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First major Korean contemporary art exhibit arrives in Seattle

November 22, 2015

Lee Yong-baek’s “Angel-Soldier,” video still (Photo Seattle Art Museum)

By The Korea Times Seattle staff

A high-profile collection of Korean contemporary art has found its way to Seattle for the first time.

Co-organized by South Korea’s National Museum of Contemporary Art and supported by the Korea Foundation, “Paradox of Place” brings artworks by six of the country’s most-recognized modern artists to Seattle Art Museum.

Works by Noh Sun-tag (노순택), Yang Hae-gue (양혜규), Yee Soo-kyung (이수경), Lee Yong-baek (이용백), Im Min-ouk (임민욱) and Jung Yeon-doo (정연두) are shown in mixed-media installations, video art and photography.

The exhibition will be on display through March 13.

The group of artists, all born in the 1960s and ’70s, grew up and experienced a South Korea that changed like never before. Their diverse works represent a reflection of dynamism in Korean contempoary art, said Choi Eun-ju, the former chief curator of the Korean contemporary museum and the visiting curator of the exhibition.

While Noh presents the flow and context of Korean politics and society through a series of documented photos, Yang explores the concept of “living” by exaggerating everyday objects.

Lee Yong-baek puts to question war and peace, Buddhism and Christianity, reality and imagination in Korean society through media presentations.

Seattle Art Museum, located at 1400 E. Prospect Street, is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for veterans and seniors over 62 years of age, $5 for students and free for children under age 12.