Hyundai Card, MoMA partner to support young artists, curators

South Korea’s leading credit card company Hyundai Card Co. said on Tuesday it is collaborating with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York to discover and support young talented Korean artists and curators to enhance their global presence.

Under their strengthened partnership, Hyundai Card and MoMA will run the Curator Exchange Program, a joint internship program.

Under the program, MoMA curators will stay in Korea to find promising young artists and study Korea’s contemporary arts.

Hyundai Card and MoMA will also select Korean curators and send them to New York so that they can participate in exhibition planning by MoMA and study the museum’s art collection.

This year, MoMA curators in six categories – Architecture & Design, Drawing & Prints, Film, Media & Performance, Painting & Sculpture and Photography – will come to Korea, according to Hyundai Card.

“We will support young Korean artists who have difficulty making their names known in the global arena although they possess high artistry and work quality. Through this program, we expect them to expand their global network,” said a Hyundai Card official.

‘HYUNDAI CARD FIRST LOOK’

As part of the partnership, Hyundai and MoMA plan to launch “Hyundai Card First Look,” an exhibition that will curate and present various works in MoMA’s collection, starting in June.

The exhibition will be held at MoMA in New York and at Hyundai Card Storage, the Korean card company’s exhibition hall in Itaewon, central Seoul. The program will also be available on MoMA’s website and Hyundai Card’s culture app DIVE.

Korean curators picked under the curatorial exchange program will participate in the planning of the exhibition, Hyundai said.

The first such exhibition to be held in June will showcase works by Lee Seung Jio, a pioneer of Korean geometric abstract art and a co-founder of the Origin Group, Korea’s avant-garde group of artists in the 1960s, and US performance artist Martine Gutierrez.

Hyundai Card said it will also work with MoMA to produce the Korean edition of MoMA’s modern and contemporary art research book series “Primary Documents.”

The card company said it will support MoMA’s research on Korea’s modern and contemporary art as well as the publishing of related books.

PARTNERSHIP FOR TWO DECADES

Hyundai Card has worked with MoMA, a cradle of modern and contemporary art in midtown Manhattan, New York City, for over 20 years.

In 2006, Hyundai Card opened the online MoMA Design Store Korea, introducing diverse stylish MoMA Design Store products to the country.

Hyundai Card has also been the exclusive sponsor of many of MoMA’s landmark exhibitions, dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design.

The collaboration with MoMA has been active not only in New York but also in Seoul. One such case is “Hyundai Card Culture Project 09: Tim Burton” in 2012, which offered locals an opportunity to appreciate MoMA’s masterpieces in Seoul.

"Hyundai Card has been an indispensable partner of MoMA for the past 20 years. We are grateful for Hyundai Card's long-term support,” said MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry.

Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young, also known as Ted Chung in the West, said: “We have been striving to contribute to the art industry based on the trust and partnership we have built over a long period with MoMA. We’ll continue to do so.”

Hyundai Card’s major shareholders include Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp. and Hyundai Commercial Inc., the financing unit of Hyundai Motor Group.

Write to Hyung-gyo Seo at seogyo@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.