Preview of the 2025 Contemporary Art Exhibition… Artist with a strong fan base, solo exhibition ‘Pungseong’
Muik’s solo exhibition… April Museum of Modern Art, special makeup experience… Described as if alive
Bourgeois Retrospective… Ho-Am Art Museum in August, “Exhibit works along with diaries and notes”
Blanket solo exhibition… September Leeum Museum of Art, “Overview of 40 years of art at a glance”
A large-scale retrospective exhibition of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), a master of modern art, where the ‘giant spider’ comes to mind, a solo exhibition looking back at the world of over 40 years of work by the world-loved artist Lee Bul, and the first Asian exhibition of Australian hyper-realistic sculptor Ron Muick. … .
Last year, the art market suffered a cold spell in the aftermath of the economic downturn, but significant exhibitions continued to bring joy to the audience. In 2025, the Year of the Snake, a wealth of exhibitions by renowned domestic and international artists are being prepared. This year’s lineup is full of solo exhibitions by artists with large fan bases.
● Ho-Am exhibition delving into the inner self of the bourgeoisie
A retrospective exhibition of Bourgeois, who has many fans in Korea for his large spider sculpture ‘Maman’, will be held at the Hoam Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, in August. The large-scale Bourgeois retrospective exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, held from September last year to the 9th of this month, has many fans who have already visited Tokyo. In fact, some of the works on display at the Mori Art Museum also come to the Ho-Am Art Museum, but the nature of the exhibition is completely different.
Kim Seong-won, deputy director of the Leeum Museum of Art, said, “Bourgeois’s ‘psychoanalytic text’ will be the central axis of the Ho-Am exhibition.” Bourgeois underwent mental treatment for several decades during his lifetime, and records such as diaries he left during this process were made public in his later years. The purpose is to compose the exhibition work based on this data and show how the artist’s unconsciousness is connected to the work.
Deputy Director Kim explained, “We will organize the exhibition so that people can read Bourgeois’s diaries and notes while appreciating the works,” and added, “It will be an exhibition that delves deeply into the artist’s inner world.”
Many people are also waiting for Lee Bul’s solo exhibition to be held at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul in September. This exhibition, which looks at his work over the past 40 years since the 1980s, focuses on his early karaoke work, the Cyborg series, and his ‘Mon Grand Recit’ series since 2005. Unlike the 2021 Seoul Museum of Art solo exhibition, which featured early video works, it is expected that Lee Bul’s world of work will be explored broadly.
● The first national exhibition is ‘Ron Muick’
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s first exhibition of 2025 will be Ron Muick’s solo exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul in April. Muik previously met Korean audiences with a large face sculpture at Leeum’s re-opening special exhibition ‘Human, Seven Questions’ in 2021.
Taking advantage of his experience working in film special makeup, Muick created lifelike human body sculptures much larger than actual people, creating an eerie and strange atmosphere. It is also the first solo exhibition planned under Kim Seong-hee, director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, who said, “I want to hold an exhibition that moves people across generations.” In addition, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is preparing exhibitions such as ‘Surrealism and Korean Modern Art’ (April at Deoksugung Palace), Kim Tschang-yeol’s solo exhibition (August in Seoul), and ‘Young Expression’ (April at Gwacheon).
Art Sonje Center opens ‘Ha Jong-hyun 7957’ (February), the Spanish contemporary art exhibition ‘Clear, Transparent and Awake’ (May), and Adrian Villar Rojas’ solo exhibition (August).
● Galleries paying attention to young artists
In the lineups of Kukje Gallery and Gallery Hyundai, solo exhibitions by young Korean artists stand out. Kukje Gallery will open a solo exhibition by Jang Pa (43) in Seoul in December. Jangpa is well known for his works depicting grotesque shapes resembling human organs using strong colors. The author describes this as ‘feminine grotesque’. A large-scale work was also submitted to the ‘Connecting Bodies – Asian Female Artists’ exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. It is said that the gallery was eyeing Jangpa as an artist with a strong visual language to exhibit at overseas art fairs.
Gallery Hyundai will also hold a solo exhibition by Lee Woo-sung (41) at its new building in October. An official from Gallery Hyundai explained, “It is interesting that, unlike many artists of his age who approach the work with a focus on concepts, this artist deals with scenes from everyday life such as youth, solidarity, and rallies, revealing a unique Korean sentiment.”
Reporter Kim Min [email protected]
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