Country for PR: China
Contributor: PR Newswire Asia (China)
Wednesday, June 26 2019 - 11:00
AsiaNet
Amorepacific Museum of Art to host Barbara Kruger's first solo exhibition "FOREVER" in Asia
SEOUL, South Korea, June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

- The exhibition is to celebrate the first anniversary of the Amorepacific 
Museum of Art in Yongsan, held from June 27 to December 29

- The exhibition will display 44 artworks by world-renowned conceptual artist 
Barbara Kruger that reveal over 40 years of her oeuvre 

The Amorepacific Museum of Art is pleased to present world-renowned 
contemporary artist Barbara Kruger's first solo exhibition "BARBARA KRUGER: 
FOREVER" in Asia. The exhibition will be held from June 27 to December 29 at 
the Amorepacific Museum of Art located in Yongsan, Seoul.

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190612/2494116-1-a
(APMA Barbara Kruger Exhibition FOREVER Poster)

The Amorepacific Museum of Art planned this exhibition in celebration of its 
first anniversary of opening in Yongsan. The show will feature all the major 
works of Kruger since the 1980s until recently. This is a great chance to 
experience the true colors of the artist who has been working on various forms 
of art for over 40 years while sticking to a consistent and original style and 
pattern.

Barbara Kruger (1945-) is an American conceptual artist well known for her 
works that apply advertising techniques in juxtaposing images and texts. 
Through eye-catching symbolic fonts and concise yet intense messages, she has 
critically conveyed power, desire, consumerism, gender and class issues in mass 
media and mechanisms of contemporary society. Her works raise questions on the 
framework of thoughts that build the foundation of our way of thinking, such as 
universal notion, belief or stereotype, enabling the viewers to think 
independently.

This exhibition will feature 43 works that display Kruger's oeuvre. They 
include various forms of her works such as large-scale installations and 
visuals. The artist will unveil her first Hangeul piece for the first time in 
the world at the exhibition. Untitled (2019), owned by the Amorepacific Museum 
of Art), the work that represents this exhibition, is specially redesigned by 
the artist for the Amorepacific Museum of Art. There are also 16 pieces of the 
early collage series of the 1980s such as Your body is a battleground and We 
don't need another hero. 

Overview

Title: BARBARA KRUGER: FOREVER 
- Period: June 27 (Thu) - December 29 (Sun), 2019 
- Time: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. (ticket office closes at 5:30 p.m.), closed on
  Mondays 
- Place: Amorepacific Museum of Art (100, Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul) 
- Contact: Amorepacific Museum of Art / +82-2-6040-2345 / 
  museum@amorepacific.com 
- Website: http://apma.amorepacific.com 
- Exhibits: 44 works including large-scale installations and visuals

[Introduction of main exhibits]

1. Untitled (Plenty should be enough), 2018, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, 
600 x 2,170 cm 

2. Untitled, 2019, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, 600 x 2,170 cm 

"Plenty should be enough" is a recurring phrase in Barbara Kruger's works. By 
including the sentence in her artistic practice, she turns a critical eye 
toward consumerism and desire. In this work, executed and installed in both 
English and Korean, the power of words can be found not only in meaning but 
also in size, with the words taking the entire wall. Kruger makes use of 
architecture so that reading, an act generally considered still and personal, 
becomes a much more physical experience.   

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190625/2494116-1-b 
 (Untitled (Plenty should be enough), 2018)

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190625/2494116-1-c 
(Untitled, 2019)

3. Untitled (Forever), 2017, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, dimensions 
variable (570 x 2,870 x 1,830 cm) 

The vinyl wallpaper Untitled (FOREVER) (2017), especially re-designed by the 
artist for Amorepacific Museum of Art will wrap one of the biggest rooms in the 
museum from floor to ceiling, enveloping viewers in a disorienting but 
though-provoking environment. The site-specific work taps into Kruger's 
long-standing interest in architecture and the expanding scale of her 
installations.   

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190625/2494116-1-d 
(Untitled (Forever), 2017)

4. Untitled (The_latest_version_of_the_truth), 2018, Digital print on vinyl, 
226.1 x 173cm 

The most recent work in the show is the vinyl print Untitled (The latest 
version of the truth) (2018) whose pointed address of the manufacturing of 
facts is particularly timely in the current sociopolitical climate.

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190625/2494116-1-e
(Untitled (The_latest_version_of_the_truth), 2018)

[About Barbara Kruger] 

Born & Place

1945     Born in Newark, New Jersey, USA 
         
Present Lives in New York City and Los Angeles, California, USA

Education 

1966     Parsons School of Design, New York City, New York, USA

1965     Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA

Selected Awards and Grants

2005            The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 51st Venice Biennale

1983-84         National Endowment for the Arts Grant 

1976-77         Creative Artists Service Program Grant

Barbara Kruger, one of the most influential contemporary artists, communicated 
with the world in her unique visual language of juxtaposing black and white 
photographs with bold type. She is currently based in Los Angeles and New York 
in the United States.

Kruger was born to a middle-class family in Newark, New Jersey, and studied in 
Syracuse University in New York. A year later, she relocated to Parson's School 
of Design, which was when she started her life in New York, studying under 
Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel. She soon after finds work at Conde Nast 
Publications, working as a designer for Mademoiselle, and is promoted to Head 
Designer the following year. She later becomes in charge of editing photographs 
in magazines House and Garden, and Aperture. 10 years of her experience as a 
designer became the  groundwork in creating her unique visual language.

Kruger started her artistic career around 1969, but the hallmark black and 
white image framed in red, overlaid with bold text became prominent in 1981. 
Images found in old magazines and photograph catalogues are edited, then 
implicative and often provocative texts are layered on top to address issues 
such as power and control, mass media and capitalism, distortion of truth and 
gender role stereotypes. Slogans that are instantly comprehensible such as "I 
shop therefore I am", and "Your body is a battleground" gave rise to countless 
parodies and homages, making this the trademark "Kruger style".

Because of her use of language, and her billboard, and advertisement style, 
Kruger has often been grouped with postmodern feminist artists such as Jenny 
Holzer, Sherrie Levine, Martha Rosler, and Cindy Sherman. However, her work was 
displayed not only in prominent art museums and galleries, but also on 
billboards, bus cards, magazines, newspapers, posters, parks, and train station 
platforms. As such, her work with various media and close communication with 
the public allowed her to establish herself as an unparalleled artist. She was 
awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 51st Venice Biennale in 
2005. In 2020 her work will also be presented at the Art Institute of Chicago. 
  
[Overview of the Amorepacific Museum of Art]

The Amorepacific Museum of Art started with a private collection of crafts and 
ceramics related to women, cosmetics and tea by the founder and former Chairman 
Suh Sungwhan (1924-2003) in order to preserve and promote Korean traditions. 
Established in 1979 as the Pacific Museum, it was renamed as the Amorepacific 
Museum of Art (APMA) in 2009. The museum embraces antiques and contemporary art 
of both the East and the West, and it has been contributing to the development 
of art culture such as exhibitions, research, publications, and more. 

The Amorepacific Museum of Art newly opened in 2018 at the Amorepacific 
headquarters located in Yongsan, Seoul. The new museum is open to everyone as a 
plaza for the museum, artists and visitors to communicate in the common 
language of 'art' for humanity. You can find the lobby and gift shop on the 
first floor, as well as exhibition space 'APMA Cabinet' and library of 
exhibition catalogs of the world (apLAP). The underground exhibition hall 
features all kinds of exhibitions and stories that embrace the antiques and 
contemporary art of Korea as well as art from around the world.

The Amorepacific headquarters is designed by world-renowned British architect 
David Chipperfield. He intended to express the beauty of singularity that is 
unique to Amorepacific in the heart of the city surrounded by buildings. The 
headquarters is not comprised of multiple buildings but is a single building 
with a significant volume that has a graceful and simple shape. It resembles 
the beauty of a white porcelain moon jar that has an understated elegance 
without elaborate techniques, creating an enriched, comfortable mood. Visitors 
will experience various exhibitions in which artworks in Korea and overseas 
meet at the Amorepacific Museum of Art.

The Amorepacific Museum of Art contributes to the development of art culture in 
both Korea and the world. It will continue to carry out a series of activities 
to study and support art by introducing the traditional and contemporary art of 
Korea to the world as well as the new trends of global art.


Source: Amorepacific Museum of Art 

Translations

Vietnamese