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Established fifty years ago in the nation's capital, Pyongyang, Mansudae Art Studio is a name synonymous with artistic production in North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Home for over a thousand artists and designers, and with its products highly visible in cities and roadsides across the DPRK, Mansudae comprises one of the largest artistic enterprises in the world.

While the contemporary art and cinema of South Korea has received much international attention in recent years, relatively little is known about artistic practice north of the Demilitarised Zone. Professional artists in the DPRK typically have graduate and post-graduate training that extends over a period of six to eight years, with the most talented selected to join a studio. In addition to Mansudae, there are a number of other active studios, including Paekho, Minye and Central Art Studio. As the country's elite artistic creation studio, Mansudae enjoys a high level of political support, and employs the nation's most senior, accomplished artists. Generally, artists can expect to work on directed projects for four days of each week, with a further day devoted to political study and another to professional training and development. Their work is installed in public buildings and spaces, and usually expresses political and revolutionary ideals. Optimistic groups of workers or farmers, resolute soldiers and sites associated with the anti-Japanese Guerrilla War and Korean War (or Victorious Fatherland Liberation War as it is known in the DPRK)  have been much-favoured subjects.

In matters of materials and techniques, Mansudae is organised into creative groups which specialise in subjects such as ink and oil painting, sculpture, printmaking, poster art, jewel painting (a local speciality which uses pulverised gemstones) , applied arts, design, embroidery and mosaics. As the nation's official face of fine art, Mansudae artists have been responsible for realising the grand projects that represent the philosophy of this socialist republic and its government. The massive statues of former president Kim Il Sung that dominate cities across the DPRK are among the studio's most prestigious commissions ...

Political, rather than artistic, factors lie behind the longstanding economic and cultural isolation of the DPRK from the rest of the world. Long after other countries of the former socialist bloc have transformed their economies and opened up to global events and developments, DPRK society has remained cut off from much of the international community. It is therefore a brave initiative of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG)  to invite Mansudae to present work at this year's 6th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT6) . Because it is uncompromisingly political in stance, presented in western galleries DPRK art can elicit mixed responses from viewers. Stripped of their social and political context, works can demonstrate remarkable technical excellence, but because the strict limits confining artists' creative endeavours are alien to the western liberal view of cultural life, they can also perplex ...

This article appears in excerpted form. You can read the entire article in Art & Australia's Summer 2009 issue.