This special publication celebrating contemporary Korean art, supported by Korea Arts Management Service, is available for free with the September issue of ArtReview
ArtReview’s second collaboration with the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism takes a deeper look at what makes the country’s burgeoning art scene tick, and some of the factors that have made Seoul one of the rising new hubs for contemporary art on a global scale. Consequently, the publication is as much about people as it is about artworks. Because, after all, the first can’t exist without the second.
Instead, as the issue’s cover artwork, 나/너 (na: me / neo: you), may suggest, this publication is about relationships. In the first part we look at the relationships between three artists and their gallerists, spanning emerging to established practices and galleries in both Seoul and Busan. We find out how gallerists and artists work together, what motivates them, what inspires them and what keeps the vital, grassroots spaces – in which art meets audiences and artists find support – going. One of the things that becomes evident in the discussions in this section is the fact that art scenes are never isolated from their surroundings, that the city, its neighbourhoods and its inhabitants all feed into the creative atmosphere on which any art scene thrives. And so the second section of the publication focuses on the parts of Seoul, from parks and art spaces to bars and restaurants, that have inspired the capital’s creatives in their work. All of which, incidentally, functions as a useful guide to what to see and where to go when you are in the city. As well as a context or background to the work that the city’s artists produce.
Talking of which, however much Korea’s art scene is about people, spaces, places, bars and other hangouts, all of that remains relevant because of the artworks that result from that environment. And so this publication features four artworks created for this project, by Sun Young Oh, Hong Jin-hwon, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES and Cha Ji Ryang, all of which elaborate on aspects of the contexts, inspirations and aspirations prevailing among Korea’s artists right now. As you’ll hopefully have gathered by the time you finish this journal, art is as much personal as it is communal. All of which brings us back to the cover artwork and the series of related artworks that are dotted throughout the publication that connect the character on the front cover to that on the back. These together form a narrative, designed by artist and graphic designer Oh, that simultaneously explores the Korean language, its representation in characters and what that might or might not tell us about relationships in Korean society in general. To put it another way, it’s an invitation to dive in!
The ArtReview Korea Supplement, supported by Korea Arts Management Service, is available for free with the September 2025 issue of ArtReview
