The Korea Artist Prize 2020, co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) and the SBS Foundation, has announced its four finalists – Kim Minae, Lee Seulgi, Jung Yoonsuk and Chung Heesung.
The four finalists will each receive a KRW 40 million grant provided by the SBS Foundation for production of new works, which they will present at the “Korea Artist Prize 2020” exhibition running from 30 October 2020 to 29 March 2021 at MMCA Seoul. The final winner, to be announced in December during the exhibition and named “2020 Artist of the Year”, will be awarded an additional grant of KRW 10 million. The winner of the 2019 edition, Rhii Jewyo, was announced in late November 2019.
The Korea Artist Prize, launched in 2012, is now in its seventh edition and was founded to offer support, promotion and sponsorship to artists who propose new possibilities, visions and alternatives for Korean contemporary art. The 2020 finalists were selected by the jury for the recognition they have earned in the Korean and international art world. The 2020 Jury included Lolita Jablonskienė (chief curator at Lithuanian National Gallery of Arts), Patrick Flores (Professor of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines and artistic director of Singapore Biennale 2019), Christopher Lew (curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art), Lee Youngchul (professor at Kaywon University of Art & Design), and Youn Bummo (director of MMCA, ex officio).
Youn Bummo was quoted as saying in the announcement press release:
Featuring four artists who have established their artistic identities through sculpture, installation, photography, video, and other various media, this year’s exhibition is expected to present works that are more diverse in scope than those of the past.”
Kim Minae. Image courtesy MMCA. Lee Seulgi. Image courtesy MMCA. Jung Yoonsuk. Image courtesy MMCA. Chung Heesung. Image courtesy MMCA.
The female-dominated list of four finalists selected for the Korea Artist Prize 2020 work in the fields of sculpture, installation, photography and video. Kim Minae (b. 1981) holds a BFA in Scultpure and an MFA from the Seoul National University, as well as an MFA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London. She is currently studying for her doctoral degree in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art and St Anne’s College, University of Oxford. Kim creates site-specific installations that intervene in everyday environments, as a way to address architectural spaces and the institutionalised art scene.
Born in Seoul in 1972, Lee Seulgi has been based in France since the early 1990s, where she studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Lee explores the formality of everyday objects, employing traditional craft and folk art in contemporary contexts.
Jung Yoonsuk (b. 1981) holds BFA in Contemporary Art from the School of Visual Art, Korea National University of Arts, and an MFA in Documentary from the School of Film, TV and Multimedia of the same university. Jung’s documentary videos closely explore individual lives and social issues in an attempt to define ‘humaneness’. Chung Heesung (b. 1974) graduated with a BA in Photography from Hong-Ik University, and an MA in Photography from London College of Communication. She probes into the potential and limitations of photographic reproduction, by creating installation works that incorporate photographs and text.
Artists awarded with the Korea Artist Prize also benefit from the MMCA and SBS Foundation’s Korea Artist Prize Promotion Fund, which supports overseas projects of the artists selected through the Korea Artist Prize. The Fund provides up to KRW 20 million in production grant per selected overseas project. In the past, the programme has sponsored Korean artists’ projects for important art exhibitions worldwide, such as Koo Donghee at the 2017 Sharjah Biennial, Yee Sookyung at the 2017 Venice Biennale, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho’s solo exhibitions at Tate Liverpool in 2018, and other overseas projects by Kira Kim, Gim Hong-sok, Na Hyun, Mixrice, Oh Inhwan, Chang Jia, Jo Haejun, Ham Kyungah and Ham Yang Ah. In 2019, the Korea Artist Prize Promotion Fund sponsored 2018 Artist of the Year siren eun young jung’s exhibition at the Korea Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.