Asia Society Museum Presents First Major NYC Exhibition on Nam June Paik Since His Death in 2006
Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot on view in New York September 5, 2014 through January 4, 2015
Asia Society Museum presents the first major institutional exhibition of Korean American video artist Nam June Paik in New York in more than a decade. Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot explores the artist’s visionary use of new technologies, and the lasting impact his singular contributions have had on the development and appreciation of new media art.
The exhibition highlights Paik’s lifelong interest in humanizing technology and his prescient view of how technological innovations would become an integral aspect of our daily lives. Known as the “father of video art,” Paik envisioned the possibilities of an Internet-like network and coined the term “electronic superhighway” in 1974.
The exhibition includes a number of rarely shown works as well as some works never before exhibited in the United States. In addition, drawings and sculptures from his estate, as well as objects and ephemera on loan from the newly formed Nam June Paik Archive housed within the Smithsonian American Art Museum are on first time view.
Becoming Robot focuses on three areas of the artist’s career: Paik’s artistic and working methods with an emphasis on his process; his philosophy toward technology, especially the relationship of technology with the body; and the intersection of technology and culture. Works on view illustrate Paik’s efforts to redefine fine art and to blur earlier distinctions between science and popular culture by creating art with mediums previously associated with mass entertainment and scientific discovery.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue edited by Melissa Chiu and Michelle Yun, which includes newly commissioned texts by Kenzo Digital, John Godfrey, Christian Jankowski, Jon Kessler, John Maeda, Bill Viola, and Yoko Ono, in addition to never-before-published writings from the recently established Nam June Paik Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition is organized by Asia Society Museum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michelle Yun.
Exhibition Support
Major support for Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot comes from the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Additional support is provided by Korea Foundation, The Julis Family Contemporary Art Initiative, Ken Hakuta, Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer, and W.L.S. Spencer Foundation.
Support for Asia Society Museum is provided by Asia Society Contemporary Art Council, Asia Society Friends of Asian Arts, Arthur Ross Foundation, Sheryl and Charles R. Kaye Endowment for Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Hazen Polsky Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
About Asia Society Museum and Contemporary Asian Art
In the early 1990s, the Asia Society Museum was one of the first U.S. museums to establish an ongoing program of contemporary Asian art exhibitions. In addition, Asia Society Museum was the first U.S. museum to organize solo shows of now widely recognized artists Montien Boonma, Cai Guo-Qiang, Dinh Q. Lê, Yuken Teruya, Lin Tianmiao, and Zhang Huan.
Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution headquartered in New York with state-of-the-art cultural centers and gallery spaces in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Washington, DC.
Asia Society Museum is located at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City. The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. and from September through June, on Friday from 11:00 A.M. – 9:00 P.M. Closed on Mondays and major holidays. General admission is $12, seniors $10, students $7, and admission is free for members and persons under 16. Free admission Friday evenings, 6:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M. The Museum is closed Fridays after 6:00 P.M. in July and August. AsiaSociety.org/museum