Leeum Museum of Art puts young artists forefront with new project

Leeum Museum of Art has made another move to promote young and promising artists with their new exhibition, “ROOM Project.” This exhibition will take place in the museum‘s lobby, a newly installed space dedicated to up-and-coming artists.

The project offers an opportunity for artists in their 20s and 30s to showcase their work and introduce their artistic vision. The museum plans to permanently run the exhibition space for emerging artists looking for a chance to present their work, according to Leeum.

“We are moving to introduce more young, emerging artists through exhibitions and projects,” an official from the museum told The Korea Herald.

The museum reopened in September 2021 after closing in 2020 due to the pandemic and the hiatus of thematic exhibitions following the resignation of director Hong Ra-hee in 2017. Since then, it has tried to reinforce its support of young artists, resuming the biennial exhibition “Artspectrum” for the first time in 6 years. Artist Cha Jea-min was selected as the winner of “Artspectrum 2022.”

The first artist featured in “ROOM Project” is Yoo Ji-young, whose exhibition “Jiyoung Yoo: Closed Containers” will run until Dec. 18. Yoo questions and deconstructs the conventional idea of painting by incorporating everyday objects such as calendars and manuscript papers. She had her first exhibition, “Spilled Water,” in 2018 at Rainbow Cube Gallery in Seoul.

Yoo showcases seven works inspired by objects and artifacts that are now on display at the museum, losing their original function. Among the works are “A Pile of Grid” and “Piles of Grid,” a found object sculpture involving cupboards that cannot be opened.

“There will always be more things in a closed than in an open box. To verify images kills them, and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience,” a quote from the book “The Poetics of Space,” written by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, inspired Yoo’s artistic philosophy, according to the museum.

Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul currently hosts “Artspectrum 2022,” “Ian Cheng: Worlding” and two permanent exhibitions of the museum‘s traditional art and contemporary art collections.


By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)