The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul opened an exhibition titled “This Is (Not) Conceptual Art” on the 19th, reexamining Korea’s overlooked conceptual art movement. The show presents works by 28 major artists who defined or expanded conceptual art in Korea, including Lee Kun-yong’s “Logic of Place” and Seong Myeong-gyeong’s “Contraction and Expansion.” Comprising over 140 pieces, the exhibition uses gestures such as questioning units like weight and time to suggest that established authorities are not absolute, reframing art as meaningful events rather than just material objects. Curator Bae Myung-ji emphasized that conceptual art reintroduced “language” and “philosophy” amid the visual priority of 1960s modernism and posed fundamental questions about “what is art.” Alexander Alberro (Columbia University) argues in the catalog that Korean conceptual art was not a failed periphery but sidelined during the 1980s polarization between dancheokhwa (monochrome painting) and minjung art (people’s art). The exhibition runs through October 11.
