Los Angeles County Museum of Art Presents First Major U.S. Exhibition of Contemporary Korean Art in Nearly Two Decades

Organized by LACMA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Your Bright Future features a generation of artists who have emerged since the mid-1980s-some well-known and others on the brink of such recognition-all of whom work on the cutting-edge of international art trends and within a distinctly Korean context: Bahc Yiso, Choi Jeong-Hwa, Gimhongsok, Jeon Joonho, Kim Beom, Kimsooja, Koo Jeong-A, Minouk Lim, Jooyeon Park, Do Ho Suh, Haegue Yang and the collaborative, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (family names are in bold). The exhibition will premiere at LACMA, which has the most comprehensive collection of traditional Korean art outside of Korea and Japan, and is co-curated by Lynn Zelevansky, LACMA Curator and Head of Contemporary Art; and Sun Jung Kim, Director of Samuso: Space for Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea.

The contemporary art scene in Korea has remained relatively unexplored in the West despite its vibrancy during the last two decades. Throughout the 1980s, Korean artists became increasingly exposed to international art trends. While learning to communicate deftly in an international visual language, Korean artists also respond to their own personal experiences and their work reflects the culture out of which they emerged. The artists in Your Bright Future came of age amid political turmoil and increased freedoms in their small but increasingly prosperous country. Their experience has produced work that focuses, often humorously, on the ephemeral nature of life, time, and identity, as well as on the limitations of communication across languages, cultures, and generations.

Featuring thirty-four major works and installations, Your Bright Future will represent each artist through a large-scale installation or substantial body of work, including site-specific installations, video art, computer animation, and sculpture.

Upon closing at LACMA, the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (November 22, 2009-February 14, 2010).

General Information: LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles CA, 90036.