Award Ceremony at the 19th Gongye Trend Fair at COEX on the 12th
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Craft & Design Foundation announced on the 9th that the winners of the '2024 Craft of the Year Award' are craft artist Jang Yeon-sun, Design House, and curator Lim Mi-seon.
'Craftsman of the Year' Award Winner: Jang Yeon-sun, Craftsman in the Creative Category (left), Im Mi-seon, Planner in the Theory Category [Photo provided by Korea Craft & Design Foundation]
The 'Craft of the Year Award' was established in 2018 and is now in its 7th year. It is awarded to individuals and organizations that have contributed to the development of Korean crafts. This year, a new 'theory category' covering exhibition planning, criticism, and research was introduced.
The Foundation evaluated craft artist Jang Yeon-sun, selected as the winner in the creation category this year, stating, "She has reinterpreted traditional Korean indigo dyeing and gold leaf techniques into modern textile sculptures, forming a unique artistic world." They added, "The artist’s reflections expressed repeatedly in works that traverse the temporality of past and present and the spatiality between inside and outside subtly reveal Korean sensibility and aesthetic form."
Design House has introduced craft artists, works, and diverse content through the first craft-specialized monthly magazine 'Gongye' (March 1988?February 1995), as well as the monthly 'Design', lifestyle magazine 'Happy House Full of Happiness', and luxury and branding magazine 'Luxury'.
Additionally, since 2016, they have presented events that fuse craft, art, and design such as 'Happy Workshop' and 'Craft Seoul', receiving high praise for their creative planning and management that contributed to the popularization of craft culture.
Theory category winner curator Lim Mi-seon served as artistic director of the '2024 12th Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale' and the '2021 Cheongju Craft Biennale', and has worked for many years as a craft exhibition planner and researcher. She has also served as an advisor and juror for numerous international craft exhibitions and competitions.
She is recognized for broadening the discourse on craft through translations of 'Thinking with Craft' and 'Handmade Marketplace', contributing to enhancing craft artists’ business skills, and playing a pivotal role in elevating the international status of Korean craft and presenting future visions and directions for craft.
Winners in the creation and mediation categories receive commendations from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, while the theory category winner receives a commendation from the President of the Korea Craft & Design Foundation. Winners are awarded prize money (15 million KRW for the creation category, 5 million KRW each for the mediation and theory categories), certificates from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and trophies.
The awards ceremony and the creation category exhibition will be held at the '2024 19th Craft Trend Fair' at COEX, Seoul, from the 12th to the 15th.
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