Works by the Korean Danseakhwa masters Park Seo-Bo, Ha Chong-Hyun, Kwon Young-Woo, and Lee Ufan are featured in the group exhibition Art between Japan and Korea since 1945. Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan, the Yokohama Museum of Art and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea have co-organized a joint exhibition that re-examines the close exchanges between the two nations throughout their complex history and seeks a future of coexistence.

Presenting over 160 works by 50 artists from both countries, the exhibition is organized into five chronological chapters. Each chapter illustrates how the arts of both nations intersect against major historical turning points, such as Korea’s independence and defeat in World War II in 1945, and the normalization of diplomatic relations after twenty years, in 1965. The exhibition highlights how the artists of the time have coexisted and encountered one another in different environments, tracing the course of history.

The first chapter, Art Between the Borders: The Perspective of Zainichi Koreans, covers the erased stories of Zainichi (Koreans in Japan) artists from 1945 to 1965, a period marked by the absence of official political exchange following Korean independence. The following chapter, Nam June Paik and Japanese Artists, introduces the artistic exchanges and friendships between the pioneering figure, Nam June Paik, and Japanese artists despite the ongoing political tensions of the time. 

In the third chapter, A Broadened Path—Japan-Korea Relations after Normalization, the exhibition highlights the blossoming of cultural exchange following the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965. Especially, From Point and From Line by Lee Ufan, who served as a bridge between the two art scenes, are presented alongside works by Japanese Mono-ha artists. The chapter also showcases early works by Dansaekhwa pioneers, such as Kwon Young-Woo’s 74-9 (1974), Park Seo-Bo’s Hereditarus 1-68 (1968), and Ha Chong-Hyun’s White Paper on Urban Planning (1970).

The fourth chapter, Art of a New Generation in a Period of Transformation, presents works from the early 1990s that expanded beyond traditional painting into experimental media. The final chapter, Solidarity and Living Together, explores the possibilities of coexistence shaped through art, focusing on artists who have confronted social and political realities since Korea’s democratization in 1987.

This exhibition, which offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between the two nations, will run at the Yokohama Museum of Art until March 22 before traveling to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, where it will open on May 14.
 

Roni Horn presents a solo exhibition, Roni Horn: Water, Water on the Wall, You’re the Fairest of Them All, at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Colorado, USA. The exhibition focuses on the recurring motif of water that runs throughout her practice across different media including sculpture, photography, and drawing, thus offering an in-depth exploration of paradox and identity.

Horn draws attention to the paradoxical nature of water, as she describes as follows: “You say water is troubled or calm. You say water is rough and restless. You say water is quiet.” Moreover, she identifies a parallel between these opposing qualities and the complexity of sensory experience, which becomes all the more relevant in the regions surrounding Denver and the Intermoutain West. While water has long been regarded as an abundant resource in these regions, these conditions are gradually becoming unstable amid climate change and population growth. Water can no longer be assumed as a readily available resource, and in this context its paradoxical nature carries regional and cultural implications.

Among the works featured, Horn’s signature work You are the Weather Part 2 (2010–2011) is exhibited alongside a photographic series of over 100 images depicting figures immersed in geothermal pools in Iceland. The exhibition also includes pieces of cast glass that have never been shown to the public before. The exhibition runs through February 15, 2026.
 

Jean-Michel Othoniel presents a solo exhibition, Beauty Saves the World, at The Wall House Museum in the island of Saint Barthélemy. The exhibition offers an emotional journey encompassing art, nature and spiritual experience, inspired by the natural landscape and light of Saint Barthélemy.

Light, emotion, and travel form the core inspirations of Othoniel’s practice. In particular, light and emotion generated by glass and organic form serve as a kind of ”poetic language,” as Othoniel explains, that “poetry is above all a choice of life and of looking at others around you.” His connection with the island traces back to his first visit, where the force of nature, shifting light, and abundant flora left a lasting mark and resulted in sensations that later became central motifs in his artistic practice.

The Constellation of Pegasus, a permanent installation placed in front of the luxurious hotel Cheval Blanc, embodies the transparency of the night sky and the vastness of constellations. Othoniel articulates his visual vocabulary of flowers, knots, and light through diverse media such as glass, stainless steel, and drawing. In addition, the exhibition features around twenty works, among them pieces rarely shown to the public, and traces the trajectory of his sustained exploration of transformation, fragility, and the beauty of the world.

Beauty Saves the World reflects on how artworks and the architectural space correspond to one another, guiding the visitors to immerse themselves naturally in Othoniel’s universe through shifting currents of light and emotion. The exhibition runs through January 31.
 

Hong Seung-Hye’s project The Painter’s Architecture, The Painter’s Furniture was recently held at the Mezzanine Lounge of Space ZeroOne in Tribeca, New York. Space ZeroOne, established and organized by the Hanwha Foundation, is a non-profit exhibition space that aims to support and introduce contemporary Korean artists. The project was on view simultaneously with the group exhibition Contours of Zero, featuring eight emerging Korean artists whose works explore intersections of technology, materiality, and cultural identity.

Since her solo exhibition Organic Geometry at Kukje Gallery in 1997, Hong has continuously explored the workings of physical space through the language of digital pixels. For the artist, art is inseparable from life, and she seeks to create objects that neither weigh too heavily nor disrupt the flow of everyday reality. Centered on the concepts of “the painter’s architecture” and “the painter’s furniture,” this project embodied her long-standing interest in art that can be used, touched, and inhabited into a spatial experience. The planar structures she designs acquire practical function through optimized volume, transforming geometric abstraction into a lived, functional environment.

These ideas were realized throughout the Mezzanine Lounge, where sofas, chairs, and carpets composed of flat planes of color were arranged across the space. Hong drew attention to the lineage through which geometric abstraction has expanded into social practice via architecture and design, from Vladimir Tatlin to Donald Judd. Soft, plush sofas invite rest, while firmer benches—reminiscent of church seating—encouraged upright posture and reflection. Through this environment, the artist created a space where those who share a belief in the value of art are invited to gather, linger, and exchange ideas.
 

Anish Kapoor’s solo exhibition, Anish Kapoor: Early Works, is currently on view at the Jewish Museum in New York. This is the first presentation at a U.S. museum, providing an in-depth examination of the artist’s ongoing exploration of the boundaries between sculpture, color, and form. As implied by the title, the exhibition showcases 55 works from the 1970s and 1980s, including rare sketches and drawings on paper. 

Anish Kapoor: Early Works focuses on Kapoor’s sculptural practice developed within the contexts of conceptual art and minimalism, examining questions of materiality and existence. After passing through Israel in the early 1970s, Kapoor moved to the United Kingdom to study art, where he gained international recognition through a distinctive formal language. Since he had limited resources to work with, he adopted powdered pigments made from dust gathered from his studio floor to create sculptures. The exhibition reveals the transformation of everyday, non-art materials into new sculptural possibilities. Alongside sculptures, the show also presents early drawings and gouache works. These small-scale works on paper depict subtle, amorphous forms and stand in contrast to his sculptures, while establishing an aesthetic balance between the two media.

The exhibition also places these early works in dialogue with more recent pieces that employ Vantablack, a nanotechnology material that absorbs up to 99.965% of light. Through this juxtaposition, Kapoor continues to investigate the presence and absence of color and the limitations of materiality, which have been a central theme throughout his career. By tracing meaningful continuities from his early experiments to his latest works, the exhibition documents the evolution of Kapoor’s artistic journey and sculptural language.

Organized in conjunction with the Jewish Museum’s reopening, this solo exhibition also reflects on Kapoor’s Jewish identity and artistic origins. By examining the spiritual, psychological, and physical dimensions of sculpture and inviting the audience to experience carefully calibrated spatial relationships in different ways, the exhibition illuminates the foundational investigations that later evolved into Kapoor’s monumental sculptural works.
 

A new project Silentium (Muksiam) by Lee Ufan, one of Korea’s most influential contemporary artists is unveiled in the Heewon Traditional Garden of Hoam Museum of Art in the past November. The title Silentium is derived from the Latin word meaning “silence,” while its Korean counterpart Muksiam (默視庵) means “to gaze quietly.” These intertwined ideas underpin the project, which comprises indoor works as well as outdoor installations.

Three works inside Silentium—Floor Painting, Wall Painting, and Shadow Painting—allude to the transformation and the cyclical flow of life through various media and approaches. Central to Lee Ufan’s practice, the motif of “point,” and the “circles” formed through the infinite expansion of the “points,” and the gradual shifts in color, generate vitality and energy that resonate intuitively and emotionally with the audience. 

Meanwhile, new outdoor installations by the artist are also presented in Yetdol Garden. Three large-scale new works from the Relatum series are installed along a sloping lakeside path, directly responding to the site. As the steel, symbolizing civilization, encounters stone, representing nature, the artistic relationship between the works and the viewers walking through the space emerges organically.

Through the project, Lee Ufan invites viewers to dwell within a “space of silence.” This is his distinctive approach to initiating a dialogue in which the viewers experience the fundamentals of existence shaped through relationships, encounters, resonance, and breath. These newly conceived spaces further deepen and expand the aesthetic of “emptiness” that Lee Ufan has pursued throughout his life.
 

Jae-Eun Choi’s Where Beings Be marks the artist’s first solo exhibition at a public art museum in Korea. On view at the Seoul Museum of Art Seosomun Main Branch (SeMA), the exhibition revisits the interconnectedness between humans and nature that existed long before human civilization, and highlights the artist’s focus on intangible, multi-layered dimensions of time and space, presenting both key works and new pieces.

Organized around five subthemes—Lucy, Tolling Bell, Microcosmos, Names of the Unseen, and Nature Rules—the exhibition traces a temporal continuum from the origins of humanity to the current ecological crisis, offering a comprehensive exploration of human-nature relationships.

The first section, Lucy, features one of the artist’s signature sculptures, which evokes the flow of life and time. The work is inspired by the fossil of the earliest known human named “Lucy,” discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and dating back approximately 3.2 million years. Choi uses stone and structures to reflect the multiplicity of beings that have traversed time.

In Tolling Bell, Choi presents the video series Horizon of the Unanswered, which visualizes nature under threat by juxtaposing images of blackened seas, bleached coral, and rising sea temperatures. At the same time, the work captures sublime landscapes in which beauty persists despite destruction, inviting viewers to experience the majesty of nature even amid ecological crises.

The Microcosmos section shifts focus to the smaller, often overlooked worlds within and beyond the Earth. One of the exhibition’s highlights, World Underground Project, uses washi paper buried in soil across the globe over extended periods. By allowing the earth to inscribe its own temporal and cultural traces onto the paper, the work makes visible the passage of nature and time through a unique material.

Name of the Unseen, as the title suggests, calls attention to the small and seemingly insignificant entities of the natural world. In the series When We First Met, over 560 wildflowers and plants are named and recorded as “portraits,” emphasizing the value of existence and recognizing the quiet presence of life.

Finally, the Nature Rules section revisits works from Choi’s solo exhibition of the same name held at Kukje Gallery in March 2025, including the “DMZ Ecological Forest Plan” and Nature Rules. This section sheds light on life persisting in harsh, war-torn landscapes.

In addition to the artworks, the exhibition presents archival materials that trace the development of Choi’s practice. By questioning human-centered orders and boundaries while foregrounding the sovereignty of nature and living beings, Jae-eun Choi: Where Beings Be offers visitors an encounter with the artist’s powerful yet warm vision towards nature. The exhibition is on view through April 5, 2026.