SeMA to open Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art, host sculptor Chung Seo-young show during Frieze Seoul period

Seoul Museum of Art –- an art museum operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government –- will focus on integration in operating its eight art entities scattered across Seoul, as it looks forward to expand to 10 by 2024 with the opening of three additional art entities. They are: Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art, Seo-Seoul Museum of Art and Seoul Museum of Photography.

Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art will open in August in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. It will hold and manage the museum’s collection, present artworks from the collection, and organize seminars and educational programs. The Seo-Seoul Museum of Art in Dobong-gu, northern Seoul and Seoul Museum of Photography in Geumcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul are scheduled to open in 2024.

“We will newly open Art Archives Seoul Museum of Art this year, a new art entity to open under the umberalla of SeMA in six years. So we will come up with a more concrete direction about how to integrate all the entities together in terms of operation,” said Beck Jee-sook, general director of SeMA, at a press conference on Monday.

The museum is planning to showcase a retrospective of contemporary sculptor Chung Seo-young in September to coincide with Frieze Seoul, one of the world’s largest art fairs scheduled to kick off Sept.2 at Coex in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul. 

The museum plans to introduce the artist to the international art scene by releasing an English publication about the artist. The exhibition will present Chung’s representative works from the 1990s to the present. Chung deconstructed conventional art and posed questions about sculpture itself, incorporating non-sculptural materials found throughout industrialized society such as styrofoam, linoleum, plastic, sponges and plywood.

In celebration of video art founder Paik Nam-june’s 90th birth anniversary, the museum is planning a special exhibition called “Seoul Rhapsody” in November in conjunction with Nam June Paik Art Center. The show will shed light on lesser known sides of the artist such as Paik as a writer who produced a variety of texts during his lifetime.

In July, the “Do Ho Suh: Artland” exhibition will be held at Buk-Seoul Museum of Art.

A special exhibition that presents masterpieces by Korea’s renowned modern sculptor Kwon Jin-kyu will be held in March at SeMA in central Seoul. The museum received some 140 artworks, including 96 sculptures, 10 paintings and six drawings last year from the late artist’s family. The donated works will be stored at Nam-Seoul Museum of Art along with a permanent exhibition hall dedicated to the artist.

French contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel’s touring exhibition will be held in June at SeMA in central Seoul.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)