Today I visited the Busan Museum of Modern Art with my wife and baby. The little one got excited, shouted a bit and threw cheese on the floor, but there were only about two other people in the whole gallery so no one was really disturbed. And that was just the wife, ho ho.
The best of modern Korean art can hold its own with the innovations from China and Japan. I remember seeing Japan and Korea share exhibition space at the Venice Biennale in 2004. One thing I don't like, however, is when Korean artists paint cherry blossoms, fish markets, mountains and other traditional subjects in a pastiche of 20th century western artistic styles (impressionist, cubist, can't be arsed to think of any more more so will write etc., just like my students).
Lim Nam Jin, whose work I first saw at the Gwangju Biennale a couple of years ago and which is now on display in Busan, inverts this unoriginal approach. She- I of course initially assumed it was a he- treats modern Korean life as a sort of psychedelic piss take of traditional Korean painting. Visually her paintings look great- big, colourful, accessible, strange and full of vulgar humour. Above are a few examples. Lots of other interesting and exciting stuff to see in the Busan gallery at the moment.
I don't know much about art, but I know what I like quote unquote.
