The Sehwa Museum of Art established by the Taekwang Group presents Artist Survival from February 19 to May 31, 2020, under the aim of supporting rising artists.

Plans for the exhibition started from a simple question of principle: how does the artist or art operate? Among the varied contemporary art discourse on this topic, the exhibition focuses on the theme of physical labor. Without the artist’s labor, there can be no production of value, whether material or immaterial. If one posits that the artist is one who labors to create something, what kind of meaning is generated by the cause and result of such labor? The exhibition does not seek to provide definitive answers to this question. The curators simply contemplated how and whence an formal art museum can approach this issue, adopting a basic framework consisting of the artist’s labor and creative work. The basic premise of this exhibition lies in the message, “Artists also work.” The fact that an artist’s creative activities constitute work remains self-evident, yet the value of that work is often overlooked. All too often, we are consumed by the value of work that produces goods; we establish a hierarchy of labor and relegate to the bottom rungs any artistic labor that creates immaterial value.

The exhibition Artist Survival introduces works by twelve teams of young artists who nonetheless chose this life. The artists address principles of art and labor directly, offer parodies of the social prejudice they face as rising artists, portray their artistic musings, and present works revealing their ruminations over what artists should see, hear, leave, or propose to society. Their artwork does not terminate within the museum’s confines since, in many ways, they resonate with the concerns of countless people hard-pressed to carry on their lives in society. Hopefully, viewers will refrain from preconceived notions that “young artists should be like this or that,” seeking out the exhibition hall instead to freely encounter thoughts let loose by these artists, to create stories, and to embark on their own interpretations. To make this possible, these artists shunned stable careers in favor of lives full of ups and downs; it is why art must exist to create slow values in our fiercely intense contemporary society.