[Episode 5 of 8]

Young Korean Artists 2019: Liquid Glass Sea

Live Gallery Tour with Curator Heeseung Choi

Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) is pleased to present the fifth episode of
<Special Online Exhibition : Live Gallery Tour With The Curator>,
from the National Museum of Modern Art (MMCA).

Celebrating the museum’s 50th anniversary, the MMCA brings back the exhibition program Young Korean Artists, five years after its last exhibition, presenting Young Korean Artists 2019: Liquid Glass Sea, which marks the 19th exhibition of the program. First held under the title The Korean Young Artists Biennale in 1981, Young Korean Artists is Korea’s most authoritative and long-standing up-and-coming artist discovery program, introducing promising Korean contemporary artists and also reading into the trends and potential of the Korean contemporary art scene. Over the years, artists such as Lee Bul, Choi Jeonghwa (1989), Suh Doho (1990), and Moon Kyungwon (2000) have earned recognition through this program.

(Kor/Eng) Young Korean Artists 2019: Liquid Glass Sea Live Gallery Tour with Curator Heeseung Choi

▲ Featured Artists: Keem Jiyoung, Song Min Jung, AHN Sungseok, Yoon Doohyun, Lee Eunsae, Chang Seo Young, Chung Heemin, Choi Haneyl, and Hwang Sueyon.

▲ Exhibition Overview

Young Korean Artists 2019: Liquid Glass Sea features works by nine up-and-coming artists: Keem Jiyoung, Song Min Jung, AHN Sungseok, Yoon Doohyun, Lee Eunsae, Chang Seo Young, Chung Heemin, Choi Haneyl, and Hwang Sueyon. The artists were selected after a series of deliberation based on MMCA curators’ research and recommendations and external expert advice.

“Liquid,” “glass,” and “sea” from the subtitle of the exhibition are common keywords found in the works by the nine participating artists. The sense of connection or disconnection between the keywords symbolizes the Korean young contemporary artists’ free-spirited and fluid characteristics, which, like the space between the words , are hard to summarize in a complete sentence or to define as one thing. The keywords also imply the artists’ tendencies to reflect scenes within and outside of reality like clear, hard, yet delicate liquid crystal glass, as well as their potential to continue to flow into the future like the expansive, endlessly rolling sea.

The nine artists confront the issues of their generation by exploring the characteristics and nuances of media such as images, smartphone apps, and YouTube, sometimes embarking on a journey, riding on the wave of the internet. This exhibition features a total of 53 works including 52 never-before-seen works.

Keem Jiyoung examines problems in the social structure that victimize individuals and result in disasters to urge that such tragedies should never be repeated. Song Min Jung observes and brings into her work the ways in which popular culture such as social media is consumed to shed light on the present times. AHN Sungseok deploys various media including photographs, videos, and installations to question the world as habitually accepted by people. Yoon Doohyun blithely tests the boundaries in between the virtual, imaginary, and real worlds, using desktop wallpaper images to produce landscapes. Lee Eunsae reinterprets the scenes of social injustice, absurdities, and taboos she witnesses around her to vividly lay them out on her canvas. Chang Seo Young screens lucid, sensorial explorations of the inner and outer human body, while Chung Heemin scrutinizes the collision between images and the tactile sensations that arise in the process. Choi Haneyl uses three-dimensional languages to explore his various interests centering around the formative genre of sculpture, and Hwang Sueyon probes the objects around her to discover unique sculptural languages in the process of transforming them.

The exhibition space is designed to secure each artist an individual territory while also implying an connection among their works. In addition to the works, related materials including artist interviews and production footage will be displayed around the exhibition to deliver the young contemporary artists’ honest and passionate thoughts.

Special Online Exhibition: Live Gallery Tour with the Curator(5)