September 13, 2017–February 18, 2018
The Korea Artist Prize is the most prestigious award for recognized Korean artists. It is organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and the SBS Foundation, and it reaches its 6th edition in 2017. The Prize promotes the quality of Korean modern art culture and impulses the presentation of works specially produced for the occasion. It supports talented artists who have excelled within the Korean contemporary art context. This year, the artists Sunny Kim (b. 1969), Kelvin Kyungkun Park (b. 1978), Bek Hyunjin (b. 1972) and Song Sanghee (b. 1970) were selected by a jury composed by Korean and international specialists, through portfolio review as well as studio visits. Their new works will be shown in the most prominent galleries of MMCA Seoul. In December, the final winner will be announced.
Sunny Kim organizes the place with paintings and installations under the theme of Leap in the Dark. She draws upon the psychological domain regarding underlying memories and what are forgotten into a real space. Bek Hyunjin’s UnemploymentBankruptcyDivorceDebtSuicide Rest Stop represents a refuge, a resting area, and a place for meditation as well as a multipurpose space.
Kelvin KyungKun Park will present a crowd of robots moving uniformly with light and colors responding to their motions, under the theme of Mirror Organs. Song Sanghee delicately depicts relations between the end and formation of things in Come back alive baby based on the folk tale of a baby commander through films, photographs, and drawings.
The Jury of the 2017 Korean Artist Prize is composed by:
Bartomeu Marí (Director of MMCA, Korea)
Jessica Morgan (Director of Dia Art Foundation)
Kim Honghee(Ex. Director of Seoul Museum of Art)
Philippe Pirotte (Rektor of The Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste & Director of Portikus Gallery)
