MMCA unveils shortlist for Korea Artist Prize 2021

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has announced a shortlist of four Korean artists for the Korea Artist Prize 2021 who will be sponsored to produce works for an upcoming exhibition.

Bang Jeong-a, Kim Sang-jin, Oh Min and Choi Chan-sook -- were selected by a committee consisting of art experts from Korea and abroad appointed every year for the national museum’s annual award. 

The exhibition of the four artists will be unveiled on Oct. 20 at MMCA Seoul titled “Korea Artist Prize 2021,” which will run through Jan. 30, 2022. Each artist will be given a 40 million-won ($35,000) grant to produce new works for the exhibition. The final winner will be announced in December after a jury reviews the works.

Busan-based painter Bang Jeong-a, who was born in 1968, has addressed social issues through a woman’s perspective. Many of her paintings are rooted in the feminist art and Minjung art, a socio-political art movement that flourished in the 1980s, rebelling against the authoritarian regime.

Installation artist Kim Sang-jin has worked with a variety of media art, exploring the nature of objects with an epistemological approach. The Seoul National University College of Fine Arts graduate also studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. His latest solo exhibition was “Cross Check, Osison” held in 2019 in Seoul. 

Media artist Oh Min has explored formative beauty through different art genres, including installation, choreography and music. She was the winner of the 17th Hermes Foundation Missulsang in 2017 and showcased “Etude ABCD” at Atelier Hermes in Seoul that comprised a set of dance etudes with intricately woven choreography. 

Media artist Choi Chan-sook has focused on historical events and how they relate to collective memories and narratives. She has held nine solo exhibitions in Taipei, Seoul and Berlin.

MMCA has co-organized the annual award since 2012 with the SBS Foundation to support talented Korean artists every year. The jury for this year consists of Park So-hyun, professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology; Choi Eun-ju, director of Daegu Art Museum; Eugene Tan, director of National Art Gallery, Singapore; Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala, artistic directors of the Gwangju Biennale 2021; and Youn Bum-mo, director of MMCA.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)