New York 1993 – Seoul 2023: ‘Oh, Shyness’ Exhibition Reunited 30 Years Later
New York and Seoul, and 30 years. What about the exhibition that runs across time and space? An exhibition is currently being held in Seoul to explore this. It started in 1993. From September to November of that year, interesting exhibitions were held at three galleries in New York. One of the important points is that the wrong spaces, not the existing exhibition spaces, were used to show the artwork. The spaces were the downstairs of Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, the back room of Thread Waxing Space Gallery, and the stack room of Sandra Gering Gallery. The exhibition was called ‘Oh, Shyness.’ Four artists who worked in New York at the time (Eran Schaerf, Siobhan Liddell, Luca Buvoli, and Beom Kim) defined keeping a careful distance from the world as ‘Shyness.’ And accordingly, these spaces were selected as exhibition areas.The exhibition was recently transformed 30 years later in Seoul. Artists who gathered again after about 30 years went on display under the same exhibition title at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. In particular, the show utilizes the idle space inside and outside the Buk Seoul Museum of Art by invoking the spirit of the 1993 ‘Oh, Shyness’ exhibition. The current show has a total of 25 works meeting visitors at the underground parking lot, the outdoor terrace attached to the second floor, and the first and second floors of the art museum. Organizers are making exhibition maps in Korean and English to help ease viewing.Of course, the preparation process for the exhibition was not easy. This is because the artists were physically separated from each other. Artist Beom Kim frequently visited the museum and filmed throughout the museum. Other overseas artists checked the video and selected works suitable for the exhibition planning and space. They then visited Korea to install their