About Art Exhibition for Korean Students in Japan
The Art Exhibition for Korean Students in Japan (GAKUBI) is held annually with its aim to provide an opportunity for 3rd and 4th generation of Korean children who go to Korean school to display their artworks.
Although the historic 2019 Korea – United States DMZ Summit has prompted our Korean schools to work toward the bright future of Korea’s reunification, the situation around the Korean peninsula has still put Korean students under hard circumstances.
However, with the warm support of many Japanese as well as Korean people, we have been able to organize the art exhibition every year since 1972.
Art education in Korean schools aims to help students not only develop art skills necessary for creative expression but also foster a sense of identity and confidence in themselves. Therefore, we place a higher value on works vividly expressed as “imaginative realism” that is, artworks that, even if they are beyond the frame, depict freely what students are feeling or what they want to convey than those “well” drawn with art skills.
In this way, we hold that students’ candid expressions based on the realism in their daily lives create their authentic artworks.
The student works displayed in the exhibition, ranging from paintings filled with bright color and humor by elementary and junior high school students in art classes to artworks which reflect their ideas with deep insight by high school students in the club activities, will tell directly to viewers through their pure sensitivity.
GAKUBI presents a variety of expressions: paintings, handcrafts, sculptures, paper or woods, three-dimensional works, installation, videos, animation, and photographs. We also offer another attraction for visitors to see each phase of students’ personal development by displaying all works by students of different ages in one place.
Our Art Exhibition held 11 locations across Japan have received a great response from visitors. Even in Tottori and Shimane prefectures, where no Korean schools are located, Japanese schoolteachers and members of GAKUBI San’in Executive Committee have helped us organize successfully the Exhibition for 12 consecutive years.
We sincerely hope that more people will enjoy and experience Korean student artworks full of creativity and imagination.
