It is now 30 years since the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Korea, held its first Young Korean Artists exhibition. The exhibition, founded in 1981, quickly became a fundamental one within Korea and around the world, renowned for recognizing and exposing local artistic talent.
Kim, Ho-Suk, (Hwang, Hee), 1988
An instrumental exhibition
The Young Korean Artists exhibition (renamed New Talent Exhibition in 1990) is the museum’s oldest and most representative show, known for recognizing many of Korea’s most internationally renowned artists. This year’s exhibition, the 30th Anniversary of the Young Artists exhibition, will showcase original works by participants in the first 1981 show, as well as works spanning the following thirty years. There are 327 invited participants, many of them still “young” while others, particularly artists from the first shows, are now in their 50s and 60s.
Suh, Do-Ho, Staircase, 2009
Thirty years of contemporary Korean artists
200 works from a variety of mediums – painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation – will be represented here. The space has been divided into two sections: Young Korean Artists, spanning the 1980s to 1990s, and New Talent Exhibition, focusing on works produced in the 1990s to now.
Among the artists represented in the exhibition Bohn-Chang Koo, Do-Ho Suh, Bul Lee and Choi-Jeong Hwa enjoy international recognition, while five others, Ho-Suk Kim, Sang-Kyoon Noh, Yeong-Bae Lee, Hyun Chung and Yong-Sun Suh, have been named Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Arts.
Koo, Bohn-Chang, In the Beginning, 1994
Exhibition a gateway for the new
While primarily a retrospective historical art event, this exhibition is also being used by the museum as a launching pad for New Tides, a future exhibition aimed at discovering and exposing up and coming artists.
The 30th Anniversary of the Young Korean Artists Exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, closes on 6 June, 2010.
KN/KCE
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