The Korean Cultural Center New York presents 《Nam June Paik: The Maestro of Time》 in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The exhibition celebrates an artist who freely orchestrated the concept of time across the past, present, and future. Nam June Paik’s many titles - the father of video art, avant-garde musician, performance artist, and thinker, among many more - are made evident through this exhibit. This exhibition presents Paik’s keen insight that foresaw the era of video and other social media platforms, and in celebrating the history and future of the KCCNY (inaugurated on December 5th, 1979), aims to channel Paik’s visionary ways of seeing the future, paving the way forward with a new, creative vision. 《Nam June Paik: The Maestro of Time》 brings monumental works together in one place, including 〈M200〉, Paik’s large-scale video art created in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s passing, as well as photographs by Jae-young Choi of Paik’s gut performances. 〈M200〉 is the highlight of the exhibition that consists of 86 TV monitors spanning the wall. It not only features Mozart, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Joseph Beuys, but also plays the music that Paik himself had arranged, composed of various sounds including classical music, pop, and instrumental sounds. This visualized musical collage piece represents Nam June Paik as a contemporary composer and video artist.

《Chung Sang-Hwa: Excavations, 1964-78》 is an exhibition featuring a selection of paintings from a formative era of Chung’s five-decades-long career. Presented on the third floor of the gallery’s landmark building at 909 Madison Avenue, Excavations will include works from a crucial period in which the Korean master was immersed in the international avant-garde milieus of both Asia and Europe. The paintings on view will illuminate the conceptual and technical trajectories that led Chung to the profoundly original, finely honed approach that defines the art of his mid- and late-career. By highlighting the eclectic transnational influences in which Chung was immersed throughout the 1960s and ’70s, the exhibition provides rare insight into the progression of his practice, in order to galvanize discourse surrounding Chung’s singular approach to the medium.

The Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) presents 《2019 Artist of the Year: Kang Jungsuck - The Adventures of A Human, A Self-driving Car, and A Lilliputian: Snow Scenarios》. Kang was chosen for the BALTIC Artists' Award 2019, and his work spans across sculpture, video, installation, and writing. Presenting new and recent work, the artist harnesses his experience of technology, gaming culture, K-pop, and broader society, as inspiration to form unique environments with multiple realities. Kang uses the video game engine as a medium itself, designing his projects simultaneously within this software and in real life. Transgressing the typical boundaries between simulated content and physical sculpture, the spaces in the game and the artist’s physical studio are mapped to one another, so it is both the ’studio’ and exhibition that are eventually embodied in KCCUK’s physical gallery space. Positioning the mainstream within an artistic context, Kang observes how changes caused by technological advancements can affect our own perspectives, prompting us to question the future possibilities of such a multi-dimensional world.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the SBS Culture Foundation have named Jewyo Rhii as the winner of the Korea Artist Prize 2019. Now celebrating its eighth year, the Korea Artist Prize was jointly founded in 2012 by the MMCA and the foundation to discover and support artists demonstrating the creative potential of contemporary Korean art. The prize has since emerged as the nation’s preeminent award for fostering development and discourse, thereby presenting new visions for contemporary Korean art.

Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2020 ? One Escape at a Time is developed around the notion of escapism, particularly in relation to the current popular media landscape. As an introduction to some of the directions and conversations that will develop in preparation for One Escape at a Time, a three-day screening program will take place at Seoul Cinema (6-8 December 2019). Presenting a selection of artist videos and shorts alongside longer dramas, the program conjures up a landscape of realities conveyed through diverse voices and gazes. Each session will also be accompanied by a post-screening talk. ?

Hyun-Sook Lee, founder and chairman of Kukje Gallery, has been selected as one of ArtReview’s Power 100, ranking 60 on the annual list of the most influential figures of the art world as selected by the British art magazine. The 2019 Power 100 is an annual list compiled in consultation with a panel of 30 artists, curators and critics from around the world who do a comprehensive analysis of the most prominent and influential players in the international art market. Meanwhile, Haegue Yang has skyrocketed through the list, ranking 36 this year, up from 73 last year. The first Korean and first-ever Asian female artist to receive the prestigious Wolfgang Hahn Prize and the recipient of the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (Presidential Citation) in the Visual Arts sector by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism just last year, Yang has continued to create new critically acclaimed work as part of her many ongoing exhibition activities throughout the year, including solo exhibitions at major museums and participating in important biennales all over the globe. Apart from Hyun-Sook Lee and Haegue Yang, other Korean luminaries include the international curator and President of Gwangju Biennale Foundation Sunjung Kim, placed 77, and the Deputy Director/Chief Curator of Hong Kong's M+ Museum Doryun Chong, placed 82 along with the Director of M+ Museum, Suhanya Raffel. Glenn D. Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, topped the list this year, followed by Nan Goldin, the legendary American photographer turning her sights on the ethics of patronage. The rest of the 2019 Power 100 list can be viewed on ArtReview's website: artreview.com/power_100/.