Artist Chun Kyung-ja, whose death in the past summer was revealed to the public Thursday, was a female cultural icon in Korea’s male-dominated art society. According to the Seoul Museum of Art, Chun died on Aug. 6 in New York, where she had lived since 1998. The artist, who was 91, reportedly had a cerebral hemorrhage in 2003 and had suffered from poor health since then. “It was reported to me that Chun’s daughter visited the museum on Aug. 20, carrying the remains of her mother,” Kim Hong-hee,

Performance Oct. 22, 2015

Seoul Fashion Week for spring-summer 2016 was held from Oct.16-21 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. (Yonhap)Seoul Fashion Week is arguably the biggest and single most important event in Korean fashion. Held twice a year since 1997 -- once in spring and again in autumn -- it is an occasion for the country’s most visible designers to present their collections, offering style previews for the seasons ahead. This year’s event, which ended Wednesday, was therefore a chance to check on Korea’s pres

Arts & Design Oct. 22, 2015

This is the second in a series of articles introducing key features at the upcoming Herald Design Forum 2015 to be held in Seoul on Nov. 10. - Ed.A film festival’s star-studded red carpet is brought to your home in a 360-degree panoramic view. Virtual reality and hologram technology provides an alternative to live concerts, enabling fans to digitally interact with their stars -- dead or alive. Entertainment today mingles with new technologies, churning out innovative new ways of engaging people

Arts & Design Oct. 15, 2015

From “Toy Story,” the first completely computer-animated feature film released in 1995, to this summer’s hit “Inside Out,” Pixar movies have captured the hearts of children and adults around the world. The man who made the computer-generated imagery possible is Alvy Ray Smith, cofounder of Pixar Animation Studios and a pioneer of computer graphics. Since founding Pixar in 1986 with Ed Catmull, he has been at the forefront of leading innovations in computer graphics and its applications to variou

Arts & Design Oct. 15, 2015

The image of Van Gogh comes alive in his signature self-portrait with a pipe. The legendary painter blows a puff of smoke, from which an image of him peacefully resting in a field emerges. The digitally rendered image of Van Gogh was made by Korean artist Lee Lee-nam, who has been digitally transforming masterpieces of Western and Eastern art into an animated video art form. Lee, a widely loved media artist in the Korean art scene, has been invited to give a lecture on his art world at the Heral

Performance Oct. 15, 2015

 A three-day festival in the southern city of Daegu will highlight the Korean city’s on-going efforts to reposition itself from a “textile city” to a design capital. Design Week in Daegu, starting this Friday, will proclaim once again the hoped-for transition, as the city with a population of 2 1/2 million rolls out various events for industry insiders, experts and the general public, intended at thrusting the local industry into the spotlight of the design world. 　Visitors make bracelets using

Arts & Design Oct. 13, 2015

2014 Herald Design ForumThe annual Herald Design Forum returns for its fifth edition on Nov 10, bringing together the design world’s big names to Seoul. This year, the forum will explore the potential of design when it integrates with other fields such as technology, management, psychology, humanity and art. It will focus on how design acts as an intermediary and comprehensive platform between different industries, merges them, and creates new values in the process. The forum signals the start o

Arts & Design Oct. 12, 2015

Alain de Botton, best known here for his 1993 book “Essays in Love,” continues his relationship with art after his 2013 book ”Art as Therapy,” this time curating a craft exhibition in Korea. The Swiss-born British philosopher and writer has taken up the unusual job of an exhibition curator at the ongoing Cheongju International Craft Biennale to offer fresh ways to view craft. He worked with 15 Korean artists to come up with craftworks and explore their psychological side.“I started to think what

Performance Oct. 12, 2015

North Korea staged what's believed to be the largest-ever military parade on Saturday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party, state media showed, in a move to show off its military might.The North has hyped up the festive mood and promoted the accomplishments of its leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the anniversary.But it forewent provocative acts such as a long-range rocket launch, which the North has threatened to do so in recent weeks.Empty military vehicles

North Korea Oct. 10, 2015

Two old and modern archive holdings of Korea were recognized as valuable documentary heritage by UNESCO on Saturday. The two Korean additions to the UNESCO Memory of the World are Confucian printing woodblocks of the Joseon era and the archives of the 1983 KBS special live broadcast “Finding Dispersed Families.” The decision was made at the three-day meeting of UNESCO’s International Advisory Committee that considered 87 nominations from 61 countries in Abu Dhabi from Oct. 4-6.  One of the 64,22

Culture Oct. 10, 2015

A new museum is set to open Thursday in Suwon near the historic site of the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace.  Suwon Ipark Museum of Art is the first city-run museum in Suwon, the largest city in Gyeonggi Province with 1.1 million people. Suwon Ipark Museum of Art (SIMA)“The museum realizes a long-held wish to create a space to bring art and art education to Suwon citizens,” said Jeong Seung-bo, exhibition director of the museum. The museum building, designed, constructed and donated by Hyundai Develop

Performance Oct. 7, 2015

Artist Oh In-hwan has been named the winner of the 2015 Korea Artist Prize, the National Museum of Modern, Contemporary Art, Korea said Wednesday. "Oh has explored important issues of modern society through his unique works of art that deliver strong personal messages toward social issues,” a judging committee said in a press release. Artist Oh In-hwan (MMCA)Oh, 50, has explored social and cultural issues through participatory or site-specific projects. Based on his personal experiences, Oh tran

Performance Oct. 7, 2015