Architect Kim Won has put up for sale some significant pieces from his collection of art to help raise funds for an NGO for which he serves as a chief director. Among the 50 works donated by Kim that are on sale at Gallery Now in Seoul are ink paintings by architect Kim Swoo-guen (1931-1986), a prominent contemporary architect. The architect gave the paintings to Kim Won as a gift a year before his death. Kim Won was Kim Swoo-guen’s protege.  “Kim Swoo-guen began contempor

Painter Moon Sung-sic sticks with using pencils in creating his art. Inspired by daily life, he represents the mundaneness of everyday by scratching the thick oil paint surface with pencils as if striving to show his perseverance as an artist. “Pencils are the most basic materials in painting, spontaneous and simple. I think this resembles my unexaggerated and unpretentious personality,“ Moon told reporters at Kukje Gallery’s Busan venue on Jan. 21. He said he felt that his

The Gwangju Biennale Foundation and GIZI Foundation will launch the “Gwangju Biennale Park Seo-bo Art Prize” at the 14th Gwangju Biennale scheduled to open in April next year to recognize a promising artist participating at the biennale. GIZI Foundation, established by Korean contemporary artist Park Seo-bo, has committed $1 million to the prize, with $100,000 in prize money to winning artists or collectives through 2042. The winner will be selected among those who participate in t

After the much-anticipated auction of Kansong Art Museum’s two state-designated national treasures last week ended up failing to find bidders, eyes are now on what Korea’s oldest private museum will do with the national treasures. During the auction held by K Auction on Jan. 27, no one bid for the two national treasures -- National Treasure No. 73, Portable Shrine of Gilt-bronze Buddha Triad, and National Treasure No. 72, Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha Triad with Inscription of Gyemi

Yongyangbongjeojong is a pavilion in southern Seoul that Jeongjo -- who ruled in the Joseon era from 1776 to 1800 -- used for respite when he visited Hyollyungwon in Suwon, where the tomb of his father Crown Prince Sado is located.  Designated as Seoul Tangible Cultural Property No. 6, it was named for the unique scenery of the mountain and river that surrounds the pavilion. King Jeongjo once said, “The high mountain in the north and the running Han River look like a wriggling dragon

Korea’s “dansaekhwa” abstract movement grabbed global attention in the early 2000s, but many more of Korea‘s abstract artists who developed their own styles and struggled to stand on their own feet have not received similar attention. To help give them their due, one of Korea’s biggest art galleries is holding the exhibition “Seeking ‘Eidos’: Korean Abstract Painters 7,” to shed light on seven pioneers of Korea’s abstract art. Hakgoj

Yu Kyoung-suk found joy by making special tteokguk, or rice cake soup, this year. As the year became 2022, he came up with a fancy tteokguk -- topped with flower-shaped dumplings and jidan (egg garnish) -- to share with his wife and their two sons. He squeezed juice from beets and carrots to add colors to the dumpling dough to make a special tteokguk this year. “When the New Year comes, Koreans eat tteokguk made using rice cake slices from garaetteok (a stick of long rice cake) which sy

Basic ingredients - 400 grams rice cake slices (tteokguk tteok) - 130 grams minced beef - 2 green onion stalks - 2-3 eggs For beef seasoning - 1 tablespoon soy sauce - 1 tablespoon sesame oil - 1 teaspoon minced garlic - 1 teaspoon sugar - pepper to taste - a little cooking oil to coat frying pan For soup - 5 cups of dried kelp (dashima) broth - 1/2 big spoon soup soy sauce - 1 small spoon minced garlic - salt and pepper to taste Directions - If rice cake slices

Two state-designated national treasures failed to sell at an auction held Thursday in Seoul, after South Korea’s oldest private museum sparked controversy for putting the national treasures up for auction. The two artifacts were the first national treasures to be put on the block in the country. National Treasure No. 73, Portable Shrine of Gilt-bronze Buddha Triad, and National Treasure No. 72, Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha Triad with Inscription of Gyemi Year, were put up for auction at

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea will operate all four of its locations over the Lunar New Year holiday from Monday through Wednesday, offering exhibitions free of charge. The Seoul branch will be closed on Tuesday, or Lunar New Year’s day. The exhibitions on view are “Ai Weiwei: Defend the Future” at its Seoul branch; “To the World Through Art, Highlights of MMCA Global Art Collection from the 1980s-1990s” at the Cheongju branch; “

Seoul Museum of Art –- an art museum operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government –- will focus on integration in operating its eight art entities scattered across Seoul, as it looks forward to expand to 10 by 2024 with the opening of three additional art entities. They are: Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art, Seo-Seoul Museum of Art and Seoul Museum of Photography. Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art will open in August in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. It will hold and manage the museum

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has started a test run for “The More, The Better,” the largest installation work by video art pioneer Paik Nam-june after it initiated a restoration project in 2019. The national museum has finished the overall restoration work and began the test run on Jan. 17, which will continue for six months. Comprising 1,003 picture tube monitors, the video tower was installed in 1988 at MMCA Gwacheon, becoming the world’s larg

Tongyeong, a port city located in the southern coast of South Korea, will kick off its inaugural triennale -- an Italian word meaning “once every three years” -- in March, as an art festival that encompasses visual, media and craft art. The overarching theme will be “The Sea, The Seeds.” The port city in South Gyeongsang has been widely known as a home to many Korea’s established artists such as composer Yun I-sang, novelist Park Kyong-ni, poet Kim Choon-su and pa

Russian avant-garde modern art started to flourish in the early 20th century with artists beginning to explore new abstract styles, rejecting conventional academic tradition in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917 that overthrew the Russian Empire. While the avant-garde artists -- most famously Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich -- are widely known today, many of them were oppressed in the 1930s after Stalin, who stigmatized their works, took power. Many artists fled to Europe a

Incheon International Airport Corp. is getting one step closer to host a branch of a world renowned museum at the airport as it is set to launch a feasibility reseach about the project in February. The airport has pushed for the plan to accomodate a global museum at the largest airport in the country, such as Louvre Museum and Musee d’Orsay as early as 2024. After failing a bidding in September to commission the research, the airport put up the second tender in December, which was made t

Light has been a popular subject in art explored throughout history, inspiring many artists particularly since the Age of Enlightenment started to dominate the world of ideas in the 17th century across Europe. Some significant works of art from the Tate in the UK that show how qualities of light have been interpreted across centuries have been brought together and on display in Seoul. The exhibition, titled “Light: Works From the Tate Collection” at the Buk Seoul Museum of Art in N

As digital art expands at a furious pace with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and metaverse gaining huge popularity, Korean artists and artist groups have started to make efforts to secure visual artists’ rights. In November, some 20 artist associations and 100 artists formed a group to advocate for their rights, the Korea Visual Arts Copyright Association. It is Korea’s first association addressing concerns about the copyrights of visual artists. “Many artists in Korea have negl

The competition ratio for K Auction’s public offering recorded 1408.33:1 during the two-day public offering session, raising more than 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) in subscription deposit, according to IR Kudos on Thursday. South Korea’s second-largest auction house conducted a two-day public offering starting Wednesday, aiming to become the second auction house in the country to be traded on the junior Kosdaq exchange. The auction house is planning for a Kosdaq listing on Jan. 2

Korean-born video art pioneer Paik Nam-june will be remembered at the Nam June Paik Art Center that is commemorating the 90th anniversary of the artist’s birth this year with a number of special projects throughout the year. The artist died Jan. 29, 2006, leaving a legacy that continues to influence media artists today. The museum, which the artist described as a “house where the spirit of Nam June Paik lives on,” will kick-start the yearlong celebration of Paik‘s legac

ULSAN -- Located in southeastern South Korea, Ulsan is synonymous with the country‘s industrialization. The city is home to the world’s largest automobile plant and driving through the port of Ulsan, Hyundai cars preparing to be exported on ships are hard to miss. Some 307 kilometers from Seoul, the city has opened its first art museum in the eastern part of the city -- a museum that specializes in media art. Five inaugural exhibitions are currently running, including the main exh