International curator Wonil Rhee has died following a heart attack at his home in Seoul in the early hours of January 11, it has been reported. Rhee oversaw large-scale exhibitions including the biennial Media City Seoul (in 2002 and 2006), the 2008 Seville Biennale and the survey “Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves,” mounted at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) in 2007. He had previously held positions at the Sung-kok Museum of Art and the Seoul City Museum of Art, in both cases as chief curator.
Rhee was an advocate for Asian contemporary art and had been increasingly active in China, where in 2007 he organized a survey of works by American painter Julian Schabel for the World Art Museum, Beijing, and in 2006 was a co-curator of the 4th Shanghai Biennale, among other projects.