human emotions through dance, blending both newly choreographed and tra

As you approach the Leeum Museum of Art in Hannam-dong, the venue for South Korea's first solo exhibition of French artist Philippe Parreno, you may hear an unfamiliar sound, as if aliens were speaking to visitors. The sound comes from the 14-meter-tall tower “Membrane” installed on the outdoor deck of the museum. The structure functions as a control tower that breathes life into objects inside the museum. The cybernetic character is equipped with a sensing system that collect

A new case of allegedly forged artwork credited to Korean artist Lee Ufan is reported to involve a Korean politician’s wife. Kukmin Ilbo, a local newspaper, exclusively reported late Monday that the prosecution recently began investigating a case in which the spouse of a Korean politician seeking to run in the April general election is alleged to have traded fake paintings last year. The woman allegedly traded forged Lee Ufan paintings to raise election campaign funds for her husband. The

In architecture, molding is used to cover transitions between surfaces to smooth rough sections, and comes in various materials such as wood, stone or cement. Korean sculptor Hong Jung-pyo’s “Hidden Edge” series, which he began in 2003, draws inspiration from the architectural element of molding. The 48-year-old artist, who delved into sculpture after graduating from Hongik University, has unveiled new works created out of wood or steel molding at the exhibition “Differen

Ink wash is an art medium that young artists today mostly shun. A look at Bang Ui-geol’s ink wash paintings will make you realize why the centuries-old art form has been largely missing from today's contemporary art scene. The 86-year-old artist is presenting more than 100 recent ink wash paintings -- called “sumukhwa” in Korean -- created in his 70s and 80s at the Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum in southern Seoul in an exhibition titled “Bang Ui-geol: Link to Creation.