News
2022-09-15
Works from the Lewben Art Foundation collection are now on view in South Korea: an exhibition featuring Lithuanian artists has opened in Seoul
On September 15th, a group exhibition of young Lithuanian painters will open in the "Art Corner H" art space, located in the Sun Blanket Foundation cultural complex in Seoul, South Korea. The exhibition features a selection from the Lewben Art Foundation collection. The curator of the exhibition is Taeho Choi, the art director of the Sun Blanket Foundation. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
According to Ugnė Bužinskaitė, director of the Lewben Art Foundation, the collaboration between the Lewben Art Foundation (Vilnius) and the Sun Blanket Foundation (Seoul), which has been ongoing for several years, is significant for the international dissemination of our contemporary art. "Back in the summer of 2021, we presented a group exhibition called “New Age of Baltic” in Seoul, aimed at promoting cultural exchange and introducing the art of young Baltic artists, who were not yet familiar to the South Korean art world. This year, we continue the partnership and present young painters from the Lewben Art Foundation collection, supplemented with works from our exhibition partners, Meno Niša Gallery and The Rooster Gallery. We are delighted to showcase recognized Lithuanian artists to Seoul's visual arts institutions, curators, private art foundations, collectors, and the broader art community. We have no doubt that this is just the beginning of a collaboration that will become a bridge between two different cultures and private foundations. In 2025, we plan to open the private museum in Vilnius, where we are confident that we will also introduce South Korean contemporary artists to Lithuanian society in the future," says Ugnė Bužinskaitė.
Taeho Choi, art director of the Sun Blanket Foundation and curator of the exhibition, speaking about the collaboration between Lithuania and the Baltic region with South Korea, states: "In my opinion, the contemporary art field in Lithuania and the Baltic countries is currently growing rapidly, and since the mid-2000s, it has cultivated internationally active curators and artists. The Baltic Triennial, established in the late 1970s, has become a dynamic international event organized by the Contemporary Art Center (CAC), the largest art institution on the Baltic coast. In 2016, the Riga Biennial began in Latvia, and in 2019, the Lithuanian pavilion won the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale, drawing worldwide attention. Important contemporary art processes are currently taking place in the Baltic countries, with a new generation of artists transitioning from a local art field perspective to contemporary, universal themes. All of this greatly interests us and the South Korean art field in general. As a result, together with the Lewben Art Foundation, we encourage the dissemination of the creative work of young Lithuanian and Baltic artists in our region and in the international art market”.
"I am very pleased with the collaboration between the Lewben Art Foundation and the Sun Blanket Foundation because, without the position of cultural attaché in South Korea, only such projects maintain the thin cultural threads between Lithuania and South Korea. This country is currently an indisputable cultural and artistic hub in East Asia, so it is important to be at least a small tributary in it," reflects Tomas Ivanauskas, one of the exhibition's initiators and former Lithuanian cultural attaché in China and South Korea, on the cultural ties between the countries.
The exhibition features works by artists Kristina Ališauskaitė, Arnolds Andersons, Jegors Buimisters, Raminta Blaževičiūtė, Vita Opolskytė, Tadas Tručilauskas, and Monika Plentauskaitė. Most of these works were acquired for the Lewben Art Foundation collection directly from the Young Painter Prize, a long-term partner of the foundation. The exhibition is complemented by works loaned by Meno Niša Gallery, including recent works by Monika Plentauskaitė, the Young Painter Prize laureate, and works by Jolanta Kyzikaitė, one of the first laureates of the Young Painter Prize, as well as painterly photographs by Paulius Makauskas, and sculptural installations by Tomas Daukša loaned by The Rooster Gallery.
Exhibition partners: Lithuanian Culture Institute, Meno Niša, The Rooster Gallery.
The exhibition "Lewben Art Foundation Collection" at the "Art Corner H" art space will be open until October 29.
