Tracing the vibrant history and far-reaching cultural resonance of feminist art from Korea and its diaspora, this groundbreaking book by renowned curator and scholar Dr. Kim Hong-hee offers the first in-depth examination of the impact Korean feminist artists have had on the East Asian cultural landscape.

This unprecedented visual survey celebrates the work of 42 contemporary artists, from rising stars to globally recognized names, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kyungah Ham, Kimsooja, Lee Bul, Mire Lee, Minouk Lim, Haegue Yang, and Yun Suknam. Organized by themes including queer politics, ecofeminism, the diaspora, and abstraction, Korean Feminist Artists features artworks across painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, handicrafts, and performance. Through rich imagery and insightful writing, the book explores the quest of these pioneering artists for social, cultural, and sexual equality, from their confrontations with the mainstream art establishment to the significance of their aesthetic and political interventions. Richly illustrated with nearly 260 beautifully reproduced images and closing with a personal and thought-provoking essay from influential South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon, this vital and timely survey reveals the impact of women artists on Korean culture at large.

Structurally, Dr. Kim Hong-hee adopts a quasi-mapping approach, identifying fifteen key themes confronting contemporary feminism and organizing the book around fifteen corresponding chapters. She then situates the 42 artists within these thematic frameworks while intentionally fostering dialogues across generations. Established and emerging artists are often brought together, or grouped in small clusters of two or three practitioners of a similar generation who share common concerns, creating a form of intergenerational “teamwork” that extends beyond individual artistic practices.

The following themes and artists form the fifteen-chapter framework through which the book is organized: Femininity and Sexuality (Yun Suknam, Jang Pa), Body Art (Lee Bul, Fi Jae Lee, Mire Lee), Madness, Eros, Hysteria (Park Youngsook, Lee Soon Jong, Lee Eunsae), Queer Politics (siren eun young jung, Black Jaguar, Nahee Kim), Narratives of Female Resistance (Minouk Lim, Sanghee Song, Yang Ah Ham, Ayoung Kim), Ecofeminism (Hyunsook Hong Lee, Eunji Cho, Young In Hong), Portraits of Emotional Labourers (Joo Hwang, Shin Min, Critical Hit), Nomadism (Kimsooja, Kyungah Ham), North American Diaspora Artists (Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Yong Soon Min, Jin-me Yoon), The Feminine Realm in Abstraction (Juhae Yang, Hong Seung-hye, Meena Park), Allegorical Figuration (Myong Hi Kim, Wonsook Kim, Youngjoo Cho), Medium and Style of Translation (Yeesookyung, Meekyoung Shin, Sekyung Lee), Aesthetics of Discomfort (Chung Seoyoung, Sora Kim, Haegue Yang), Handicraft and Folk Art (Youngsoon Lee, Chang Eungbok), and Feminist Collectives (Ipgim, Jung Jungyeob, No New Work, Bomroya).

Dr Kim Hong-hee is an art historian, curator and critic based in Seoul, who specializes in video art and feminist art. Currently chairperson of the board of the Nam June Paik Cultural Foundation, she served as the Director of the Seoul Museum of Art (2012–16); the Director of the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea (2006–10); and the Director of Ssamzie Space, Seoul, the first alternative space in Korea (1998–2008). She was Artistic Director of the 6th Gwangju Biennale in 2006; Commissioner of the South Korean Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003; Commissioner of the 3rd Gwangju Biennale in 2000; and Curator of InfoART at the 1st Gwangju Biennale in 1995.

In 2013, she was a member of the Finding Committee of Documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, and co-curator of the Guangzhou Triennial, China in 2016. Kim Hong-hee received her PhD with a dissertation on feminist video art from the Art History department at Hongik University, Seoul in 1998, and a master’s degree from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada with a thesis on Nam June Paik’s video art in 1989.

She has published numerous books, including Curators Live Off Artists (2014); The True Colors of Curator (2012); Good Morning Mr. Paik (2007); Women and Art, Contemporary Art Discourse and the Field (2003); and Feminism. Video. Art (1998).