Bae Young-whan. Youth, 1999.
Installation View. Korean Modern and Contemporary Art II, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea, 2026
Korean Modern and Contemporary Art II | National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
April 22, 2026 – June 27, 2027
Bae Young-whan’s Youth (1999) and Lee Bul’s Sternbau No. 23 (2009) are currently on view in MMCA Collection: Korean Modern and Contemporary Art II at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon.
Presented as part of the museum’s permanent collection exhibition, the show surveys the trajectory of Korean modern and contemporary art through more than 120 major works from the latter half of the twentieth century, exploring a wide range of artistic contexts spanning figuration and abstraction, tradition and modernity, as well as formal experimentation and social engagement.
In Youth, Bae renders the lyrics of the popular song “Youth” in pills and cotton, transforming everyday materials into a meditation on lived experience while evoking the collective memories and aspirations of a generation shaped by Korea’s rapid social transformation. Constructed from mirrors, glass, metal, and reflective film suspended in space, Lee’s Sternbau No. 23 brings together technological imagery, bodily forms, and speculative visions within a luminous sculptural environment.
April 22, 2026
