Upcoming exhibition celebrates South Korea’s cultural blossoming

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) will present the U.S. premiere of “Hallyu! The Korean Wave,” a celebration of South Korea’s emergence as a source of distinctive arts and entertainment.

“Hallyu! The Korean Wave” features more than 200 objects – costumes, props, photographs, videos, pop culture ephemera and contemporary works highlight South Korea’s transformative contributions to cinema, drama, music, fashion, beauty and technology. Among the exhibition highlights are outfits worn by different generations of K-pop idols, dresses by couture designer Park Sohee and Next in Fashion winner Minju Kim, a large-scale needlework designed by South Korean artist Kyungah Ham and made by anonymous embroiderers from North Korea, and pieces exploring the Korean American experience by Timothy Hyunsoo Lee and Julia Kwon.

Additionally, the exhibition showcases objects from the MFA’s own renowned collection of Korean art, from examples of the iconic moon jar and hanbok to an elaborately decorated gilt bronze case for sutras, the sacred Buddhist texts.

“Hallyu! The Korean Wave” is created by London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and is touring the world. The MFA will host the exhibition from March 24-July 28 in its Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.

More information on the exhibition is available on the museum’s website.

Photo: “Squid Game” © 2021 Netflix, reprint courtesy Museum of Fine Arts