Modern art museum unveils new permanent exhibitions featuring Korean art collection

A scene from the two-channel video „Information from Nowhere“ (2011-12) by the artist duo Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho / Courtesy of MMCA

The Nationwide Museum of Trendy and Modern Artwork, Korea (MMCA) is about to launch a string of everlasting exhibitions this 12 months, positioning them as an encyclopedic overview of its Korean artwork assortment from 1900 to the current.

Titled the “MMCA Assortment,” these exhibits will debut in Might on the museum’s Seoul and Gwacheon branches. The shows will characteristic a rotating choice from its 11,800-piece holding, together with masterpieces donated by the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s family, with updates scheduled yearly.

The Gwacheon department is slated to current the acquisitions from 1900 to 1990 via a chronological lens, whereas the Seoul venue will spotlight some 80 gems from the Nineteen Sixties to the 2010s — from Kim Whanki and Park Website positioning-bo to Do Ho Suh and Haegue Yang.

MMCA Director Kim Sung-hee emphasised the significance of a everlasting exhibition that gives a complete glimpse into Korea’s artwork historical past, particularly to cater to the rising inflow of worldwide guests.

“Our assortment had beforehand lacked the size and depth wanted to maintain everlasting shows,” Kim In-hye, head of MMCA’s curatorial staff, mentioned throughout a New Yr press convention in Seoul, Tuesday.

“The brand new yearly rotating exhibitions will occupy about 30 p.c of the overall gallery house. This shift permits us to give attention to fewer however extra substantial thematic displays (to fill the remaining galleries).”

On the executive entrance, one urgent precedence for the MMCA is securing further cupboard space to alleviate its extreme in-house capability scarcity. At present, the principle Seoul department is working at practically 90 p.c of its storage capability. To deal with this, the establishment is in talks with the Korea Minting and Safety Printing Corp. to make the most of the banknote producer’s unused underground services at its headquarters in North Gyeongsang Province.

In the meantime, to advertise in-depth educational exploration of contemporary and up to date Korean artwork, the museum has launched a brand new analysis fellowship program geared toward fostering international discourse amongst students from Korea and around the globe. The primary fellow for this 12 months is Alexander Alberro, an artwork critic and professor of contemporary and up to date artwork historical past at Columbia College.

Ron Mueck’s „In Mattress“ (2005) / Courtesy of the artist and Cartier Basis for Modern Artwork

Exhibition lineup

Headlining the establishment’s 2025 lineup is the primary Asian solo exhibition of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck, co-organized with the Cartier Basis for Modern Artwork. Mueck’s monumental, hyper-realistic human figures, together with the hanging set up “Mass” — a towering pile of 100 human skulls — will take over the museum’s Seoul department in April.

Through the busy September artwork season, which coincides with Frieze Seoul, the MMCA will fill its venues with exhibits zooming in on the Korean artwork scene’s dynamism, from trendy trailblazers to up to date skills. Highlights embrace a retrospective of “water drop painter” Kim Tschang-yeul, the “Korea Artist Prize 2025” and “The Trendy Nostalgia and Panorama Portray,” a gaggle present reflecting on themes of loss and rediscovery of homeland in commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.

Kim Tschang-yeul’s „Recurrence SNM93001“ (1991) / Courtesy of MMCA

Park RaeHyun’s „Work“ (1971) / Courtesy of MMCA

The museum’s collaborations with worldwide cultural establishments will proceed this 12 months via a number of joint and touring exhibitions.

“Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared,” that includes gems from the late Samsung Group chairman’s 23,000-piece assortment, is about to make its worldwide debut on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of Asian Artwork in November. Following its Washington, D.C. run, it can journey to the Artwork Institute of Chicago and the British Museum.

“For All That Breathes On Earth,” a retrospective initially staged on the MMCA Seoul final 12 months to honor Jung Younger-sun, Korea’s first feminine panorama architect, will probably be dropped at the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice, concurrent with the Venice Structure Biennale.