Image provided by Kwanhoon Gallery
Kwanhoon Gallery
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
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Logos & Pathos
An art group formed in 1986 by alumni of Seoul National University who were all in their 30s. The group held its inaugural exhibition at the Kwanhoon Gallery, and it featured diverse styles such as minimalism and installation, without any regard for categories such as figurative or nonfigurative art. In 1999, the group disbanded after its 14th exhibition. The group’s artistic style is linked to neo-expressionism in that they exhibited “humanistic abstract art” or “re-individualized abstract art” that was distinct from modernist formalism. The group was characterized by its genre deconstruction and interest in mixed media. The group is therefore discussed in the context of 1980s post-modernist art.
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Meta-Vox
A portmanteau of meta, which means change or overcoming hardship, and vox, which means sound or aural expression (voice). Meta-Vox was formed in 1985 by Kim Chan-dong, Ahn Won-chan, Oh Sang-Ghil, Ha Minsu, and Hong Seungil, who were alumni of the Hongik University Department of Fine Arts. The goal of the group was to extend a deconstructive, creative path beyond modernism and minjung art, and its artists primarily worked in installation to overcome the restrictive limitations of painting. Based on their individual subjective practices, the group members sought to emphasize the expressive characteristics of the materials they worked with. However, to practitioners of minjung art, the group’s work was pejoratively considered as an extension of modernism. While the Meta-Vox demonstrated its tight organizational structure through numerous critically visible exhibitions, the group disbanded in 1989 in response to the limited positive response their work received. Meta-Vox held numerous exhibitions, including its inaugural exhibition in 1985 and EXODUS in 1986 at the Hu Gallery. The group was also featured in the Artists in Focus 1987 exhibition at the Seoul Museum.
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Ecole de Séoul
The Ecole de Seoul is an art group founded by Park Seo-Bo and others in 1975. Their first exhibition was held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea from July 30 to August 5, 1975. For the second exhibition in 1976, they adopted a new system, used for the first time in Korea, where an independent commissioner selected artists. Founding member Park Seo-Bo said, “While the Indépendants Exhibition and the Seoul Contemporary Art Festival aim to find new artists and expand the territory of contemporary art, the Ecole de Séoul is a miniature reflection of our contemporary art community.”
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Experimental art
A genre of Korean art characterized by non-two-dimensional work such as sculpture, environmental installation and performance that emerged in the late 1960s and continued over the course of the 1970s. Art historian Kim Mikyung has analyzed the movement in the context of the political and social phenomena of the time and first coined the term experimental art to describe such work.
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Museum
An exhibition held in 1987 at the Kwanhoon Gallery. Participants included Koh Nakbeom, Noh Gyeongae, Myeong Hyegyeong, Lee Bul, Jung Seung, Choi Jeonghwa, and Hong Sungmin. The title of the exhibition was chosen to reflect the perspective that an art museum is essentially a lifeless storage space for art. The participants also desired to challenge the primacy of modernist aesthetics, the authority of art museums, and the tradition of art history. In a time of fierce competition between institutionalized modernist art and non-institutional minjung art, the exhibition was set out as independent of both orientations and instead featured conventional themes such as death, sex, pleasure, and fantasy. The works of art included made use of diverse media to express individuality, sensuality, and freedom. Of the participating artists, Choi Jeonghwa, Lee Bul, and Kho Nakbeom went on to spearhead the Sunday Seoul exhibition in 1990 at the Sonahmoo Gallery. This exhibition is therefore often viewed as the catalyst for the new generation art of the 1990s, which adopted pop and kitsch sensibilities in response to the consumerist culture of post-industrial Korean society, and made use of non-institutional exhibition spaces such as cafes, stores, and live clubs.
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