- Korean Eye 2020, which will tour to Russia, London and Seoul, will introduce to international art lovers artists who've only shown at home thus far
- Its co-presenters are a couple, David and Serenella Cicilitira, who fell in love with Asian contemporary art by chance when he saw some on a business trip
Korean Eye, a large group show of South Korean contemporary art, is returning to London's Saatchi Gallery after an eight-year gap.
The 2012 exhibition featured the work of 33 artists. Korean Eye 2020, featuring the work of 30 artists, is scheduled to tour first to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, early next year, then to the Saatchi Gallery over the summer, before landing in Seoul in autumn.
The exhibition will mark the 10th anniversary of the Global Eye Programme, set up by Parallel Contemporary Art and the Saatchi Gallery to provide artists with the platforms, support and recognition they need to develop their careers.
Contemporary art is thriving in South Korea and has an international reputation for its distinctiveness, but artists rarely get to showcase their work in big overseas exhibitions. Korean Eye 2020 fills that gap.
The show will be curated by Serenella Cicilitira " the co-founder and chief executive of Parallel Contemporary Art.
"Korean Eye has expanded in the past 10 years. Our end is to give visibility to artists whose work has not yet been seen outside their country," she says, "to take their art out of a country to an international platform like the Saatchi Gallery, so they can say they've been internationally recognised."
Cicilitira says she intends to paint an authentic picture of developments in South Korean contemporary art.
At a recent preview of the exhibition, broken bits of blue and white ceramics lay strewn about the floor on one of the rooms at the Saatchi Gallery, as miniature versions of classical Greek statues on pedestals rose above them, bouquets of flowers sprouting from their heads. Next to them stood stunning vases in shades of yellow and blue. These are the work of artists Hyojin Park and Meekyoung Shin and together form a mini-show, co-curated by French fashion designer Roland Mouret, that is a preamble to a selection of works " a taster of next year's exhibition " upstairs.
There, Cicilitira says: "This room is so Korean, that's what I love about it. It's the materials. Nobody is as innovative with the use of materials as they are there."
Examples of that innovation include Chong Doo-hwa's Sound, an intricate installation made up of books, Helena Parada-Kim's The Sun and the moon, a painting with a deceptively tactile appearance, and Cha Jong-rye's engineered wood panels that look like textiles. Even the vases in the Roland Mouret room are, to the viewer's surprise, made of soap.
"For me, when I go to see an artist's work, the first impression needs to come from a gut reaction," Cicilitira says. "A completely aesthetic experience " I like it on first sight. After that I try to learn the history behind it, and understand the message they are trying to convey. I don't like propaganda art, but I like art with a genuine message."
She and her husband, David, emphasise their purpose in founding the Global Eye Progamme " to showcase works by emerging artists and those with limited opportunities. The inclusion in Korean Eye 2020 of self-trained artist Doowon's bold and vibrant mixed media works exemplify this, and is something the couple are particularly proud of. It will be the first time the artist's work has been exhibited outside Korea.
A book that will be released to accompany Korean Eye 2020 documents the Cicilitiras' vision and the evolution of contemporary Korean art through the work of more than 75 artists.
As part of the Global Eye Programme, the couple have organised and curated exhibitions featuring works by emerging artists from several Asian countries and cities, including Hong Kong. Among their favourite artists, and those they see as significant to the development of art in Hong Kong, are Kingsley Ng, Adrian Wong, and MAP Office.
Their love affair with contemporary Asian art arose from a business trip to Germany in 2007. David Cicilitira says: "It all started when I went to Karlsruhe for a business trip and saw this exhibition New Asian Waves. I was amazed by all these different works and the range of talent. This started out as a hobby for us, and turned into a passion. We don't see this as a business."
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