Co-recipients: NAM Woong, MOON Jung-hyun

NAM Woong 
Graduating from Hongik University with a major in art studies, NAM Woong received a master’s degree in aesthetics with critical research on the representation of gender and sexuality based on Judith Butler’s performativity theory.
NAM Woong won the art criticism division of the 4th Platform Culture Criticism Awards in 2011 with “Discussion of the representation of a homosexual with AIDS - From the AIDS crisis to today’s Korean society.” He also co-authored Infectious Disease and Humanities, Meta-universe - The generation, region, space, and media of Korean art in 2000s, Issue point of Korea 2017. Currently, he is a co-chair of the steering committee at the Society for LGBT Human Rights of Korea.

MOON Jung-hyun
MOON Jung-hyun studied visual design and art criticism at Hongik University, and culture, contents and communication at Konkuk University. He received a master's degree on the theme of public art and wrote a thesis titled “A Study on the Post-colonial Aspects of the Subjects Represented in Dragon Ball.” He has been a journalist at Kyunghyang Article magazine and an appointed researcher at Korea Culture & Tourism Institute. MOON was one of the three finalists of New Vision 2014 sponsored by the magazine Art in Culture and organized an exhibition that presented the hand-written poster “How are you, really?” as a social sculpture at Seoul Art Space Seogyo. Along with the reviews on contemporary art exhibitions, he is working on a Ph.D. thesis exploring a visual analysis of Japanese manga. MOON pursues writing about visual culture with the premise that aesthetics is the foundation for every cultural study.

NAM Woong

“Here’s Rhodes, let’s see your jump! Beyond cross-referential self-deprecation - Review of <Seoul Babel> (Jan 19 - April 5, 2016)”

“Art collective today - While we see the present with the eyes of the past, we are still connected as long as there is light for a while.”

MOON Jung-hyun

“Melancholy of Seoul: Community that works by not working”

“Analysis of Sulki & Min’s Ephemera Image: This is not a Pipe Poster”

In his article “Art collective today - While we see the present with the eyes of the past, we are still connected as long as there is light for a while.”, NAM Woong demonstrated the catastrophe of a deadly protest condemning the apathy of the state and loose morality by groups of isolated youth, who have been displaced due to the urban development that has taken place since the 1990s.

An on-the-ground report on the collective identity of young artists living in so-called impoverished times with the motive to subvert individual identity and prioritize collective identity, NAM’s article was honored and acclaimed for the way it plainly captured the genetic status of a new form of art with his unique, extraordinary literary expressions.

In order to raise post-medium discourse, in “Analysis of Sulki & Min’s Ephemera Image: This is not a Pipe Poster,” MOON Jung-hyun employed parody, a rhetorical appropriation that utilizes existing facts to discuss what is beyond. In this process, he successfully performed critical appropriation by pursuing accuracy and integrity of basic data, and he was honored with acclamation that his great style of writing and original keywords demonstrated the true face of the new generation in criticism.

Articles Subject for Evaluation
Article on designated theme: Criticism on SeMA exhibitions from 2016 to 2017 / up to 30 pages (using manuscript paper)
Articles on freely chosen themes: studies on artists, criticism on exhibitions, criticism on themes / up to 70 pages (using manuscript paper)      

Procedure of Evaluation
Preliminary Screening: Individual judges evaluate the submitted articles and assign a grade of A, B, C, or F
Secondary Screening: A panel of judges discusses and evaluates the submitted articles and selects 6 finalists
Tertiary Screening: A panel of judges holds individual interviews and selects the winner
*A blind evaluation method is employed during the screening sessions

KIM Bok Young, Former Professor at Hongik University
PARK Young Taek, Professor at Kyonggi University
SHIM Sang-young, Professor at Dongduk Women’s University
LEE Young Wook, Professor at Jeonju University
CHUN Young-Paik, Professor at Hongik University