KOREAN EYE's

On July, 2009, the show room of Phillips de Pury & Company auction house locating on the 2nd floor of Saatchi Gallery tightly exhibited 31 Korean contemporary artists‘s works. The place was the KOREAN EYE's first exhibition site. The KOREAN EYE is an annual exhibition     introducing Korean contemporary artists and their works on its main stage of Saatch Gallery, the center of Britain contemporary Art.
Most artists participated in the first exhibition were not so-called 'representing artists' internationally well-known. But their various, colorful works were unfamiliar to 'them' creating naive and fresh feeling. So the KOREAN EYE's first exhibition "KOREAN EYE: Moon Generation" (Saatchi Gallery, 20. Jul ~ 1. Oct 2009) created unexpected, great sensation. Spectators over 250 thousand visited the exhibition, and even its exhibition period was extended to more 3 months because of rushing audience.
Thanks to such hot popularity, the KOREAN EYE succeeded in its second exhibition, "KOREAN EYE: Fantastic Ordinary" Saatchi Gallery, London, 3 ~ 25. Jul 2010; The Art House, Singapore, 12 ~ 21. Sep; Seoul Museum of Art Gyeonghuigung, 2 ~ 14. Nov; Korean Foundation, Seoul, 16 ~ 30. Nov). Under the planning by Saatchi Gallery's Formal Partner- ship and the International Board of Curators composed of 6 members, the KOREAN EYE's second exhibition became more systematic, successful event, attracting from many ones. As the result, the Standard Chartered, this project's major sponsor, increased its original grant size by 10 times. Such a success eventually reached to a surprising announcement that there will be held some Korean, contemporary art works to be directly selected and planned by Saatchi Gallery in the period of London Olympics.

To Promote Korean Artists
Compared to contemporary art of Japan and China, Korean contemporary art is less famous to the international world. Then what background is behind the KOREAN EYE Project's successful start in the Saatchi Gallery, the heart of London major art world? The founder of KOREAN EYE is David Ciclitira, the Chairman of Parallel Media Group. When he stayed Korean for his business, he started to take some interest in Korean contemporary artists' work world. He and his wife, Serenela Ciclitira are the honorary fellows in Britain Royal College of Arts, and found the Parallel Prize, the Serenella Cliclitira Scholarship for Sculpture. As he     naturally met Korean art works, and began to have an innocent motive to promote Korean contemporary art through the ways of publishment and exhibition. His motive was the origin of this project. He says "I feel worthwhile and happy in promoting Korean art, which is not well-known globally, to the world."
Lee DaeHyung, the HZone's Director took the curator role for this project from the KOREAN EYE's first exhibition. Suffering from difficulties in preparing the first exhibition under the     economic great recession in 2008, but he succeeded the KOREAN EYE's first exhibition in 2009 with Phillips de Pury, a global auction company. Thanks that the first exhibition     created great sensation, KOREAN EYE project gained the Saatchi Gallery's tremendous interest and its stable sponsors, reaching to current KOREAN EYE condition. Lee DaeHyung said, "Once Asian art sale was boomed in American and European art markets. But even at that time Korean art was relatively out of world's interest. Seeing such situation, all curators activating internationally might have had the hope to     promote our, Korean art even if they would directly have worked hard in the field."
He continued, "Companies had potentials to change their images into new ones, but didn't know what they should find. They started to search for the thing which people didn't know, and came to reach that the thing might be Korean art. And their thought matched this project. The KOREAN EYE is significantly meaningful as a new project combining inter- national capital like never before."

Pick up Fantasies from the Ordinary
"KOREAN EYE: Fantastic Ordinary"is planned by International Board of Cutrators. The board is composed of various-natioanlity members: Tsong-Zung Chang, the director of Hanart Gallery, Serenella Ciclitira, the honorary fellow of RCA, Aemlie von Wedel, an art consultant and curator, Rodman Primack, the director of Phillips de Pury & Company, Lee Ji-Yoon, a curator and art historian, and Lee DaeHyung, the curator of 2009 KOREAN EYE exhibition.
The exhibition is composed of the works of 10 artists(Bae Chan Hyo, Bae Joon Sung, Gwon Osang, Jeon Joon Ho, Ji Yong Ho, Kim Dong Yoo, Kim Hyun Soo, Park Eun Young, Hong Young In, and Shin Meekyung) directly selected by the 6 board members and Lee Rim's works supported by Perrier Jouet Co., and Jeon Chae Gang's works, the winner in Joongang Arts Prize. The exhibition reflects the 6 curators' different, various perspectives.
The exhibition title, 'Fantastic Ordinary' focuses on some impressive images which the selected artists picked up fantasies from common, ordinaries, so most works shows fantastic images transformed from ordinary lives. Jeon Joon Ho having reproduced social realities making our ordinaries through the images of money and mass media, shows the video work containing money images to express the border between the reality and non-reality in this exhibition. Shin Meekyung suggested the work of semi-transparent soap pieces shaping oriental and western ancient bottles. By reproducing cultural icons with soap, a common material, the work inspires audient's unique imagination. The works like Gown Osang's Photo Print     composed of hundreds of photos, Ji Young Ho's Shark using tires, and Kim Hyun Soo's ultra-real sculpture work reminding a fairy world in childhood go between the fantasy and the reality, presenting some fantasies to the audience's ordinary. Showing different, two images depending on angles, Bae Joon Sung's work is used with lenticular prints. Bae's work humorously contains both realities of a     common scene and a fantastic scene. Kim Dong Yoo's work seems to be a large cultural icon image, but if closely looking it, we can find the repetition of tremendous details. Kim's work allows the audience experience a new perception. Filling the canvas with the character of 'Hoggbit' created through the collision between social and cultural values, Park Eun Young's work shows a fantastic world. Bae Chan Hyo's work expresses the problems of oriental and western cultural differences and prejudices with oriental and western ancient costumes and make-ups. Hong Young In's work combines various citizens's symbols and memorials, creating a new, fantastic picture.
With this exhibition, the art book "Korean EYE: Contemporary Korean Art" was also published, gaining much popularity. This book also covers 75 Korean leading and new artists including the artists participating in the exhibition in 500 pages. The book was produced by art publisher SKIRA, and Thames and Hudson took the distribution responsibility for the book.