Nam June Paik in Manila

Opening
October 22, 2018

León Gallery International
G/F Corinthian Plaza, 121 Paseo de Roxas, Legaspi Village, Makati City

Catch the first Southeast Asian exhibition of works by the Korean-American ‘father of video art’ at León Gallery International in collaboration with Gagosian Gallery, which has represented the Nam June Paik estate since 2015.

Nam June Paik (1932 – 2006) was a visionary artist who foresaw the influence of the television screen and the internet not only on art but on the world at large. He was a classical musician who trained in Germany, eventually settled in New York City, but was first and foremost, a citizen of the world. Paik was an important member of the international avant-garde. He quickly and presciently grasped that advances in consumer technology were not fleeting oddities but would have a lasting impact on culture, sex and politics. He came up with the term “electronic superhighway” to express the many facets of multimedia artforms and communications and would give the word “installations” to his works.

“Nam June Paik in Manila” will feature 25 pieces from 1983 to 2005, including several iconic objects that blur the lines between art and technology, the past and the future, philoso- phy, fame, and commercialism. There is “One Candle” with an analog-live candle ensconced in a tv casing and which will go on tour in 5 world museums as part of a major retrospective organized by Tate Modern and SF MOMA; “TV Buddha” has the Gautama contemplating his own image captured on closed-circuit tv.