Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art has changed the format of ARTSPECTRUM in celebration of the museum’s ten-year anniversary. While maintaining the main premise—biennially selecting artists with potential regardless of age, genre, and subject—the museum formed a selection committee that comprised not only its own curators but an equal number of curators and art critics from outside the institution to incorporate a greater variety of perspectives on the Korean contemporary art world. The selection committee then selected ten young artists for their roles in leading change, innovation, and creativity through plenary debate. 

The fifth ARTSPECTRUM is designed to take advantage of the history of past exhibitions of its kind at Leeum. In 2014, it occupies both the Ground Gallery and Black Box, which enables the ten selected artists—themselves chosen to match the scale of the exhibition spaces—to shape their work to the exhibition spaces. The work of the ten artists covers various facets of Korean contemporary art—not only works in traditional media such as paintings and sculptures, but cross-genre works such as photographs, installations, video works, performances, and so forth. Although the artists deal with different subject matter, from the deeply personal relationship with one’s parents to global political and economic systems, we hope that this exhibition will represent the current situation of contemporary Korean art. 

It is not easy to fulfill the expectations of a biennial exhibition on emerging artists, or to create new, pliable exhibition spaces that do not restrict the artists’ expression. Even if artists have experience of exhibiting their work at galleries and alternative spaces, they are likely to face difficulties in working harmoniously with the museum’s existing system. We hope that this exhibition will serve as the momentum for change among these self-developing young artists, enabling them to reflect on their development so far and move forward in the future. We also hope that ARTSPECTRUM will not be constrained in the future by its past incarnations, and that it will always be reborn as new.

*image (left)
Lee Wan
Made in Taiwan - Sugar, Sugar spoon, Sugar bowl, 2013
3 channel video, 13'35", Loop
courtesy of the artist