On May 29, 2025, the Seoul Museum of Photography (Photography Seoul Museum of Art) opens its doors in Chang-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul. As the first public art museum in Korea dedicated entirely to the photographic medium, this institution is not merely another museum opening—it is a historic milestone.
2025.05.27Art Busan 2025 concluded its four-day run on May 11 at BEXCO in Haeundae, Busan. Now in its 14th edition, the fair brought together 109 galleries from 17 countries in an effort to reinforce Busan’s position as a hub of contemporary art in East Asia. However, the outcome reflected more of the current art market realities than a major shift.
2025.05.13On April 24, 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted "Art Policy Talk at 3PM" at Art Korea Lab in Seoul under the theme of "Art in the Age of AI." Despite its promising topic, the event ultimately fell short of presenting a deep critical engagement or offering concrete alternatives.
2025.04.29According to the recently released 2024 Artist Status Survey, 75.7% of artists earn less than 12 million KRW annually, while 31% report having no income at all. The average household income of artists is over 20 million KRW lower than the national average, with severe income disparities particularly evident in photography, literature, and fine arts.
2025.03.11The Korean art scene is experiencing what can truly be called a "blockbuster boom." One after another, exhibitions of internationally renowned artists—Van Gogh, Hopper, Munch, Basquiat—are being held in Korea, resembling the global tours of pop stars.
2025.02.25Since the 2000s, the Korean art world and art market have undergone remarkable expansion, growing significantly in scale. This growth is reflected in the dramatic rise of the domestic art auction market over the past 24 years. According to research conducted by the Korea Art Price Appraisal Association (Chairman Kim Young-Seok) and Art Price (CEO Ko Yoon-Jeong), the market has expanded 1,830 times during this period.
2025.02.11In contemporary art, galleries, art fairs, and auctions are no longer merely channels of distribution. They are the structures through which works enter the market, gain visibility, acquire prices, and determine the position of artists. Under the conditions of the post-contemporary, the importance of these structures becomes even more pronounced.
2026.04.21The museum is the most stable institution in contemporary art and one of its most powerful mechanisms of selection. In contemporary art, the museum has functioned not simply as a space for collecting and exhibiting works, but as a key institution that determines what is recognized as contemporary art, which forms and languages acquire public visibility, and which exhibitions are granted institutional legitimacy.
2026.04.07The discussion thus far converges on a single question. Where does the future of Korean contemporary art begin? Can that future be explained solely through more exhibitions, faster international expansion, larger market scales, and increasingly elaborate discursive rhetoric?
2026.03.24When discussing the conditions of the post-contemporary, the first thing to guard against is the misunderstanding that it refers to a new style or a fashionable label. As discussed in the previous essays, the issue at stake is not the declaration of a new
2026.03.10The current crisis of contemporary art cannot be explained by stagnation in production or exhaustion of imagination. Countless exhibitions and projects continue to be organized, and new formal strategies and critical concerns consistently emerge.
2026.02.24Contemporary art is frequently discussed today through the language of crisis. This crisis is often framed as a loss of meaning: the claim that contemporary art has nothing new to say, that critique has become repetitive
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