K-Art thrills crowds at Dubai's art hub
- 07 Mar 2022
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A wave of K-Art is taking place at 8TH Street Studio near Alserkal Avenue, Dubai's art hub, where industrial and Middle Eastern contemporary art harmonize. ‘K-Art in DUBAI 2022’, an exhibition curated by The Grace & Co and Gallery the Grace, which has been planning exhibitions and introducing domestic and foreign artists to the global market including the Middle East, China, and the UK, based in Korea since 2016, is the main act.
The exhibition began on March 4, 2022, with an opening event for VIPs at Park Hyatt Dubai and Creek Resort. The opening event was attended by various distinguished guests including Ban Ki-moon and his wife, who served as the 8th UN Secretary-General, and Ban Ki-moon especially lit up the event with a congratulatory speech.
K-Art in DUBAI 2022 is an exhibition hosted by The Grace & Co and Gallery the Grace, which have been expanding the horizons of art while striving for cultural exchange between the two countries through various special exhibitions and K-Pop concerts in Korea and the UAE. It was planned at the same time to commemorate the EXPO held in Dubai.
Under the name of ‘K-Art’, the exhibition introduces the works of Korean artists who show the dynamism of Korean culture in a variety of genres and materials. Therefore, the exhibition presents works in the categories of painting, photography, and sculpture. Participating artists include Jongsook Kim, Myung-keun Koh, Hannah Shin, Jin-hyoung Son, Sang-Yoeb Lee, Ji-youn Jeon and Da-un Jeong.
Kim Jong-sook is especially known for his works that add splendid and sparkling crystals to traditional oriental landscape paintings, so she is called the 'Swarovski artist'. Kim Jong-sook first draws traditional landscape paintings with acrylic, and then embroiders various jewels such as crystals, opals, and pearls on top of them by hand, reinterpreting them in a modern way.
Because her work is so labor-intensive, it brings joy in the end after enduring long period of time of painful work. The artist is supported by the Swarovski headquarters in Austria and Korea and was introduced to the US and Europe by an Artnet Auction Specialist in New York in 2012, and already has a strong overseas collector’s base. She also received international attention once more, with her work featured in the New York Times in 2017.
And Myung-Keun Koh, famous as 'the artist chosen by Bill Gates', presents a fantastic sense of space and fluidity of light with a unique 3D structure that blends photography and sculpture. Myung-Keun Koh is a Korean artist in the MS Collection of Bill Gates, a world-class wealthy and super-collector.
His work is a three-dimensional, unique structure of photographs captured from various angles of a space that maintains rapid change or a public place where countless people come and go. He presents works that show flexible sense of time and space.
Meanwhile, Jin-hyoung Son, who uses the medium of 'horse' to express the dynamism and leaps of life in a delicate yet bold manner, is also a well-known artist in Korea. For the artist who used to work as an equestrian, horses are the muse of inspiration and companion of life.
The exhibition runs through Sunday, March 13th at 8TH Street Studio, Dubai, and is open daily from 10:00 am to 18:00 pm. Visitors will be able to appreciate more vividly various works representing the current Korean art world in an open studio where industrial and contemporary Dubai art are harmonized.