| May 19 - August 14, 2009
Gallery Hours:
Monday through Friday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Opening Reception
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
6:00 PM-8:30 PM
The Korea Society Gallery
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, 8th Floor
(Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street)
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 Korean missionary photographs in the U.S.—features rare images taken by missionaries in Korea between 1890 and 1940.
 Taken by both Protestant and Catholic missionaries, the photographs—on display along with unique supplementary objects such as an original photo album and New Year's calendars—offer a singular perspective on life in Korea during times of profound change. They illustrate the forging of contemporary institutions and values in the crucible of encounters with American Christian missionaries by Koreans.
The impact of early Western contact on Koreans is evident in the telltale signs of new cultural norms and new religious identities, and clues that these new ways were conflicting with long-held traditions. Less directly evident, but equally important, the images also allow the viewer to surmise how Koreans in turn had a formative impact on the missionaries, which led to intertwined personal histories that became a foundation for subsequent relations between Korea and the United States.
Drawn from four private collections and six academic archives, the images have been digitally restored and printed in a manner that retains, as far as possible, the archival quality of the images.
Purchase the 184-page hardcover exhibition catalog here.
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 Exhibition
January 29 - April 24, 2009
Opening Reception
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The exquisite art of Korean wrapping cloths, known as pojagi, is featured in this exhibition of representative items drawn from eight private collections. With their distinctive geometric patchwork design,which often combines vivid colors, wrapping cloths have become one ofthe most widely recognized and appreciated of all traditional Korean textile arts. While often used for wrapping gifts, pojagi also were commonly employed in everyday life for carrying, covering and storing objects. Due to these multiple uses, pojagi were one of the most widespread items in Korean households of all social classes. Both in terms of design and function, pojagi demonstrate the ingenuity as well as the skillful needlework and refined design sensibilities of the anonymous women who created them over the centuries. To illustrate these distinctive features of the Korean textile tradition, the exhibition also includes examples of embroidered sewing boxes, pillow ends, spools and pouches.
Click Read More below to see pictures from the exhibit opening reception.
Related Program
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The Korea Society - Gallery | Page-4
 Exhibition
September 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 work, family and Fatherland. Four subject areas delineate the contours of North Korea’s vision of an earthly paradise: harmonious families, plenteous landscapes, male laborers and women at work.
Following its engagement at The Korea Society, North Korean Images at Utopia’s Edge will be available for travel to colleges, universities, galleries, and non-profit institutions across America. Related program: Crossing the Line, directed by Daniel Gordon and narrated by Christian Slater
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
6:00 PM-6:30 PM • Registration and Reception 6:30 PM-8:30 PM • Screening and Q&A
Join The Korea Society for a screening of this unique documentary, followed by a conversation with co-producer Nicholas Bonner.
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Panel Discussion
with
Susan Shin
Founder and President of Shin Advisors LLC
Gemma Kahng
Fashion Designer
Jean Yu
Fashion Designer
Hyden Yoo
Fashion Designer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A wave of remarkable fashion designers have recently emerged from Korea and the Korean diaspora. Today, a growing number of designers are grappling successfully with the challenging issue of a "global runway." Fashion, previously focused almost exclusively on local tastes and trends, is now being produced in the context of a world-wide industry. As Korean and Korean American designers manufacture and market their work internationally, distinct cultural influences may become more difficult to identify, leading to questions about the role cultural influences should play in a designer's style.
Join The Korea Society for a discussion moderated by luxury marketing consultant Susan Shin of Shin Advisors, with fashion designers Gemma Kahng and Jean Yu, and menswear designer Hyden Yoo, as they address their creative processes, their influences and the unique cultural and commercial challenges they face in marketing their fashion in the U.S., Korea and a globalized society.
About the Speakers
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Exhibition
 Through Friday, August 15, 2008
Opening Reception
Thursday, May 29, 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 twentieth century as the depredations of Japanese colonial rule increased. A second wave of emigrants began leaving for the Western Hemisphere, particularly the United States, in the mid-1960s. Kyopo hail from virtually every country in the world, but the vast majority reside in just three countries: China, the U.S. and Japan. Today, kyopo number approximately 6.5 million—one for every ten Koreans residing in the Korean Peninsula.
This exhibition features a series of 171 full-length portraits of kyopo from around the world. It shows each subject in their analogical plenitude, as Roland Barthes would say, and betrays/displays the intimate relation of the photographer to the portraits. The subjects are posed frontally, with their eyes returning the camera's and the viewer’s gaze. Thus, each subject connects with and mirrors the others, while also reflecting their inherent differences. Ranging in age from teenagers to a septuagenarian, they are novelists, actors, teachers, comedians, athletes, executives and retirees. The striking diversity of the group—the subjects do not appear to have much in common other than their Korean ancestry—challenges the idea of a monolithic, authentic Korean identity and stimulates exploration of what it means to be Korean. The exhibition also poses the question of how kyopo negotiate the sometimes conflicting expectations and sensibilities arising from their intrinsic bicultural identity.
Asian Diasporas: New Conceptions, New Formations, a collection of essays co-edited by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas and Lok Siu, will be available for purchase at The Korea Society during the exhibition.
About the Artist
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