Paintings hang on white walls, each neatly framed and labeled. Some visitors stop, glance, then drift away. A typical scene in a modern gallery. Yet, the experience of visiting a gallery can feel distant, turning art into an elite activity. For many, contemporary art remains far from everyday life.

For Lee Jin-myung, a professor of arts at Hongik University in Seoul, this sense of distance points to a deeper problem in contemporary art today.

"The system of Western-centric art has reached its limit in proposing new directions for humanity's future," he said. "The wisdom of East Asian civilization can help address this blind spot."

Lee believes an alternative can be found in East Asian traditions, and his latest exhibition offers a concrete attempt.

On April 21, an exhibition titled The Excursion to Nanpi opens at the Guangdong Museum of Art (Bai'etan), bringing together 16 artists from China and South Korea. Curated by Lee, the exhibition draws on a much older cultural tradition — one that predates modern museums by centuries — and attempts, quietly but deliberately, to bring it into the present.

The title "Nanpi" refers to a historic county in Hebei province, long embedded in Chinese literary memory. In the early third century, Cao Pi, later Emperor Wen of the Wei Dynasty (220-265), led a group of scholars on two celebrated excursions to Nanpi. There, amid mountains and rivers, they gathered to drink, play music, compose poetry, practice calligraphy, and paint — activities that unfolded less as separate arts than as a shared way of being.

These excursions became a defining moment in Chinese literary history, marking the rise of the first clear literati circle in China. Such elegant gatherings, or yaji, also helped shape a defining feature of East Asian art: the integration of artistic forms as well as the idea of art as a collective, human-centered activity.

"While Western museums often treat culture as something to be taxidermied or fossilized, the Chinese culture is a dynamic practice that has long been grounded in humanity. I firmly believe that this tradition must permeate the modern museum system."

Through the exhibition and its affiliated seminars, Lee hopes to translate this spirit into a contemporary context, creating what he describes as a modern version of an elegant gathering.

"I hope this exhibition will serve as a precious opportunity where established and emerging artists from both countries harmonize, allowing us to simultaneously discover the shared contemporary sensibilities and the hidden, inherent beauty of our contemporary art."

At the seminars, artists from China and South Korea engaged in discussions that moved between theory and practice, similarity and difference. Li Ruoxi, a Chinese artist studying at Hongik University, said she experienced a strong sense of resonance during the curatorial process.

"I was surprised by the similarities in visual language," she said,"and at the same time, I could see how Eastern art expresses itself in different forms".

Beyond privilege

"In the past hundred years, we have been learning from Western modern art," he said. But today, he added, the Western art world is struggling to offer meaningful direction for the future.

By comparison, he sees untapped potential in China's long cultural history and in broader Eastern intellectual traditions. "This is a valuable heritage," he said. "But it has not yet been fully developed."

For Lee, this emphasis on people-to-people exchanges is precisely what has been missing in many Western museum traditions.

By contrast, Chinese artistic traditions have long emphasized accessibility and shared experience.

Lee cited the example of Confucius, who is said to have accepted students from all backgrounds, asking only for a piece of dried meat as a small gift to show a sign of respect.

"Art is a way for people to improve themselves," Lee said. "It should not be limited by gender, wealth, or social status." He believes this idea should be reflected in how modern museums operate, allowing art to reconnect, more directly, with the public.

That thinking also shaped the selection of works in The Excursion to Nanpi. Lee said he chose pieces that do not require specialized knowledge or complex interpretation. Instead, they invite viewers to respond intuitively, allowing meaning to emerge gradually rather than being imposed.

In recent years, China's public art institutions have shown increasing vitality, supported by growing investment and a willingness to experiment. These museums are not only shaping domestic cultural life but also opening new spaces for international exchange, he said.

Lee said the choice of Guangzhou as the exhibition site is also telling. As home to the Guangdong Museum of Art, the city has long served as a gateway for China's engagement with the outside world. Today, it remains a place where traditional Chinese culture meets the world.

Lee calls for deeper cultural exchange between China and South Korea. In his view, cooperation should move beyond short-term exhibitions or symbolic exchanges of artworks. "Rather than exhibitions that simply trade artworks, we need to activate long-term joint projects where artists from both countries select shared topics — such as the climate crisis or the Eastern spirit in the digital age — research them for several years, and present their findings."

"We should increase opportunities for artists to immerse themselves deeply in each other's cultural landscapes. It is only when local living and dialogue accumulate that true co-curation — moving beyond superficial exoticism — becomes possible."