Artist Jewyo Rhii has been announced as the winner of the 2019 Korea Artist Prize. Awarded by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, and the SBS Culture Foundation, the prize supports contemporary Korean artists. Rhii was selected by an international jury in two rounds: the first round nominating a shortlist of four artists (Rhii as well as Ayoung Kim, Hyesoo Park and Young In Hong), who each received ₩40 million from SBS towards the production of new work to be exhibited at MMCA; the second selecting a winner based on the exhibition.
Rhii’s project, Love Your Depot (2019), functions as a prototype for a storage space, incorporating installation, artworks by other artists, video and performance. Questioning the future of the production and conservation of artworks, the space is activated throughout the duration of the exhibition by a Team Depot, which perform ‘experimental and creative activities, along with parades and dance performances held in time for the arrival and storage of works’.
The international jury this year comprised MMCA director Youn Bummo, Bartomeu Marí (former MMCA director), Ki Hyekyung (director, Busan Museum of Art), Dirk Snauwaert (director, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre of Belgium), and Hiromi Kurosawa (chief curator, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan). The Korea Artist Prize exhibition is on view at MMCA Seoul through 1 March 2020.
Read Jewyo Rhii’s profile from ArtReview Asia’s archive
3 December 2019
