Jaeeun CHOI (*1953) studied at the Sogetsu School in Tokyo, Japan, from 1978-80, a school specializing in the Japanese art of flower arranging, ikebana. Afterwards she worked for many years as the assistant of filmmaker Hiroshi Teshigahara (1927–2001). Her multifaceted works have been exhibited at a variety of international events such as the World Fair (Expo) in Daejeon (Korea, 1993), the 46th Biennale in Venice in the Japanese Pavilion (Italy, 1995), the Prague International Triennale of Contemporary Art (Czech Republic, 2008), and the 7th Seoul International Media Art Biennale – Mediacity Seoul (Korea, 2012). Furthermore, she contributed works to film festivals including the 2nd Jeonju International Film Festival "Asian Indie Cine-Forum" (Korea, 2001). She has also had various solo exhibitions, particularly in Korea and Japan, including "-verse" in the Kukje Gallery in Seoul (2012). Since 1986 she has been travelling around the world for her ongoing "World Underground Project," and has spent time in Korea, Japan, the USA, France, Italy, Kenya and Germany. She lives and works in Berlin and Tokyo.
The artist Inhwan OH (*1964) studied in Seoul and in New York, USA, and lives and works in Korea. His first solo exhibition in 1995 at the Galerie de Seoul (Korea) was followed by many more solo and group shows around the world, including "Things of Friendship" at Parlour Projects in New York (USA, 2001), a solo show at Artspace in Sydney (Australia, 2002); and he also participated in the exhibition "Peppermint Candy" at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires (Argentina, 2008), as well as in the Aichi Triennale – Arts and Cities in Nagoya (Japan, 2010). In 2005, he was featured in the exhibition "Four from Korea" at the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst in Berlin in 2005. Currently he is an assistant professor at the Department of Painting at the Seoul National University. This year, he was nominated for the Korea Artist Prize 2015 and invited to the corresponding exhibition in August at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.
Jae Yong RHEE (*1969) began his artistic training with a Bachelor’s degree in visual communication design at Hongik University in Seoul, followed by a Master’s in product design at the same university. His work among others featured in the "Recontres d’Arles" photography festival (France, 1999), and more recently in the group exhibition "Politics of Food" at the Delfina Foundation in London (Great Britain, 2014). Solo exhibitions of his photography include "Memory of the Gaze" at Gallery EM (Seoul, 2012 and 2015) and a show at Art Basel in Hong Kong (China, 2013). His works can also be found in the Seoul Museum of Art, Gwangju Museum of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeonggi and in the collection of SK Networks in Korea. In 2012 he was a finalist for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. He lives in Seoul, where he is currently director of the studio Byul / Byul Production.
Meekyoung SHIN (*1967) began her studies at Seoul National University, where she completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in sculpture. She then continued to study sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London until 1998, where she was later involved in the Specialist Research Development Program in 2005. Her works, above all those for her project "Translation" were exhibited in solo exhibitions in various galleries and museums including the British Museum (Great Britain, since 2007), the Seoul National University Museum (Korea, 2008), the gallery Lefebvre & Fils Paris (France, 2009), the Kukje Gallery Seoul (Korea, 2009), the Haunch of Venison Gallery in London (Great Britain, 2011) and the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford (Great Britain, 2014). Furthermore, her works of "Written in Soap: A Plinth Project" are also displayed in the open, as on Cavendish Square in London (since 2012) or at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art (Taiwan, since 2013). Apart from that, she has been involved in numerous other exhibitions, e.g. in "The Diverse Spectrum: 600 years of Korean Ceramics" at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (Brazil, 2012) and the Asian Art Biennale in Taichung (Taiwan, 2013). Recently she was awarded the Korea Artist Prize (2013) for her work "Translation: The Epic Archive" at the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Meekyoung SHIN lives in London.
MinHwa SUNG (*1969) completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Seoul National University and continued to study sculpture in Germany at Braunschweig University of Art, where she completed her diploma in 1999 as a master scholar. She went on to do a Master’s in "Art in Context" at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She has had solo exhibitions at the Project Space Sarubia (Seoul, 2002) in collaboration with Joachim Weinhold, at the Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York (USA, 2006), and as a scholarship holder at the Kunstverein Bellevue-Saal (Wiesbaden, 2013). Her works can also be found at the Artothek in Wiesbaden, the Seoul Museum of Modern Art and the Ssamzie Collection in Seoul. She has lived in Berlin since 2000.
Uta Rahman-Steinert has been curator at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) since the merging of the Berlin museums in 1992. She primarily supervises the collection of 20th century Chinese art as well as the Korean art collection and has curated numerous exhibitions with contemporary artists. She studied sinology and art history at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and from 1984 to 1986, Chinese art history at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. She started her career as curator in 1987 at the Ostasiatische Sammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin East.
Katharina I-Bon SUH, project assistant, completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in East Asian art history at Freie Universität Berlin while studying Chinese and Korean languages as minor subjects and putting her main focus on various aspects of Korean culture. Since 2014, she pursues a PhD program at the Department of Art History at Seoul National University in Korea.
Curatorial advice: Shi-ne OH