Is tradition something to be preserved, or is it a living language that must be continually retranslated through contemporary sensibilities?

The 2nd Korea Calligraphy Art Fair (KCAF) places this question at the center of the exhibition. With “Variations of Ink Traces and the Expansion of Form” as its guiding theme, this art fair serves as an experimental platform that takes the classical rules and spirit of calligraphy as its point of departure, while seeking points of contact with contemporary aesthetics, diverse media, and the formal language of modern art.

This exhibition was held from February 4 to February 9, 2026, on the entire second floor of the Korea Art Museum in Insadong, Seoul. Taking place in Insadong, a district that functions both as a center of traditional calligraphy and as a crossroads of tourism and culture, the event carries added significance in presenting calligraphy to a broader public as an art form that continues to exist in the present tense.

Calligraphy is, in essence, both the art of writing and the art of the body. In the moment a single stroke is placed on the surface, pressure and speed, the artist’s breath and rhythm, are condensed into that instant. Ink is not merely a color; through gradations of density, bleeding, drying, and permeation, it reveals layers of temporal depth and emotional resonance. This edition of the Korea Calligraphy Art Fair does not confine the materiality of ink and the spirit of calligraphy within the traditional framework of brush, ink, and paper, but expands them through canvases, mixed media, and contemporary materials, exploring the sculptural possibilities of calligraphy from multiple perspectives.

The exhibition does not limit the modernity of calligraphy to changes in outward form alone. Rather, it foregrounds a “shift in perspective” that renders familiar characters and strokes newly strange, and highlights a creative attitude that translates the questions of the present era into the grammar of calligraphy. As viewers follow the traces of ink left on the surface, they come to sense that calligraphy no longer remains a legacy of the past, but breathes as a living language of the present.

Artists of different generations and backgrounds come together in this edition of KCAF. Mid-career artists, who have deepened the density of calligraphy through accumulated mastery and classical understanding, and artists who expand media and form through more experimental approaches, gather in one place to present a multidimensional view of the current terrain of calligraphy. This creates a scene in which tradition and modernity, textuality and form, the flat surface and spatiality coexist in dynamic tension.

A particularly noteworthy aspect of the exhibition is the expansion of media. Calligraphy, which begins with ink lines on paper, extends into painterly and sculptural language through its encounter with canvas, acrylics, and mixed materials. This demonstrates that calligraphy is no longer confined to a fixed genre, but functions as an open language capable of engaging actively with the grammar of contemporary art. Here, tradition is not a severed past, but a living present that is continually renewed through new materials and sensibilities.

The 2nd Korea Calligraphy Art Fair is a curated art fair that offers a panoramic view of the diverse currents and spectrum of Korean calligraphy. Participating artists include Kim Myung Seok (金明石), Kim Sang Nyeon (金相年), Kim Jung Min (金廷玟), Bang Jae Ho (房載浩), Son Dong Jun (孫東俊), Lee Moon Jong (李文鍾), Lee Jae Deuk (李在得), Jeong Jae Seok (鄭在錫), Choi Dong Myeong (崔東明), Choi Doo Heon (崔斗憲), and Poppin Hyun Joon, forming a broad landscape that spans from traditional calligraphy to contemporary formal experimentation.

Beyond the presentation of artworks, this event also serves as a space to explore what kinds of questions calligraphy can pose within today’s art environment, and how characters and strokes can connect with contemporary visual culture. Through the format of an art fair, visitors are offered an opportunity not only to view the exhibition, but to experience calligraphy as a form of contemporary artistic language.

The 2nd Korea Calligraphy Art Fair stands as a mirror reflecting tradition and modernity, text and form, generations and sensibilities. Reframing calligraphy not as a heritage to be preserved but as a language of the present, this exhibition shows how traces of ink are transformed into new meanings and forms within contemporary perception, affirming calligraphy as an art form that continues to exist in the present tense.