2021.10.20 – 2022.1.30
Kim Sangjin, Bang Jeong A, Oh Min and Choi Chan Sook

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea MMCA , Director Youn Bummo ) has selected Kim Sangjin, Bang Jeong A, Oh Min and Choi Chan Sook as this year’s sponsored finalists for Korea Artist Prize 2021 , co organized with the SBS Foundation. The selected artists have garnered attention from the art circles at home and abroad for their active exhibitions of their works.

Marking its tenth year, Korea Artist Prize 2021 has selected four artists based on an evaluation by a committee of Korean and international art experts. The members of the evaluation committee, which includes international art experts, are newly appointed every year to reflect a diverse perspective amid the ever changing art world and to encourage international interest in Korean art.

The four finalists selected to be sponsored by Korea Artist Prize 2021 have actively produced works in their respective fields sculpture, installation, photography and video. Kim Sangjin has worked with various medium and forms, continuing to be focused on an epistemological approach towards the nature of an object, a phenomenon and the world. Based in the city of Busan, Bang Jeong A has presented ways to address social issues in a woman’s perspective wit hin the realms of Minjung art and feminist art. Oh Min , who has sought to dismantle the structure of diverse genres of music, choreography and performance to present a new sensible realm, has been pondering upon temporal characteristics and raising questio ns on formative beauty. Based mainly in Germany, Choi Chan Sook has been focused on the historical incidences and relations on the narratives of individuals as well as collective memories, and has unveiled artworks related to the contemporary context.This year, a total of five judges partook in the evaluation process: Park So-hyun (professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology), Choi Eun-ju (director of Daegu Art Museum), Eugene Tan (director of National Art Gallery, Singapore), Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala (artistic directors of Gwangju Biennale 2021), Youn Bummo (director of MMCA, ex officio). The evaluation committee meeting will be convened to select one final winner after the new works of the four finalists are exhibited.

The exhibition is slated to be held from Wednesday, October 20, 2021 to Sunday, January 30, 2022, at MMCA Seoul, galleries 2, 3, and 4, presenting new works conceptualized and materialized by the four artists. The final winner will be announced in December.

Youn Bummo, director of the MMCA, notes “Co-organized with the SBS Foundation, Korea Artist Prize 2021 is the tenth of the acclaimed contemporary art award program that sponsors Korean artists worthy of international attention,” adding “this year’s exhibition will feature more diverse works compared to the past as the four finalists work with different themes and genres.”

KOREA ARTIST PRIZE (2012~)
Launched in 2012, Korea Artist Prize is the MMCA’s representative award program co-organized with the SBS Foundation, offering support, promotion, and sponsorship to artists who propose new possibilities, visions, and alternatives for Korean contemporary art.

This year’s selected artists will each receive a KRW 40 million grant provided by the SBS Foundation for production of new works. The final winner, selected through a second-round evaluation process to take place during the exhibition period, will be named “2021 Artist of the Year” and awarded an additional grant of KRW 10 million.

The MMCA and the SBS Foundation also manage the “Korea Artist Prize Promotion Fund” to support overseas projects of the artists selected through Korea Artist Prize. This program has sponsored artist Koo Donghee’s exhibition at the 2017 Sharjah Biennale, Yee Sookyung’s main exhibition 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.

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