seoul art collective

Seoul Art Collective: Outlet for Foreign Artists

“Hongdae Night Fever” by Jeffrey Morabito, an artist with the Seoul Art Collective / Courtesy of Jeffrey Morabito
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

Korea has a thriving art community, but if you're a foreign artist living here, it can be hard. The language and cultural barrier, plus the difficulty of finding galleries to show your work, are just some of the problems that faced artists like Travis Lee Street and Annabel Fenn.

Fenn, an artist and English teacher working in Suwon, said they were looking for a group of international artists to talk and work with. On the Internet, they found the Seoul Art Collective, founded by American artist Ron Saunders with the aim of providing an open forum for artists living in Korea

Since Saunders went back to the United States, Fenn and Street decided to take the helm of the Seoul Art Collective last January. ``We're doing some things a little differently, like running more events regularly and involving more Korean and international artists together. We just really wanted to meet like-minded people and just help people get noticed,'' Fenn said.

The Korea Times met with Fenn, Street and artists Jeffrey Morabito and Ryan McLay, who shared their experiences and problems as foreign artists living and working in Korea.

``The best part (of the Seoul Art Collective) was getting a group of people who can critique art in English… To meet other good artists that speak my own language, that was a nice change,'' said Morabito.

Through word-of-mouth and the Internet, the collective attracted attention from foreign artists in Korea. Its members are from different countries, U.S., South Africa, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Iran, and Sweden.

``We had no idea about the response we would get. In three months, we had 12 new members. We keep getting applications. We have to find venues for all these people now. Most of them are mid-career artists, with strong work,'' Street said.

McLay, a Canadian video artist who is also teaching English, said he came to Korea to get some inspiration. ``The reason I came to Korea was I wanted to develop a body of work that was more international, get some inspiration from another country and be exposed to the Asian market,'' he said.

Fenn, a British artist, started making art after moving to Korea. ``I've always drawn, but the amount of free time that I have, it's a way for me to exorcise my demons, to express myself… Coming to Korea was a great boost of artistic inspiration,'' she said.

What initially started as a group of artists getting together to talk about art, the Seoul Art Collective has evolved into a more of a non-profit artist management organization, and opportunities to hold exhibitions started cropping up.

The collective is organizing a few exhibitions this year. ``In Flux,'' an exhibition featuring artwork that ``represents a flow of dynamic stages in artists' lives,'' runs May 31- June17 at the Door Gallery, Hongdae. Another show ``Share My Reality,'' includes both foreign and emerging Korean artists, will be held June 4-17 at the Television 12 Art Cafe, Hongdae. ``Pilot Light,'' a group photography exhibition runs July 11-23 at the Door Gallery, offers unusual photographs that evoke memories of the past.

The Seoul Art Collective is getting its big break, when 13 of its artists participate in the upcoming Peace Project 2009 ``Creative Evolution'' at the Bupyeong History Museum, Incheon, Sept. 8-19. The event, which is mainly a showcase for Chinese and Korean artists, attracts over 100,000 visitors every year.

Aside from its Web site (www.seoulartcollective.tk), the collective also has a Facebook group and a YouTube channel, which shows visits to the artists' studios. An artist from the collective is featured once a week on The Steve Hatherly Show, TBS English FM (101.3 FM), at 3 p.m. every Thursday.

New members are always welcome in the art collective, especially since members are only in Korea temporarily.

``Basically many of us, our situation here is not secure. It creates a sense of urgency to make works and get it out there, because we don't know how long we're staying or when we're going to leave. But uncomfortable situations produce interesting art as well,'' Morabito said.

The artists believe this is a perfect time to have an international artists group in Korea. ``The market is ripe right now for an international artists group. We're all quite young, and we have a lot of interest from young Korean artists. It feels fresh,'' Fenn said.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr