The arrival of the first Western missionaries in Korea in the late 19th century was a pivotal moment in the history of Christianity in Korea and the history of Korea as a whole. The missionaries established new religious identities and stoked early culture clashes. They also documented their mission and the society around them with early cameras. Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West Through Christianity—the largest ever show of… Read More

ExhibitionSeptember 9 - December 12, 2008 Tuesday, September 9, 2008 The Korea Society presents, for the first time ever in the United States, the art of North Korean woodblock printing. In an exhibition spanning the last three decades of North Korean artistry, North Korean Images at Utopia’s Edge features 24 prints from the Nicholas Bonner Collection. These prints offer a fascinating picture of North Korean conceptions of daily life and… Read More

Exhibition Through Friday, August 15, 2008 Kyopo (교포) is a Korean term for people of Korean descent who reside permanently outside of the Korean Peninsula. The Kyopo Project is a collection of images created by photographer CYJO to highlight the diversity of the global kyopo community. Emigration from Korea to other countries in Asia began as a trickle in the mid-nineteenth century, and accelerated during the first half of the … Read More

Exhibition April 24–May 16, 2008 Opening Reception Wednesday, April 30, 2008 The Korea Society is pleased to present Inside North Korea with the New York Philharmonic, an exhibition of photographs by award-winning photographer Mark Edward Harris that document the concert by the New York Philharmonic orchestra in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on February 26, 2008. In these fascinating and often-stunning photographs, Harris offers a portrait of the historic… Read More

Exhibition January 31–April 18, 2008 Toys are always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be. They can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. With Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood, The Korea Society put on display over 90 children's toys from South Korea in the 1970s and ‘80s. On loan from the Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection in Seoul, the toys—flamboyantly colored action figures, robots,… Read More

Exhibition July 26, 2007 - December 18, 2007 "... eye-catching." - New York Times Art Review, "Korea’s Extraordinary Send-Offs for Ordinary People", August 17, 2007 link "... the artifacts... are truly treasures." - Japan Times Review, "Little Friends for the Other World", October 11, 2007 link Death is an aspect of the human condition that touches every culture in every age, and almost all cultures envelop death in a rich… Read More

Gods, Demons and Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism The exhibition includes representations of Samsin Halmoni 삼신 (Birth Spirit), Sansin 산신 (Mountain God), Taesin Halmoni 대신 할머니 (Great Spirit Grandmother), Yongwang 용왕 (Dragon King), Sinchungdang 신중당 (Guardian Spirits) and images of many other shaman deities. As fixtures of traditional shaman shrines, twelve paintings provide a setting for rites that over the centuries have informed Koreans’ world view and their belief system… Read More

ExhibitionSeptember 7 - October 28, 2005 This exhibition examined the changing social realities of Korean society from the 1950s to the 1990s through a selected reading of Korea's most popular comic books. Featuring the works of 17 of the best-known artists, the exhibition offered a running commentary that reflected the lives of ordinary people—at once joyful, satirical and penetrating. What shines through these works most prominently is an engaged and… Read More

Exhibition February 2 - April 10, 2005 This exhibition included four paintings of Korean dragons and a pair of dragon sculptures on loan from the Lea Sneider Collection. All the pieces mixed strict formalism with unexpected creativity. Two of the paintings depicted dragons as benevolent bringers of rain, symbolized by a dragon surrounded by clouds. A third painting depicted a dragon with carp swimming placidly beneath it, instead of jumping… Read More

Art imitates life, and life may imitate art. Sometimes life becomes art. The artists and writers presented here juggle time and space, time zones and languages to produce their art and literature. Like the needle of a compass, they wobble as they set their direction. Staying in balance requires perpetual motion... constant adjustment for disruptive forces — a balancing act. Group Exhibition: Korean American Contemporary Artists October 21 - December… Read More