ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ― An American tourist who collected stones during a six-day beach holiday with his wife was briefly detained in Turkey and faces trial for attempting to smuggle historical artifacts, he said on Wednesday.Jason Dement was taken into custody by security officials at Antalya airport, near Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, on Sunday because two of the pieces inside a bag of stones appeared to be artifacts. On Monday, a court released him from custody but barred him from leaving Turke

Travel April 19, 2013

REYKJAVIK, Iceland ― This is the only country that gives you a bath before they send you home.The Blue Lagoon, open year-round, rain or shine, envelops thousands of tourists from all over the world in its misty embrace.Many of them come in big tourist buses on the way to the airport, which is only 15 minutes away.They leave, freshly scrubbed and silky soft, after an hour or three at Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction ― and yes, it’s really blue, thanks to the silica, other minerals and ben

Travel April 19, 2013

In the lobby of Hangaram Museum of Seoul Arts Center, red sheets are glued on the floor. But the seemingly random arrangement starts to make sense as the Korean word “dream” emerges when viewed from a certain vantage point. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of Seoul Arts Center, French installation artist and photographer Georges Rousse has been invited to work with different places in the art center to shed light on its history as a leading cultural center in Korea. “It means a l

Performance April 18, 2013

K-Auction, one of the top auction houses in Korea, decided to hold a sale devoted to large-scale paintings on April 24 in anticipation of corporate buyers’ desire to acquire artworks when prices appear to have hit rock bottom. Corporate buyers make up a very small portion of art collectors in Korea and most of them are hesitant to start collections or expand their existing ones because in Korea, art collections are largely perceived as speculative investments by the wealthy. “It’s very rare for

Performance April 17, 2013

The art collection of Mudam Luxembourg, a contemporary art museum in Luxembourg, is on display in Seoul as part of an exchange exhibition with ArtSonje Center. Mudam Luxembourg, founded in 2006 in Luxembourg City, attracted a record number of visitors in the first year of opening with its extensive collections of contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman and Julian Schnabel. ArtSonje Center is showcasing 30 works by 19 artists whose works reflect on various aspects of contemporary l

Performance April 15, 2013

Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby is one of the hottest artists in the global art market today. His spray painting fetched between $35,000 and $45,000 in 2008 and tripled in price by 2011 to an estimated $100,000 to $150,000 in three years. Kukje Gallery in Seoul has brought major works by the artist ― selected as one of the “50 Next Most Collectible Artists” by the U.S. art magazine Art+Auction last year ― in a solo exhibition in Seoul, following on the heels of another exhibition of works

Performance April 14, 2013

Goo Bon-hyeong, a best-selling author of self-help books, died of lung cancer on Saturday. He was 59. Goo published the first self-help book “Farewell to Something Familiar” in 1998, which led the rise of self-help literature in Korea and the establishment of his own self-help research company, the Goo Bon-hyeong Change Management Lab, in 2000.He wrote four other books and numerous columns for newspapers, and held workshops.His motivational lectures attracted hundreds of participants, especially

People April 14, 2013

The Asia travel market will continue to grow despite lingering political tensions, including territorial disputes and more recently, the North Korean issue, according to Peter Yang, marketing director of the online hotel booking site Hotels.com.“We are just at the tip of the iceberg. China recently beat Germany in terms of per person travel expenditure. We will see more and more (Asian) people traveling abroad. (From the tip of the iceberg) it’s going to slide down to the middle part. That’s whe

Travel April 12, 2013

Ceramic pieces made by artist Yi Yoon-shin are among the most sought-after dinnerware among Koreans. Her calm, serene ceramic dinnerware goes well with any kind of food ― whether it be Korean or pasta. Drawn by its beauty, chef Jean-George Vongerichten, who owns a number of Michelin-starred restaurants, bought all of her dinnerware to use to serve his food and other traditional Korean dishes on PBS documentary series on Korean food “The Kimchi Chronicles.”The 55-year-old artist is currently hold

Performance April 11, 2013

Milan Furniture Design is one of the most important design events, attracting the most innovative designs from around the world. It is also a great opportunity for young designers to introduce their work on a global stage and to test themselves out in the market. Korean designer Park Bomi and five other Korean designers were selected by the organizers to showcase their works at Salone Satellite, which gathers promising international designers under age 35.  A separate Korean group exhibition fea

Arts & Design April 10, 2013

Korea will show 100 years of architecture in South and North Korea at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014, according to Cho Min-suk, commissioner for the Korean Pavilion of the world’s biggest architecture exhibition. “The Korean exhibition will focus on the history of Korean architecture, not contemporary architecture or architects, which corresponds with the central theme of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale,” said Cho at a press conference on Tuesday to unveil the direction of the Ko

Arts & Design April 10, 2013

What do some of the best-known modern abstract artists such as Willem de Kooning, Hans Hartung and Cy Twombly have in common? The contemporaries who left a significant impact on abstract art found their artistic motivation in Eastern calligraphy. Calligraphic expressions inspired American artist Twombly, whose works feature freely scribbled, calligraphic-style drawings; Hans Hartung works are largely defined with bold brushstrokes; and de Kooning works were an extension of lines. The paintings o

Performance April 8, 2013

Artist Chang Hwa-jin finds inspiration in modern buildings and the memories they hold.Watching the Japanese General Government Building being demolished in 1996, he began to pay attention to the historical modern buildings that were once center of key events in Korea’s tumultuous modern history.What remained in the memories of people came alive through Chang’s recreations of modern historical buildings in installations and paintings at his first solo exhibition held in nine years at Kumho Art Mu

Performance April 7, 2013