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Category: Arts & Culture

Counterpoint | Three Ceramic Artists

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Images courtesy of the artists |

September 14-December 8, 2023|

Firing clay has been amongst the few mediums to have persevered through thousands of years. Three contemporary ceramic artists pursue their own exploration with clay while reshaping the tradition. Transcending the stereotype of the medium, Janny Baek, Steven Young Lee, and Sunkoo Yuh offer new perspectives shaped by cultural and social influences and reflect the shifting emphasis within the practice of ceramic art.

The Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

Click here to make an appointment

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

 

Janny Baek is an artist and architect born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Queens, New York. Janny received her BFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, and worked as a sculptor in animation and toys before completing her Masters in Architecture at Harvard University, and counts her experiences in craft, pop culture, industrial design and architecture as the major influences on her current work in ceramics. After founding her firm, McMahon-Baek Architecture, in 2014, Janny returned to making sculptures and started her ceramics practice in 2019. Baek currently lives and works in lower Manhattan with her husband and their two daughters.

Steven Young Lee is an artist in Helena, Montana. He was the Resident Artist Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for 16 years until 2022, where he maintained an active studio practice along with orchestrating an organization devoted to excellence in ceramics. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing and spent two months in Seoul, South Korea studying ceramic tradition and history. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA featuring contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. In 2021, his work was included in “Crafting America”, a survey of contemporary craft at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and OBJECTS:USA 2020 curated by Glenn Adamson in partnership with R&Co in New York, NY. His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Newark Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, and many private and public collections. Lee earned his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University.

Sunkoo Yuh’s work is informed by his personal and intimate experiences in everyday life. He records these impressions as spontaneous yet intricate ink and brush works. Selected two-dimensional compositions are then represented and re-contextualized into conceptual and three-dimensional forms on a small to monumental scale. Yuh was born in 1960 in South Korea, immigrated to the U.S. in 1988 and now resides in Athens, GA, where he is a professor of art at the University of Georgia. He received his BFA degree from Hongik University, Seoul, Korea and his MFA degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, NY. Yuh was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, the Grand Prize at the 2nd World Ceramic Biennale International Competition, Icheon, Korea, The Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation grant. His work is in the collections of The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon, Korea, the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, the Oakland Museum of Art, California and more.

 

 

Counterpoint | Three Ceramic Artists

Posted on by

Images courtesy of the artists |

September 14-December 8, 2023|

Firing clay has been amongst the few mediums to have persevered through thousands of years. Three contemporary ceramic artists pursue their own exploration with clay while reshaping the tradition. Transcending the stereotype of the medium, Janny Baek, Steven Young Lee, and Sunkoo Yuh offer new perspectives shaped by cultural and social influences and reflect the shifting emphasis within the practice of ceramic art.

The Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

Click here to make an appointment

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

 

Janny Baek is an artist and architect born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Queens, New York. Janny received her BFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, and worked as a sculptor in animation and toys before completing her Masters in Architecture at Harvard University, and counts her experiences in craft, pop culture, industrial design and architecture as the major influences on her current work in ceramics. After founding her firm, McMahon-Baek Architecture, in 2014, Janny returned to making sculptures and started her ceramics practice in 2019. Baek currently lives and works in lower Manhattan with her husband and their two daughters.

Steven Young Lee is an artist in Helena, Montana. He was the Resident Artist Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for 16 years until 2022, where he maintained an active studio practice along with orchestrating an organization devoted to excellence in ceramics. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing and spent two months in Seoul, South Korea studying ceramic tradition and history. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA featuring contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. In 2021, his work was included in “Crafting America”, a survey of contemporary craft at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and OBJECTS:USA 2020 curated by Glenn Adamson in partnership with R&Co in New York, NY. His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Newark Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, and many private and public collections. Lee earned his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University.

Sunkoo Yuh’s work is informed by his personal and intimate experiences in everyday life. He records these impressions as spontaneous yet intricate ink and brush works. Selected two-dimensional compositions are then represented and re-contextualized into conceptual and three-dimensional forms on a small to monumental scale. Yuh was born in 1960 in South Korea, immigrated to the U.S. in 1988 and now resides in Athens, GA, where he is a professor of art at the University of Georgia. He received his BFA degree from Hongik University, Seoul, Korea and his MFA degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, NY. Yuh was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, the Grand Prize at the 2nd World Ceramic Biennale International Competition, Icheon, Korea, The Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation grant. His work is in the collections of The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon, Korea, the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, the Oakland Museum of Art, California and more.

 

 

Behind the Scenes: Writing a Picture Book

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Join two Korean-American picture book writers as they discuss the many different layers of consideration, introspection, and deliberation that go into conceiving and writing picture books, and the importance of humor and diversity in children’s literature.

For many young readers, being able to see themselves reflected in the books they read is a profound experience. Seeing and reading accurate representations of one’s own identity and culture provide a sense of visibility and relatability. Not only are diverse representations in children’s books important for children of color, but they’re important for all children, as they offer a chance to learn realities and experiences different from their own and to appreciate that difference.

Frances Cha, the bestselling author of If I Had Your Face who has just written a humorous picture book about centuries-old dokkaebi journeying from Korea to modern New York, will be in conversation with Aram Kim, author, illustrator and designer of children’s books, about writing and illustrating Korean-themed picture books for children.

During the event, picture books by Frances Cha and Aram Kim will be available for sale.
The Goblin Twins will be available on September 5, 2023. Available for pre-order.

 

Behind the Scenes: Writing a Picture Book
with Frances Cha & Aram Kim

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 | 6:30 PM (EDT)

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Speakers:

Frances Cha is the author of the novel If I Had Your Face, which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time Magazine, NPR, BBC and Esquire among other publications and is being translated into 11 languages. Born in Minnesota, she moved to Texas at age 4, Hong Kong at age 8 and South Korea at age 11. She received her MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where she received a Dean’s Fellowship. She worked as the assistant managing editor of Samsung Economic Research Institute’s business journal in Seoul, and as a travel and culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong. She has taught media studies at Ewha Womens University and creative writing at Yonsei University. Currently, she teaches fiction workshop in the Columbia University MFA program. Her children’s book The Goblin Twins is forthcoming from Crown Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House) in September 2023.

 

Aram Kim is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and designer of children’s picture books. She was born in Ohio, raised in South Korea, and now lives in New York. By day, she is an Art Director at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. At all other times, she writes and illustrates her own stories. Her debut picture book Cat on the Bus was called a “beautifully designed visual work” by School Library Journal and included in the Children’s Choice Reading List 2017 as well as New York Public Library’s summer reading list 2018. No Kimchi For Me!, about family, food, and intergenerational connections, has universal themes, and at the same time celebrates Korean culture. It was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year 2018, and 2018 A Baker’s Dozen: The Best Children’s Books for Family Literacy by The Pennsylvania Center for the Book. It’s the first one in the series Yoomi, Friends and Family which also includes Let’s Go to Taekwondo! and Sunday Funday in Koreatown. Aram’s most recent book, Tomorrow is New Year’s Day is about Seollal, a Korean celebration of the Lunar New Year that came out in December 2022. Aram is a recipient of the 2022 Mills Tannenbaum Award for Children’s Literacy.

Angie Kim: Happiness Falls with Susan Choi

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“I read Happiness Falls in a single day. I can’t remember a book with more layers—this is a nuanced story about bias, language, ableism, racism, and family dynamics—but above all else this is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one

“I read Happiness Falls in a single day. I can’t remember a book with more layers—this is a nuanced story about bias, language, ableism, racism, and family dynamics—but above all else this is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another in this thrilling page-turner, a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing-person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

“Brilliant . . . amazing . . . the claim that a book will change your life often seems like exaggeration. Here the potential is real.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In her conversation with Susan Choi, Angie Kim discusses her second novel and career.

During the event, Happiness Falls will be available for sale.

Angie Kim: Happiness Falls
with Susan Choi

Friday, September 8, 2023 | 6 PM (EDT)

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

Join our membership program here!

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About the Author:

Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family.

 

About the Moderator:

Susan Choi’s first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. Her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2010 she was named the inaugural recipient of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award. Her fourth novel, My Education, received a 2014 Lammy Award. Her fifth novel, Trust Exercise, won the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and in 2021 she received the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for “Flashlight.” She serves as a trustee of PEN America and teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

Koreatown LA/NY

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Images courtesy of the artists |

Two young Korean-American photographers present a series of images, a poignant portrait of a community and its habitants from the areas considered to be “Koreatown”—one in Los Angeles, one in New York. Emanuel Hahn and Janice Chung document the lives and stories in two of the most diverse neighborhoods in America, as the communities and neighborhoods themselves continue to evolve and change. It is a celebration of the Korean immigrants and their experiences, and the artists ask the viewer to reconsider the common notions of what it means to be from “here.”

Emanuel Hahn‘s Koreatown Dreaming series was born out of a sense of urgency to document the stories of Koreatown LA during the Covid-19 pandemic and creeping gentrification. Although Koreatown is increasingly a popular destination for tourists and transplants, many small businesses in Koreatown serving the local population are closing, and long-time establishments and mom-and-pop stores have disappeared without leaving a record of their history and contributions to the city of Los Angeles. Documenting the lives and stories of those who are still surviving, his photo series offers a compelling insight into this entrepreneurial immigrant group.

In her HAN IN TOWN series, Janice Chung captures what was once the epicenter of Koreatown in New York City—Flushing, Queens—and focuses on the various businesses that have continued to serve the Korean-American community through all of the neighborhood’s transformations. By spotlighting these businesses, Chung investigates communal nostalgia for a Flushing of the past. Her other series Where Are You? uncovers a vulnerable search for identity and belonging within the intimate spaces of family. Documented over the course of five years, photographs taken in her hometown of Queens weave together the places of Chung’s childhood. Viewers are asked to take a second glance and remain just a while longer in the generational gaps and cultural tensions felt by Korean Americans.

 

Artist Talk: Emanuel Hahn

  

Artist Talk: Janice Chung

 

The Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-4:30 PM
Summer Hours during the month of August: Monday-Thursday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

Click here to make an appointment

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Emanuel Hahn is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director. As a Korean Third Culture Kid growing up in Singapore and Cambodia, he developed an interest in storytelling around topics of identity, diasporic experiences and the question of what it means “to belong”. His deep observational and listening abilities have led him to tell the stories of the coffee farmers in Colombia, Chinese grocery store owners in the Mississippi Delta, the Korean Uzbeks in Brooklyn, and most recently the Koreatown community in Los Angeles through his photo book Koreatown Dreaming.

Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Janice Chung is a Korean American photographer whose work explores themes of nostalgia, home, and the hyphenated experience. Often utilizing the natural elements in her environment, Chung examines the nuanced complexities of Korean American identity within the diasporic struggle and immigrant narrative. Chung’s work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Hyperallergic, Damn Magazine, and Booooooom.

 

 

Koreatown LA/NY

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Images courtesy of the artists |

Two young Korean-American photographers present a series of images, a poignant portrait of a community and its habitants from the areas considered to be “Koreatown”—one in Los Angeles, one in New York. Emanuel Hahn and Janice Chung document the lives and stories in two of the most diverse neighborhoods in America, as the communities and neighborhoods themselves continue to evolve and change. It is a celebration of the Korean immigrants and their experiences, and the artists ask the viewer to reconsider the common notions of what it means to be from “here.”

Emanuel Hahn‘s Koreatown Dreaming series was born out of a sense of urgency to document the stories of Koreatown LA during the Covid-19 pandemic and creeping gentrification. Although Koreatown is increasingly a popular destination for tourists and transplants, many small businesses in Koreatown serving the local population are closing, and long-time establishments and mom-and-pop stores have disappeared without leaving a record of their history and contributions to the city of Los Angeles. Documenting the lives and stories of those who are still surviving, his photo series offers a compelling insight into this entrepreneurial immigrant group.

In her HAN IN TOWN series, Janice Chung captures what was once the epicenter of Koreatown in New York City—Flushing, Queens—and focuses on the various businesses that have continued to serve the Korean-American community through all of the neighborhood’s transformations. By spotlighting these businesses, Chung investigates communal nostalgia for a Flushing of the past. Her other series Where Are You? uncovers a vulnerable search for identity and belonging within the intimate spaces of family. Documented over the course of five years, photographs taken in her hometown of Queens weave together the places of Chung’s childhood. Viewers are asked to take a second glance and remain just a while longer in the generational gaps and cultural tensions felt by Korean Americans.

 

Artist Talk: Emanuel Hahn

  

Artist Talk: Janice Chung

 

The Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-4:30 PM
Summer Hours during the month of August: Monday-Thursday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

Click here to make an appointment

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Emanuel Hahn is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director. As a Korean Third Culture Kid growing up in Singapore and Cambodia, he developed an interest in storytelling around topics of identity, diasporic experiences and the question of what it means “to belong”. His deep observational and listening abilities have led him to tell the stories of the coffee farmers in Colombia, Chinese grocery store owners in the Mississippi Delta, the Korean Uzbeks in Brooklyn, and most recently the Koreatown community in Los Angeles through his photo book Koreatown Dreaming.

Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Janice Chung is a Korean American photographer whose work explores themes of nostalgia, home, and the hyphenated experience. Often utilizing the natural elements in her environment, Chung examines the nuanced complexities of Korean American identity within the diasporic struggle and immigrant narrative. Chung’s work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Hyperallergic, Damn Magazine, and Booooooom.

 

 

The Films of Kim Ki-young

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World-renowned South Korean directors, including Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho, cite Kim Ki-young as being the greatest Korean influence on their work. When Yuh-Jung Youn won the best supporting actress award at the 2021 Oscars, she thanked Kim Ki-young, the “genius” director of the first film she starred in, 1971’s Woman of Fire.

During his thirty year career, Kim Ki-young produced thirty-three films and became revered by critics within the national and international community as one of the few South Korean ‘auteurs’. As the first comprehensive scholarly volume on Kim Ki-young in English, ReFocus: The Films of Kim Ki-young covers his entire career and history of cinematic work, highlighting the thematic and stylistic singularity of Kim’s oeuvre, which was produced relative to the specific historical and cultural conditions of post-war South Korea. It offers an innovative departure point from which to explore South Korean film relative to the wider history of world cinema, in addition to situating Kim’s work within the broader fields of Korean modern history, transnational cinema and cultural studies.

Join us for a conversation about Kim Ki-young’s films and career with the contributors to this volume: Jason Bechervaise, Steve Choe, Chung-kang Kim, and Ariel Schudson.

 

 

The Films of Kim Ki-young

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

 

 

 

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Jason Bechervaise is an academic and film critic based in Seoul where he has taught Korean Cinema at Korea University and at other universities. His Ph.D thesis, titled Bong Joon-ho and the Korean Film Industry: The National and Transnational Cinema Intersection, was completed at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea (2017). He is the author of several articles including “Parasite Forges New Paradigm on Transnational and National Cinema Intersection”(2020), “Inter-Korean Relations Remain Precarious: The Spy Gone North, Illang: The Wolf Brigade, Swing Kids and Take Point – trends in Korean Cinema in 2018” (2019), in Contemporary Cinema Studies, Contemporary Cinema Research Institute. He is currently featured on KBS World Radio as a film critic, and regularly writes film criticism in The Korea Times and Screen International.

Steve Choe is Associate Professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Afterlives: Allegories of Film and Mortality in Early Weimar Germany (2014), Sovereign Violence: Ethics and South Korean Cinema in the New Millennium (2016), ReFocus: The Films of William Friedkin (2021), and is a co-editor of Beyond Imperial Aesthetics: Theories of Art and Politics in East Asia (2019).

Chung-kang Kim is Associate Professor in the Department of Theater and Film at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Her research considers the realms of Korean and East Asian cinema, cultural studies, gender, race, and sexuality studies, and (trans)national visual culture. She is now working on a book manuscript entitled Entertaining the Nation: Politics of Popular Cinema in Trans-War Korea (1937–79). She has contributed to Queer Korea (2020), Rediscovering Korean Cinema (2019), The Holy Nation: Gender and Sexuality in Law and Science (2017), and Orphans, People of No Heritage (2014). Her articles appear in various journals including Journal of the History of Sexuality, The Journal of Korean Studies, The Journal of Literature and Film, and many other Korean journals.

Ariel Schudson is an independent film scholar and moving image archivist. Contributing several articles to the Library of Congress website for their section on the National Film Preservation Board, she was also a regular columnist for several online film and media journals, most notably Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema publication. Her long-running podcast, Archivist’s Alley, is known within the film preservation community for advocating inclusion of archivists from oppressed communities and pushing for greater attention to be paid to LGBTQI+/BIPOC/disabled moving image materials. She began writing about and researching Korean cinema in 2011, moving from Los Angeles to Seoul in 2019. Her research focuses on classic Korean cinema and women’s representation, with a strong emphasis on disability theory, gender performativity, and sexual expression. She recently presented her work on Kim Su-yong, entitled “The Politics of Desire: Kim Su-yong’s Burning Mountain and Women’s Representation” at the Forgotten Popular Culture: Asian Cinema and Film History conference.

 

Dress History of Korea

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Bringing together a wealth of primary sources and with contributions from leading experts, Dress History of Korea presents the most recent approaches to the interpretation of dress and fashion of Korea. Through close analysis of visual, written, and material sources—some newly excavated or recently re-discovered in global museums—the book reveals how dress and adornment evolved from the period of state formation to the modern era. As in other cultures, modern Korean

Bringing together a wealth of primary sources and with contributions from leading experts, Dress History of Korea presents the most recent approaches to the interpretation of dress and fashion of Korea. Through close analysis of visual, written, and material sources—some newly excavated or recently re-discovered in global museums—the book reveals how dress and adornment evolved from the period of state formation to the modern era.

As in other cultures, modern Korean fashion owes many of its styles to historic dress and this process of adaptation is explored within high fashion and popular culture contexts in ways that benefit historians, curators, and designers alike.

Authors with a range of academic and curatorial experience discuss the close relation of dress and adornments to the socio-political and cultural history of Korea and place the dress history of Korea within broader contexts in studies of fashion, material culture, museology, and costume design.

Join us for a conversation with Minjee Kim and Kyunghee Pyun, the editors of this anthology.


This program will be released as a video on Friday, March 24.

Dress History of Korea
with Minjee Kim & Kyunghee Pyun

Thursday, July 13, 2023 | 6 PM (EDT)

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

Join our membership program here!

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About the Speakers:

Minjee Kim is a historian specializing in dress, fashion, and textiles of Korea and Research Associate of Tracing Patterns Foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA.

Kyunghee Pyun is Associate Professor in the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, USA.

Artist Talk: Janice Chung

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Images courtesy of the artist | 

In her HAN IN TOWN series, Janice Chung captures what was once the epicenter of the Koreatown in New York City—Flushing, Queens—and focuses on the various businesses that have continued to serve the Korean-American community through all of the neighborhood’s transformations. By spotlighting these businesses, Chung investigates communal nostalgia for a Flushing of the past.

Her other series Where Are You? uncovers a vulnerable search for identity and belonging within the intimate spaces of family. Documented over the course of five years, photographs taken in her hometown of Queens weave together the places of Chung’s childhood. Viewers are asked to take a second glance and remain just a while longer in the generational gaps and cultural tensions felt by Korean Americans.

Chung, one of the two photographers featured in The Korea Society’s Koreatown LA/NY, talks about her career and work.

 

Artist Talk: Janice Chung

Thursday, July 6, 2023
Video release

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM – 4:30 PM
Summer Hours during the month of August: Monday-Thursday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Janice Chung is a Korean American photographer whose work explores themes of nostalgia, home, and the hyphenated experience. Often utilizing the natural elements in her environment, Chung examines the nuanced complexities of Korean American identity within the diasporic struggle and immigrant narrative. Chung’s work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Hyperallergic, Damn Magazine, and Booooooom.

Author Talks: Cheon Myeong-kwan

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 Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the winner of a PEN/Heim Grant, Cursed Bunny  is the wildly original debut story collection from Bora Chung

Whale is a rollercoaster adventure through Korean history and culture, a magical and grotesque epic…The plot twists and turns and hurtles along in a way that makes you pleasantly dizzy; the imagery and language in the book are also so rich, with the innocence and darkness of a fairy-tale combined with a playful sense of irony.—The International Booker Prize 2023 judges

Shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize and translated by Chi-Young Kim, Whale is the first novel by Cheon Myeong-kwan to be published in English, by Archipelago Books in the U.S. and Europa in the U.K.

Set in a remote village in South Korea, Whale follows the lives of three linked characters: Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Cheon’s story widens to embrace a motley assortment of characters, many of them motivated by lust or vengeance. Spun with the whimsy and humor of a demented deity, Whale curves toward uncharted waters.

In this episode of Author Talks, Cheon Myeong-kwan discusses his career in Korea and his English debut.

 

Author Talks: Cheon Myeong-kwan

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Speaker:

Cheon Myeong-kwan is a South Korean novelist and screenwriter. Upon publication of his first story, “Frank and I” (2003), he received the prestigious Munhakdongne New Writer Award. His debut novel, Whale, published the following year, won him the 10th Munhakdongne Novel Award, and Chi-Young Kim’s translation has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Cheon’s novels have been translated into Chinese, English, French, Thai, Russian, and Vietnamese.