Fifteen Artists Reimagine the Still Life for the 21st Century
Creatrip Team
a month ago
Seoul gallery Esther Schipper presents “21st Century Still Life,” a group show where 15 artists reinterpret the historical genre of still life through contemporary lenses. Rather than the vanitas tradition of 16–17th century Dutch and Flemish painting (symbols like skulls and wilting flowers reminding viewers of mortality), participating artists use everyday objects—electronic devices, sandwiches, boxes, plants, and more—to document modern life and social concerns. Works range from Yeo Yerim’s scene of a wilted plant and a MacBook to Min Jeong-gi’s contributions spanning several generations; Han Jin exposes invisible senses in his pieces; Kim Ji-won twists Western still-life conventions with Korean motifs like persimmons (gam); Han Seon-woo critiques Western art history’s power dynamics through unsettling table scenes; Park Shin-young returns the genre to a warning by arranging dead bees, plastic waste, and cracked globes to comment on climate crisis; and Jeon Byeong-gu’s stacked boxes evoke the makeshift shelters of urban homeless. Overall, the exhibition brings still life back into contemporary art by using ordinary objects to express personal memory, social critique, and environmental urgency. The show runs through February 14.
