There will be plenty of opportunities to see Nam June Paik's artworks in Korea in 2016.

This year marks 10 years since the death of Nam June Paik (1932-2006), an artist known as the founder of video art and recognized as one of Korea's representative modern artists. In commemoration of the late artist, a wide variety of exhibitions and events will be held in museums, galleries and art centers around the country.

The Sejong Center for the Performing Arts kick starts the year with its "Paik Nam June Groove - Heung" exhibit at its Museum of Art. The exhibit, which started in November last year, runs until Jan. 29 and features videos, music and interviews from a catalogue belonging to Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), a U.S. media and art resource organization. The video installation "Tiger Lives- Cello" (2000) that greets visitors in the lobby of the building is one of the exhibition highlights.


The Gallery Hyundai opens its "Nam June Paik: When He was in Seoul" exhibit on March 6. Visitors to the gallery will be able to see pictures and objects from the performance piece "Homage to Joseph" that Paik staged in 1990 in the back courtyard of the Gallery Hyundai to commemorate the death of his friend and avant-garde artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986).

The Nam June Paik Art Center will be organizing a three-day event, "Utopian Laser TV Station," starting Jan. 29, the anniversary of the late artist's death. The art center will broadcast the event live on YouTube (https://youtu.be/Z64ZEqvoeNc), in true Nam June Paik fashion. There will also be a single channel video screening of the artist's work, and sound performances by up-and-coming young artists.

From March 3 to July 3, the Nam June Paik Art Center will host a 10-year anniversary exhibition called "Wrap Around the Time," featuring works by Paik and his contemporaries. In October, the art center will collaborate with the Gansong Art Museum and the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) to showcase an exhibit that merges traditional art with technology-driven artworks from the digital era.


The Seoul Museum of Art also has an anniversary exhibit from June 14 to July 31. This exhibit will display Nam June Paik's collection and introduce some works of his contemporaries who were all a part of Fluxus, an international network of artists from the 1960s known for blending different artistic media and disciplines.

Nam June Paik was born in Korea in 1932 and attended middle school in Seoul and Hong Kong. He attended high school in Japan, and graduated from Tokyo University with a major in art philosophy. In 1956, he moved to Germany to continue his studies in European philosophy and music history, and there he began participating in the Fluxus art movement alongside his European contemporaries. In 1963, he made his debut as a media artist with his piece "Exposition of Music-Electronic Television."

Throughout his career, Nam June Paik continued expanding the scope of his work, merging sculpture, installations and video in his pieces. He used a video synthesizer to manipulate the flow of electrons in color TV sets, and added music and human forms to his work to create a singular artistic vision.

By Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Gallery Hyundai
hlee10@korea.kr