Kukje Gallery will participate in the 10th edition of Art Basel Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 25 to 29 May 2022. Originally slated for March but pushed back to May in response to the ongoing pandemic protocols and tightened travel restrictions in Hong Kong, this year's Art Basel Hong Kong will once again utilise a hybrid format integrating both physical and virtual platforms. The upcoming iteration of the in-person fair will feature 130 galleries from 28 countries participating in the Galleries, Insights, and Discoveries sectors, while the online portion of the event titled 'Art Basel Live: Hong Kong' will run concurrently alongside the fair and include Online Viewing Rooms. Furthermore, satellite booths have once again been implemented across all sectors for exhibitors whose physical attendance is not possible due to current regulations, allowing each exhibitor to present its own curated exhibition within a standalone booth that will be staffed by a local representative appointed by Art Basel.
For the upcoming iteration of Art Basel Hong Kong, Kukje Gallery will present a selection of works by renowned modern and contemporary Korean artists including Park Seo-Bo's Écriture (描法) No. 040325 (2004), in which the artist combines the meticulous use of line and hanji (Korean paper) to create powerful colour fields and Ha Chong-Hyun's Conjunction 22-13 (2022), a new painting from the artist's signature 'Conjunction' series in which he deploys his technique of bae-ap-bub, a singular method of pushing oil paint from the back to the front of the burlap canvas, creating evocative, richly textured compositions. Last month both Dansaekhwa masters staged milestone exhibitions during the opening week of the long-awaited 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. At Fondazione Querini Stampalia, works by Park—who is also the subject of the upcoming monograph titled Park Seo-Bo: Écriture, to be published by the leading international art publisher Rizzoli—are shown alongside those by Isamu Noguchi and Danh Vō in a three-person exhibition co-curated by Vō and Chiara Bertola, curator of the Fondazione's contemporary art program, and will remain on view through 27 November 2022. Also in Venice, Ha is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at Palazzetto Tito, one of the main gallery spaces of the local nonprofit Istituzione Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. An official Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2022, this presentation features a curated selection of approximately thirty works from the artist's past six decades, introducing the full range of his material experimentation and conceptual rigour. This exhibition will remain on view through 24 August 2022.
Also on view at Kukje Gallery's booth will be Kwon Young-Woo's Untitled (c. 1980s), an example of the artist's coloured hanji works made after returning to Korea in 1989, following a decade-long residency in Paris. Characterised by flat, uniform planes that display black, dark brown, and yellow tones created with a mixture of Western gouache and meok (Chinese ink), eleven pieces from this unique body of work were showcased for the first time ever at Kukje Gallery's solo exhibition of the artist at the end of 2021. In 2021, works by all three of the above Korean postwar artists were acquired by the Centre Pompidou, reinforcing the representation of Korean art within the international art market, as well as providing an important point of departure for a vital reappraisal of art historical discourse surrounding postwar practices.
These works will be shown alongside those by two artists whose unparalleled status within Korean modern and contemporary art history has profoundly impacted subsequent generations of artists. The first is Wook-kyung Choi's Untitled (c. 1960s), an acrylic work on paper that exemplifies her signature interpretation of abstract expressionism wherein she embraced the political themes and social events of her time. Just last year, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, staged an extensive retrospective on the artist, while three of Choi's pioneering works were recently on view as part of a comprehensive exhibition titled Women in Abstraction at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The booth will also present Kim Yong-Ik's Untitled (2003), an exemplary piece from the artist's iconic series of 'dot paintings.' Kim is one of the central figures in Korean modern and contemporary art history, having developed a unique philosophy and studio process whilst maintaining an independent stance amidst Korea's dominant artistic movements from the 1970s to the 1980s, and has inspired subsequent generations of Korean artists to pursue a similar spirit of originality and nonconformity.
On June 9 2022, Kukje Gallery will open Colors of Yoo Youngkuk, marking the 20th anniversary of the pioneering Korean abstract artist's death and presenting an overview of Yoo Youngkuk's practice and legacy. Taking place across all three spaces of the gallery's Seoul location, the artist's second show with the gallery will showcase over 50 works created during the 1960s to the 1980s, including a multitude of blue and green works from the 1970s. The upcoming exhibition establishes a connection to and nurtures a dialogue with Yoo's earlier exhibition at Kukje Gallery in 2018 that centred on the artist's vibrant vocabularies that distilled Korean naturalism into basic formal elements of point, line, plane, and colour. Commemorating Yoo's lasting contribution to the history of Korean modern and contemporary art, the presentation will include iconic pieces from the permanent collections of notable museums and institutions in Korea.