It all started as a young college student’s escapism. For Brian de Graft, making collages was a form of recreation, something to take his mind off his studies. His hobby went viral online and now he makes a living out of it. Graft is an Amsterdam-based German artist who has become popular for the yellow collages on his Instagram page. The Instagram influencer-artist is holding an exhibition at a space owned by local fashion brand Mutemuse, located near Seoul Forest in Seongdong-gu, S

Arts & Design June 9, 2019

An exhibition featuring hundreds of ancient Greek artifacts is being held at Seoul Art Center’s Hangaram Art Museum. The exhibition, titled “The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great,” features some 350 artifacts gathered from 24 local museums in Greece, including the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and the Archaeological Museum of Pella. The exhibition is designed to allow the visitor to explore the cultures of the region, from the early Aegean civiliza

Arts & Design June 6, 2019

In Gary Hume’s paintings, colorful tectonic plates seamlessly flow on the glimmering aluminum surface. You see yourself reflected there too. As you move around the gallery space, they seem to shimmer a little differently.Britain’s Hume has brought his visual playground to Seoul. The artist is holding a solo exhibition at Barakat Contemporary, Barakat Gallery’s modern and contemporary art venue. It is the first-ever solo exhibition in Korea for the artist, who came to

Arts & Design June 4, 2019

Korean artist Kim Ji-won’s uniquely grotesque cockscomb paintings come in different colors -- exuberant red, faded gray.Kim, best known for this cockscomb painting series, is holding a solo exhibition at PKM Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, titled “Canvas Fly.” His latest exhibition consists more than 90 paintings by Kim, including representative paintings from the series focusing on cockscomb flowers -- maendeurami in Korean -- as well as other works that depict landscapes

Arts & Design June 3, 2019

The eighth edition of Art Busan kicked off Thursday at the Bexco Exhibition Center in Busan, featuring some 4,000 works from 164 galleries in 17 countriesMany galleries at this year’s art fair agreed that the quality of the annual event is getting higher. “The fair underwent many changes, and it seems to have finally settled in, particularly in terms of its program,” a representative from Seoul-based Hakgojae Gallery said.This year’s edition of the country’s second-

Arts & Design May 31, 2019

Legendary Irish rock band U2 will perform at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Dec. 8, marking its first-ever visit to South Korea. The upcoming concert is an extension of the band’s worldwide Joshua Tree Tour of 2017, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of its seminal album “The Joshua Tree.” The six-month tour in 2017 attracted some 2.7 million people to 51 concerts in North America, Europe and Latin America. The Joshua Tree tour in 2019, which covers Asia, will r

Performance May 31, 2019

The Bauhaus school’s workshop wing in the German town of Dessau is well known for its stark white volumes, gridded windows and the Bauhaus sign that runs vertically down the facade. The iconic building, conceived by the school’s founding director Walter Gropius in 1919, will be shown at the upcoming Gwangju Design Biennale 2019, which kicks off Sept. 7 for a 55-day run.  Coming to the festival is a 15-square-meter mobile version of the monumental modernist building, set on a tra

Arts & Design May 29, 2019

Ballerina Kim Joo-won will introduce her new work “Tango Ballet 3 Minutes: Su Tiempo” at the Sejong Center July 11-14. Kim’s latest piece follows “Marguerite and Armand,” staged in 2013.  The tango-style ballet, choreographed by Rye Hoi-woong, tells a love story in just about three minutes. Starring alongside Kim are Korean National Ballet principal dancer Lee Young-cheol and former KNB ballerino Kang Jun-ha.La Ventana, led by accordion player Jeong Tae-ho, wil

Performance May 28, 2019

Canadian theater artist, director and actor Robert Lepage is presenting the production “887” for the first time in Seoul. The piece sheds light on the Quebec separatist movement from his own experience of living as a member of a Francophone family. The production is a work of “autofiction,” Lepage said during a press conference Monday at the Embassy of Canada to Korea. “887” runs between Wednesday and June 2 at the LG Arts Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The arti

Performance May 27, 2019

The occupation of curator is not one that most people are familiar with -- many think it’s all about organizing and planning exhibitions.  Korean curator Lee Dae-hyung is someone who pushes the boundary of what a curator can do. Having started his career as an exhibition curator, Lee has contributed to many local art fairs, has done art consulting for corporations, was the director of the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and is now the team leader of Hyundai Motor’

Arts & Design May 26, 2019

You can ride on a swing in the Demilitarized Zone along the border between the two Koreas, and it’s even a three-seater. Danish artist group Superflex’s two-swing set from their 2017 large-scale installation “One Two Three Swing!” has been installed at Dora observatory situated at the northernmost point of the DMZ, in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Tourists and soldiers visiting Dora observatory were swinging under blue-clear sky on Tuesday. Taking pictures of them was Jak

Arts & Design May 22, 2019

The rooftop of the Sewoon Sangga, the 50-plus-year-old shopping complex in central Seoul, offers a unique panorama of Seoul.From the northern side of this mega-structure you get a view that spans from the mountain Bugaksan to the Confucian shrine Jongmyo. There is also a clear view of Namsan Tower from the southern side. The western side offers a skyline that connects Euljiro 1-ga with the gates Gwanghwamun and Namdaemun, while clusters of low-rise traditional markets can be seen to the east. A

Culture May 21, 2019

Manon de Boer’s video work “Bella, Maia and Nick” shows three teenagers playing instruments in a room with an ocean view. Without any intention to create harmony, they make different sounds with classical instruments. The camera watches the three together, though they sound dissonant combined.This work by the Dutch artist living in Brussels explores how individuals learn how to live together, said Kim Hae-ju, deputy director of the Art Sonje Center.  Artist Ursula Biemann and architect Paulo Tav

Arts & Design May 20, 2019

Sitting in a wheelchair, artist Park Seo-bo appeared feeble, but his voice was energetic as he spoke during a press conference Thursday for his upcoming retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Seoul branch. “I am very happy to see the retrospective’s opening. This exhibition has everything of me, including the things that I wanted to hide from the world. The exhibition reveals all the steps I have taken so far. I feel naked here. But it will

Arts & Design May 16, 2019

POSING WITH BASQUIAT -- Choi Jung-wha (third from left, second row), head of the Corea Image Communication Institute, Kim Young-ho (fourth from left, second row), Ilshin Spinning chairman, and H.E. Federico Failla (fifth from left, second row), Italian ambassador to Korea, pose for photos next to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “TBT,” along with other guests at “Korea CQ, 5.4 Club,” an event hosted by CICI at the Ilshin Spinning headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. (CICI)

People May 15, 2019