The 2nd International Incheon Women Artists Biennale (IWAB) was comprised of  three exhibitions, along with a series of artists’ performances, an academic symposium and various other educational programs. It took place in August 2009.  The main exhibition, So Close Yet So Far Away is dedicated to the achievements of 100 contemporary women artists from Korea and abroad. Women artists as individuals are faced with competitive physical, social, and cyber-space situations. So Close Yet So Far Away embraces these issues;  the exhibit is divided into three subsections entitled “Personal Territory,” “Fluid Interior,” and “Contested Space.” This exhibition explores women artists’ understanding and perception of space--where they reside, struggle, and strive to realize their dreams. It embraces their psychological, personal, and individual spaces as well as the socio-political and cultural realms that affect and influence their existence as artists and women. While a majority of the participants were Korean, many established international artists participated in the exhibition, including:  Marietta Hoferer, Judy Chicago, Lucile Bertrand, Sonya Rademeyer, Susan Stockwell, Sali Taylor and Faith Ringgold.

 
The Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee (IWABOC) was developed by the Incheon Women Artists Association (IWAA). Responding to a collective demand for greater promotion of the activities of local women artists, IWAA organized an annual exhibition for its members in the 1980s. This annual show evolved into the Incheon Women Artists Biennale in 2004, the success of which encouraged the association to expand the event into an international women artists festival. After the Pre-IWAB of 2006, the IWABOC realized its first international exhibition in 2007, an event which encompassed the diverse activities of global women artists, both established and emerging. While IWABOC’s primary aim is to “advocate and promote all women artists creative endeavors without prejudice,” the IWAB envisions that femininity, or the ultimate ‘otherness,’ could serve as a “catalyst for communication between different genders,” and a “bridge between the international art community and local artists”.

The main exhibitions took place at the Incheon Art Platform within the Warehouse Complex, which is located at Haean-dong, Jung-gu, in Incheon.