Kukje Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Frieze Los Angeles 2023 (hereafter Frieze LA), scheduled from 16 to 19 February 2023. This year, Frieze LA welcomes visitors at its new location, Santa Monica Airport, with over 120 galleries from 22 countries participating across the Main and Focus sections (Focus is for selected galleries established within the past 12 years). Having taken part in the fair virtually through its Online Viewing Room program during the past two years, Kukje Gallery returns to the Main section to interact with a diverse range of collectors and art enthusiasts in person.
This year's event presents a diverse and exciting array of programs including collaborative projects with various non-profit organizations, such as those with the Art Production Fund and Jay Ezra Nayssan, founder and director of Del Vaz Projects, as part of Frieze Projects. Winners of both the Frieze Impact Award and the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award will also be announced during Frieze Week, flooding the city with a wave of arts and culture.
Kukje Gallery's booth will present a range of works by contemporary and modern artists including Écriture (描法) No. 08091 (2008), a lime-hued Écriture painting by Dansaekhwa master Park Seo-Bo. The painting's composition, defined by a subtle, pale-blue background with a rectangular window in the center, provides solace for the viewer, acting as a reminder of the natural landscapes that initially inspired Park to incorporate more vibrant colors into his paintings. Grey Mirror(2022) by Kibong Rhee displays the artist's interest in using resin in his recent paintings portraying abstract landscapes, which are finished with a unique surface texture. At the end of 2022, Rhee had his comprehensive solo exhibition in Kukje Gallery's Seoul and Busan spaces; marking the artist's first show with the gallery in 14 years, the ambitious presentation was met with enthusiasm across visitors of all ages and genders.
The booth will also feature The Intermediate – Aqueous Hairy Warrior Shield(2019), a wall-mounted sculpture created by the 13th Benesse Prize winner Haegue Yang, who utilized traditional straw weaving techniques and incorporated artificial straw to produce the work. Yang, who is currently participating in the 7th Singapore Biennale—Natasha (running through mid-March)—has upcoming solo exhibitions at major international institutions, including Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil, the National Gallery of Australia, and S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art – Ghent), Belgium. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. (2013) shot by the film director Park Chan-wook—subject of a solo exhibition at the gallery's Busan space in 2021—will showcase his photography to local collectors. The artist describes his photography practice as an 'antidote' to his filmmaking, where coincidence and spontaneity play crucial roles.
The booth will also include the Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX's The Show Must Go On (2019), which visualizes a familiar colloquial phrase that seems to represent the city of Los Angeles, home to Hollywood. The blue LED sign riffs on commercial advertising and invokes reflections on the meaning and reach of cliché in popular culture.
Ahead of his solo exhibition slated for May 2023 across Kukje Gallery Busan and Sukcheon Hall in F1963, the British contemporary artist Julian Opie will present his sculpture, Amelia 1.2. (2019) at the booth. Acclaimed for distilling everyday scenes to simple yet dynamic outlines, Opie once again captures the movement of a woman walking in a casual dress, characterized by a delightful green tone. Meanwhile, a new painting by the Thai contemporary artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, who successfully closed his first solo exhibition "Image, Symbol, Prayer" with the gallery on January 29, 2023, greets visitors in one corner of the booth. Titled Void (sky painting)(2022), the painting presents a monochrome, metallic surface highlighted with the use of blue foil on top of a bleached denim surface, a favorite material of the artist that also appears in his History Paintings series.
Currently on view from 9 February, 2023, at Kukje Gallery's K1 and K3 spaces in Seoul, is the Korean contemporary artist Hong Seung-Hye's solo exhibition Over the Layers II. Hong, who has spent decades establishing a set of visual principles and rules that define her world by exploring a unique stage constructed of pixels, presents viewers with a sequel to her previous exhibition Over the Layers (Kukje Gallery, 2004) through the show.