Kukje Gallery will participate in Art Basel 2022 at Messe Basel from 16 to 19 June 2022. Opening in June for the first time in two years, the acclaimed fair will again enliven Basel and its surrounding areas with an abundance of arts and culture over the course of the week. This year's Art Basel will once again provide both in-person and online visitors an elevated viewing experience, combining online programs such as Online Viewing Rooms and virtual exhibition tours, with the more traditional fair-going experience. Art Basel's global director, Marc Spiegler, remarked that 'this year's quality and breadth of material will be on par with previous editions of our show – yet more diverse than ever before in terms of the galleries participating ... We are looking forward to staging Art Basel's first June show since 2019, especially with such a strong line-up of galleries, including the return of many who were forced by the pandemic to take a hiatus last year.'
The 2022 edition will feature 289 prominent international galleries from 40 countries from continents including Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. Galleries will participate in different sectors including Galleries, the fair's main sector; Unlimited, featuring 70 innovative large-scale projects that transcend the existing limitations of a booth; Parcours, introducing 20 site-specific works around the city of Basel; Conversations, providing a platform for contemporary art discourse across 12 panels between 46 leading members of the international artworld; and an outdoor installation at the Messeplatz—all of which provide the variety and superlative programming art-enthusiasts have come to expect from Art Basel.
Taking part in Galleries, Kukje Gallery will introduce a comprehensive selection of works by renowned Korean and international artists. One of the works by Korean artists includes Dansaekhwa pioneer Park Seo-Bo's stunning pale-blue composition, Écriture (描法) No. 140416 (2014). Nucleus (1987) by Lee Seung Jio, a celebrated leader of Korean geometric abstraction, will also feature in the booth. Resisting abstract expressionist styles that defined the Korean art scene during his generation, Lee instead pursued a restrained visual language that employed metallic tones and minimal yet striking compositions. These elements are exemplified by his 'Nucleus' series, that used repeated geometric shapes, often referred to as 'pipes.' Meanwhile, Wook-kyung Choi's acrylic work on paper, God or Camera (c. 1960s), showcases the artist's unique interpretation of abstract expressionism. The booth will also highlight Art Basel's 2018 Baloise Art Prize winner Suki Seokyeong Kang's Mat 120 x 165 #21-21 (2021), a contemporary adaptation of a Korean floor mat called hwamunseok, on which a traditional solo dance chunaengmu is performed. Kang's work is characterised by a subtle turquoise background embellished with yellow patterns, seen behind the narrow bars of a geometric steel frame.
Kukje Gallery's booth will also invite visitors to encounter works by distinguished international artists who are currently or are soon to be the subjects of major solo exhibitions across different countries. These include the British-Indian contemporary artist Anish Kapoor's Apple Red and Lime dark mix to Purple Candy (2019) from his iconic series of concave discs, coinciding with the artist's major solo exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia and Palazzo Manfrin in Venice (closing 9 October), which runs throughout the duration of the Venice Biennale. The booth will also introduce Noeud Sauvage (2021) by the French contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, who is the subject of a major solo exhibition Jean-Michel Othoniel: Treasure Gardens (running from 16 June through 7 August), held across the Seoul Museum of Art and the Deoksugung Palace Garden. Legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's dye-transfer colour print Flower Arrangement (1988) will also be on view, coinciding with his exhibition (running through 26 June) at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Downtown Sarasota Campus in Florida, USA, where Mapplethorpe's works are juxtaposed with those of his muse and creative soulmate, Patti Smith. Meanwhile, the American contemporary artist Jenny Holzer's Stacked (2021), from her ongoing series of 'Redaction Paintings', appropriates declassified but often heavily redacted U.S. government documents released by the Freedom of Information Act. Challenging viewers to reflect on how information is concealed and distributed to the public, the series depicts confidential US state and military papers enlarged to fit the size of the canvas, with the black blocks of redactions rendered in materials such as gold leaf and paint. Also on view is Hands of god (2022), a new denim work on canvas by the Thai contemporary artist Korakrit Arunanondchai—the subject of an upcoming exhibition at Kukje Gallery—who weaves together enchanting webs of personal narratives and historical constructs.
Kukje Gallery is very pleased to announce the opening of Colors of Yoo Youngkuk, an exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of the pioneering Korean abstract artist's death, from 9 June to 21 August in Seoul. The artist's second solo exhibition at the gallery following his first in 2018, Colors of Yoo Youngkuk will provide a comprehensive overview of Yoo's artistic practice marked by his lifelong pursuit of exploring mountains and nature. The exhibition will take place across all three spaces (K1, K2, K3) of the gallery, and feature approximately 70 paintings alongside a group of drawings and archival material including rare photos.
Kukje Gallery represents these artists: