Winter has passed, but the snow has not entirely disappeared. Residual snow, having repeatedly melted and frozen, lingers between snow and ice, holding onto dust and stains while retaining its form. The artist views this process not as one of disappearance but as a "time of persistence and remainder"—of things that endure even after vanishing. The work takes two forms: dissolving photographs of snow with chemicals, and painting residual snow onto blank photographic paper. If one makes an image disappear, the other holds onto a disappearing subject.
This is "Residual Snow" by Lee Hae-min-sun, selected as a nominee for the Korea Artist Prize by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA). On the 23rd, the MMCA selected four artists—Lee Hae-min-sun, Lee Jung-woo, Jeon Hyun-sun, and Hong Jin-hwon (in Korean alphabetical order)—as nominees for the "Korea Artist Prize 2026" and unveiled their major works at MMCA Seoul. The program supports contemporary art, selecting four artists (or teams) each year to fund new work, exhibitions, and overseas projects.
The artists were selected as nominees after earning high marks in two categories: "originality" and "potential for expansion." The museum said, "This year's selected artists have explored and expanded the way we view today's world and the conditions of the image, each through different media and methodologies."
From the time accumulated within fading traces, to history and reality reconstructed by generative artificial intelligence (AI), to pictorial space where multiple narratives coexist, and to the social and political power relations surrounding images—the four artists each grapple with the questions of our time in their own way.
Lee Hae-min-sun has carefully observed the traces of time accumulated in objects and environments, exploring beings caught between disappearance and persistence through painting and installation work. The painting "Residual Snow" focuses on the state of snow that has not entirely vanished, questioning the relationship between absence and trace. Her works "Outside" and "Upright Plant_Mass" illuminate the landscapes formed when the temporary lasts longer than expected, and the relationships in which things support one another.
Lee Jung-woo focuses on how AI and data-based technology construct reality and history, critically exploring the operation and malfunction of technological systems. "Written Film, History to Be Written" reconstructs, through generative AI, the lost scenes of the film "Hurrah! For Freedom" (1946), produced shortly after Korea's liberation, tracing a history of censorship, deletion, and distortion. The video "Marksman of the Left Hand" reveals the limitations in the way technology understands and classifies the world through the data bias embedded in video generation models, reflecting on the conditions of image production in the AI era.
Jeon Hyun-sun has expanded painting into a complex spatial environment by combining geometric order with contingent narrative. "Even a Rabbit Digs Two Burrows" is a large-scale painting installation composed of 30 canvases. Through a screen reminiscent of a rock-climbing wall, it invites viewers to explore the images along their own gazes and paths. Hong Jin-hwon, through the video "The Highest Form of the Image Is Armed Struggle," intersects the declarations of past revolutionary movements with today's protest culture, reflecting on the process by which social movements are consumed and reconstructed as images.
Meanwhile, the final winner of the "Korea Artist Prize 2026" will be announced in October. Director Kim Sung-hee said, "Through the work of four artists who explore the structures and conditions beyond what is visible, the 'Korea Artist Prize 2026' is expected to offer an opportunity to understand the times we live in more three-dimensionally." The exhibition runs through December 6.
