Koo Bohnchang
Lives and works in Seoul, Korea
2010-18Professor, Kyungil University of Photography & Video, Daegu, Korea
2000-15 Chairman, Geonhi Art Foundation, Bundang, Korea
2008 Art Director, Daegu Photo Biennale 2008, Daegu, Korea
2004 Guest Professor, Pentiment, Hamburg Summer School, Hamburg, Germany
1999-01 Professor, Kaywon College of Art and Design, Anyang, Korea
1999 Visiting Professor, Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, London, UK
1997 International Fellowship, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, London, UK
1992 Guest Professor, Pentiment, Hamburg Summer School, Hamburg, Germany
1986-98 Lecturer, Chung-Ang University and Seoul Institute of the Arts Seoul, Korea
1980-85 Diploma Fotodesign, Fachhochschule, Hamburg, Germany
1971-75 Bachelor of Business Administration, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
AWARDS
2014Dong Gang Photography Award, Korea
2003Gangwon Documentary Prize, Korea
2000Lee Myoungdong Prize, Korea
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 ‘The Allure of Blue’, Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain
2018 ‘Koo Bohnchang’, Kukje gallery, Busan, Korea
‘Koo Bohnchang Early Works 1970-1990 my beginnings’, Gallery Bundo, Daegu, Korea
‘Koo Bohnchang’, Changseong-dong laboratory, Seoul, Korea
2018 ‘Aqua’, Acquario Civico Milano, Milano, Italy
2018 ‘Mask’, Gallery 343, Seoul, Korea
2016 ‘花’, Shinsegae Gallery Incheon, Incheon, Korea
2016 ‘花’, Shinsegae Gallery Gwangju, Gwangju, Korea
‘Vies silencieuses’, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France
2016 ‘White Vessels’, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2015 ‘Porcelain Time’, Yido Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2016 2016 2 ‘Koo Bohnchang’, Nanohana Gallery, Hakone, Japan
2014 ‘White on White’, Villa Flor, S-chanf, Switcheland
2016 2016 2 ‘Open End’, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milano, Italy
2016 2016 2 ‘Dong Gang Photography Award Exhibition <KOO Bohnchang>', Dong Gang
2016 2016 2 Museum of Photography, Yeongwol, Korea
2016 2016 2 ‘Koo Bohnchang Archives: 18 Exhibitions’, National Museum of Modern and
2016 2016 2 Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2016 2016 ‘An Encounter with the Still Life Works of Koo Bohnchang and Jung Hai-chang’,
Trunk Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2013 ‘Slow Talk’, Madrid, Spain
‘Interpretation of Surface’, Bundo Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2016 2016 2 ‘The Interpretation of Landscape', J - Hee Gallery, Gwangju, Korea
2016 2016 2 ‘Happy Memories', Ryugaheon gallery, Seoul, Korea
2011 ‘Bohnchang Koo’, Kukje gallery, Seoul, Kore
‘The Baptist’, Nuda gallery, Daejeon, Korea
‘Snow, Jeju Island’, Trunk gallery, Seoul, Korea
2010 ‘Plain Beauty: Korean White Porcelain/Photographs by Bohnchang Koo’, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
‘Masks’, Stone Art Museum, Duson Art Museum, Jeju, Korea
2009‘Vessel · Soap · Interiors’, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France,
‘Purity’, Galerie Raum mit Licht, Vienna, Austria
‘Pencil of Nature’, Gallery Bow, Ulsan, Korea
2008‘In the Beginning’, Trunk Gallery, Seoul, Korea
‘Coolness and Passion’, MBC Gallery M, Daegu, Korea
2007‘Bohnchang Koo’, Goeun Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
Galerie 206, Berlin, Germany
‘Soap’, Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2006Hasted Hunt Gallery, New York, USA
‘Vessel’, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
‘Koo Bohnchang’, Kahitsukan, Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoto, Japan
2005 ‘Portraits of Time’, White Room Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
‘La beaute endormie’, Langon, France
‘Stilled’, Gallery 339, Philadelphia, USA
2004‘Masks’, ‘White’, Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, France
2003 ‘Bohnchang Koo: Recent work’, Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, USA
‘Masks’, Museum of Photography, Seoul, Korea
‘White’, ‘In the Beginning’, Picture Photo Space, Osaka, Japan
2002 ‘Fragile Tremors’, San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, USA
‘Masterworks of Contemporary Korean Photography’, Peabody Essex Museum,
Salem, Massachusetts, USA
‘In the Beginning’, Shadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2001 Base Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Prinz Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
Samsung Rodin Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2000‘ White Series’, Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, USA
‘Good-Bye Paradise’, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark
1999‘Flow’, Gallery Won, Seoul, Korea
1995‘In the Beginning’, Gallery Ississ, Kyoto, Japan
‘Breath’, Seomi Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1993‘Good-Bye Paradise’, Seomi Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1990‘The Sea of Thought’, Seomi Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1988‘Veiled Pursuit in the Long Afternoon’, Gallery Busan, Busan, Korea
1987‘One Minute Monologue’, Gallery Wide, Tokyo
Photo Interform, Osaka, Japan
1985‘Twelve Deep Sighs’, Hanmadang Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1984Fotogenes, Hamburg, Germany
1983Pine Hill Gallery, Seoul, Korea
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 ‘Water, Embracing Life’, Gallery Hyeyum, Gwangju, Korea
2018 ‘The Portrait With(out) Artists’, Nam Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2018 ‘Blooming at the Junction’, Korean Cultural Center Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2017 ‘Uri Korea – Ruhe in Beschleunigung’, Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Germany
2017 2017 ‘室礼展 -Offerings-III’ Terminal Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2017 ‘Time, Visibilizing the invisible’, Centro Cultural PUCP, Lima, Peru
2016 ‘Ordinary’, Korean Cultural Centre Gallery’, Sydney, Austraila
‘DNA of Coreanity’, Milad Tower, Tehran, Iran
‘Getxophoto 2016’, Gexto, Spain
‘Unconscious Aesthetics, Breathing Heritage: Contemporary Korean Ceramics’, 2016
The Fondation Bernardaud, Limoges, France
‘Public to Private: Photography in Korean Art since 1989’, The National Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
‘Chefs-d'œuvre de la céramique coréenne’, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2016 ‘室礼~Offerings~Ⅱ’, Terminal Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2015‘Le Parfum dans tous les sens’, Jardins du Palais Royal, Paris, France
‘Simple Forms: Contemplating Beauty’, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
‘OBIECTA’, Giacomo Guidi, Rome, Italy
2014 ‘The Other & Me’, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE
‘Dual Natures in Ceramics’, SFO Museum, San Francisco, USA
2012 ‘FOLD lll: USELESS / Upcycling in Art + Design’, Art+Shanghai Gallery, Shanghai, China
2011 ‘Korean Spirit; Six Photographers’, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, Goyang, Korea
‘Books & Objects’, Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul, Korea
‘紙花’, Kokdu museum, Seoul, Korea
2010 ‘Korean Contemporary Art – Plastic Garden’, Mingsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
‘Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography’, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, USA
Biennale Internationale de l’Image a Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Laos
2009 ‘Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography’,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
‘Met First, Yet Familiar, Korean Contemporary Photograph’, 798 Space, Beijing, China
2008 ‘Contemporary Korean Photographs 1948-2008’, National Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
‘Inspired Simplicity: Contemporary Art from Korea’, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
2007 ‘Chuseok - Korean Harvest Festival’, British Museum, London, UK
‘Void in Korean Art’, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2004 ‘Water’, FotoFest Biennial 2004, Houston, USA
2003 ‘Facing Korea’, Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
‘East of Eden’, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK
2002 ‘Two Korean Photographers’, Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
‘Floating’, Art Center Silkeborg Bad, Denmark
‘Everyman: A Search for the Male Form’, Camera Work, San Francisco, USA
2001 ‘Awakening’, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia
2000 ‘Standing on the Threshold of Time’, Odense Foto Triennale, Odense, Denmark
‘Contemporary Korean Photographers’, FotoFest 2000, Houston, USA
1999 ‘Phenomena’, Friends of Photography, Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, USA
‘Fragments of Document and Memory’, 3rd Tokyo International Photo-Biennale, Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
1998 ‘Landscape and Man’, Ostasiatiska Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
‘Alienation and Assimilation’, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, USA
1996 A.O.I. Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1995 Gwangju Biennial 1995, Gwangju, Korea
Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea
‘Body or Gender’, Gallery Nun, Seoul, Korea
1994 Pima Community College Art Gallery, Tucson, Arizona, USA
1993 Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
1990 Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, USA
1988 ‘The New Wave of Photography’, Walkerhill Art Center, Seoul, Korea
1987‘Lying Down as if Being Dead with Half-closed Eyes’, Hanmadang Gallery, Seoul, Korea
COLLECTIONS
The British Museum, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Asian Art Museum, S.F.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle
Philadelphia Museum of Art
National Folk Museum of Korea, Seoul
Denver Art Museum
Museum of Art and Craft, Hamburg
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Musée Guimet, Paris
Fondation Herzog, Basel
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
State Library Victoria, Australia
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, Iceland
Kahitsukan, Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoto
Shadai Gallery, Tokyo
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Municipal Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea
The Museum of Photography, Seoul
The Amore Museum, Seoul
Busan Museum of Art, Busan
Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeju, Korea
Goeun Museum of Photography, Busan