Com-Art Group
'92 International Empathy Art Festival, Catalog, 1992, MMCA Digital Library

Com-Art Group

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Com-Art Group was an art group formed in January, 1990 in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, by Lee Kyung-geun, Kim Kyung-han, Kim Sukwhan, Hong Oh-bong, Hwang Min-soo, Heo Jong-soo, and Choi Byungki. The group’s goal was to “restore the true function of art through public communication of national sentiment.” From the mid-1980s, Kim Sukwhan, Lee Kyung-geun, Hwang Min-soo, and Hong Oh-bong, who have been associated with experimental artist Kim Sung-bae (who taught art in Suwon), formed the Com-Art Group after the installation and performance-oriented relay exhibition Five Rooms at Sun Gallery, Suwon. The title “Com-Art” meant a combination of communication and art that showed that artists aimed to communicate with the public. In addition to showcasing the Empathy Art Festival several times from 1993 to 1996, the Com-Art Group expanded its activities beyond South Korea and into Asia by hosting international performance exhibitions in Suwon, Beijing, Osaka, and Tokyo, such as the '92 International show of Com-Art, and Fostering of Beijing-Korea Contemporary Art: From Janganmun to Tiananmen. In 1991 and 1993, the group participated in the DMZ Work Exhibition. In 1996, their last site work that utilized the building of Seogwang School was dismantled.
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service