Opening time:2026.08.23
Duration: 2026.08.23 -- 2026.10.07
Location: 1st floor of Building No.3, Today Art Museum No.087, Building 6, No.32 Baiziwan Road
On August 23, 2026, the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art's young artists special exhibition, Vision and Perspective, opened at Hall 3 of the Today Art Museum in Beijing. Featuring eight young artists selected through an open call and long-term incubation program, the exhibition presents East Asian contemporary art practices across diverse media, fostering academic dialogue between Beijing and Busan while strengthening international art networks.
As a major international project resulting from deep collaboration between the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art and Chinese art institutions, the exhibition centers on cross-regional academic exchange. It situates the developmental trajectory of Busan's contemporary art within the broader contexts of East Asia and the world, revealing the multifaceted artistic practices that have emerged from the city's unique geographic and cultural crossroads. Vision and Perspective is a signature academic program initiated by the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art in 1999, with a long-standing commitment to discovering, supporting, and nurturing young artistic talent.
This exhibition marks the first time the program has been fully realized overseas as an international collaboration, signifying a substantive leap from a regional platform to an international exchange network. It also opens new possibilities for establishing long-term cooperative mechanisms between the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art and overseas art institutions.
At the opening ceremony, distinguished guests in attendance included Yoon Ho-jin, Minister-Counselor and Director of the Korean Cultural Center at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in China; Yeo So-yeong, Minister-Counselor; Park Pung-ryeong, Deputy Director of the Exhibition and Promotion Division at the Korean Cultural Center; Seo Jin-seok, Director of the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art; Jung Jong-hyo, Head of the Curatorial Department; Lee Seung-ah, the exhibition's representative curator; and participating artists Kim Mi-rae, Park Hyun-seong, Kim Tae-sung, and Ryu HANA. Also present were Yan Yan, Executive Director of the Today Art Museum; Huang Du, Academic Director; Luan Yiming, Secretary-General of the Muyun Art Foundation; Zhang Libin, Advisor Director of the Today Art Museum; artists Weng Fen and Wang Guofeng; and other media guests, all bearing witness to this significant occasion.
In her opening remarks, Yan Yan, Executive Director of the Today Art Museum, noted that the exhibition not only builds upon the profound legacy of academic director Huang Du's two decades of work in promoting East Asian contemporary art exchange, but also carries forward the new mission of a younger generation of cultural practitioners. The eight young artists, she observed, respond in their works to shared concerns such as global modernity and rapid social transformation, demonstrating the sensitivity and sense of responsibility with which the younger generation confronts a changing world. Yan Yan further affirmed that the Today Art Museum will continue to support the development of young artists, share the vibrant energy of global youth culture, and steadily advance curatorial collaboration and artistic exchange between China and South Korea.
Seo Jin-seok, Director of the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, articulated in his speech the multiple layers of meaning embedded in this exhibition. The first is "locality"—all eight artists are based in Busan, and they are deeply invested in engaging in dialogue with the public and the site itself. The second is "innovation"—each artist possesses a distinctive visual language, and the convergence of diverse materials and concepts within a single space invites experimentation and creative friction. Noting that cultural exchange has diminished in the post-pandemic era, he expressed the hope that this exhibition would initiate a "new conversation" and invited every visitor to reflect on the question: "What real change can art bring to the future?"
Lee Seung-ah, the exhibition's representative curator, shared in her address that Vision and Perspective is a long-running program launched in 1999, now in its 18th iteration, with a total of 84 participating artists to date. This is the first time the program has traveled beyond South Korea to be presented in Beijing, marking a new chapter in international collaboration. She added that the exhibition's very theme embodies an aspiration toward the future—the young artists use their works to envision what lies ahead, and the power of each piece reaffirms her belief that "the future of art will be even brighter."
As China's first non-profit private art museum, the Today Art Museum occupies a landmark position in the country's contemporary art ecosystem. Grounded in the shared experiences of modernization and urban life in the two East Asian cities of Beijing and Busan, the exhibition explores how artworks generate new interpretive possibilities across different cultural contexts, institutional frameworks, and social perceptions, thereby building bridges for contemporary art dialogue that transcend geographical boundaries.
The exhibition brings together eight young artists who were either born in Busan or have long used the city as their creative base: Kang Yi-gyeong, Kim Mi-rae, Kim Jae-won, Kim Tae-sung, Park Ji-hye, Park Hyun-seong, Yu Jang-woo, and Ryu HANA. Working across painting, installation, and video, they respond with acute sensitivity to the realities and perceptual structures of contemporary society, starting from the ever-shifting relationships among image, material, body, and environment.
Rather than attempting to reduce these artists to a collective portrait of a single generation or regional experience, the exhibition translates the complex temporalities accumulated through East Asian cities' intensive industrialization and urbanization into distinct material forms, visual structures, and bodily perceptions through each artist's highly independent creative language. From cyclical video narratives and installation practices attuned to spatial structures and interstices, to expanded explorations of painting's materiality and artistic experiments mediated by bodily experience and sensory perception—these works together constitute a multidimensional reflection on the historical experience of East Asian modernity.
Through this collaboration, the Today Art Museum will further deepen its partnership with the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, advancing multi-level international cooperation mechanisms including joint research, academic exchange, and co-curated exhibitions. At the same time, the Today Art Museum remains committed to building a more open cross-cultural platform for both local and international young artists—one that not only enables them to enter the global contemporary art scene, but also empowers them to actively participate in the ongoing construction of East Asian contemporary art discourse.
Kang Yi Gyeong, Kim Mi Rae, Kim Jae Won, Kim Tae Seong, Park Ji Hye, Park Hyeon Seong, Yu Jang U,Ryu Ha Na