FRIEZE LONDON 2024

At Frieze London, Kukje Gallery will introduce a selection of works of modern and contemporary artists from Korea and abroad, encompassing various genres such as painting, sculpture, and installation. Featured in the booth is Song of My Soul 2009-187 (2009) by Kim Yun Shin, a first-generation Korean female sculptor. Kim’s paintings embody her unique artistic philosophy, which perceives nature not as a mere object of contemplation, but as a subject that functions as ‘one”‘with the artist. The vibrant colour palette inspired by the indigenous hues of South America and obangsaek—colours of blue, red, yellow, white, and black traditionally used in Korea—conveys primal energy and vitality. Kim Yong-Ik, a leading Korean modernist and conceptual artist, is presenting Exhausting Project 24-19: Conceptual Painting Disguised as a Retinal Painting (2024). Begun on December 31, 2018, the artist embarked on the series Exhausting Project, in which he proposed to exhaust all the art supplies left in his studio, including various paints and coloured pencils, during his lifetime. Written on the painting is Cheonwon Jibang, which translates to ‘Heaven is round, Earth is square,’ a fundamental concept in traditional Chinese cosmology. Via geometric shapes of circles and squares, Kim contemplates upon the meanings and fundamental concepts of the universe. Jae-Eun Choi, working in between Seoul and Tokyo, presents When We First Met (2024). Choi collected and framed 143 types of wildflowers encountered in the surrounding nature. By inscribing each of their names, the artist reminds us of the beauty of the overlooked aspects of our daily life, the nature, and ultimately the larger universe. Kibong Rhee, a painter who delves into human nature and the ephemerality of objects, showcases his new painting Lost place A (2024). The painted landscape, a dreamlike scene shrouded in fog, reflects Rhee’s ongoing exploration of the invisible flow that exists as a force animating the world. Viewers are encouraged to rediscover the often-overlooked aspects of our daily life by visualising the complexities of their surroundings.

Kyungah Ham, whose solo exhibition is currently on view at Kukje Gallery, showcases an embroidery painting Phantom and A Map / Poetry 03WBXS01 (2018–2024). Her unique working method involves making a sketch, which is then delivered to artisans in North Korea through a secret middleman. After a period of time which cannot be predicted in advance and is steeped in unpredictable circumstances, the finished embroidered work is returned to the artist, once again through a middleman. Embracing unpredictability and uncertainty as prerequisites for her work, Ham nevertheless continues the most analogue means of communication, interweaving presence and absence, the visible and invisible, to capture the discrepancy between visual beauty and our political and social reality. Lee Kwang-Ho’s new work Untitled 0081-1 (2024) magnifies the natural elements captured around the wetlands of New Zealand’s Kepler Track, creating a dreamlike landscape that transcends the boundaries between representation and abstraction. Haegue Yang’s Sonic Sphere with Enthralling Tetrad – Chevron-Ornamented Copper and Nickel (2018) will also be showcased at the booth. Coinciding with Frieze London, Yang is expecting her first major UK survey show Haegue Yang: Leap Year at Hayward Gallery, and is also currently showing a solo exhibition Haegue Yang: Flat Works at The Arts Club of Chicago, exploring her two-dimensional work over the past two decades. Also in the booth is the painting of Jina Park, whose work captures everyday scenes through snapshots, transferring them onto canvas thereby capturing moments from a painterly perspective in paintings such as Crate (2023). This deceptively simple work engages with the behind-the-scenes elements of gallery or museum spaces, imbuing backstage moments with new materiality and spatiotemporal dimensions. Park will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery in Seoul, opening on November 22. Finally, Suki Seokyeong Kang’s Mountain — hours #24-06 (2024) is a large bronze sculpture crafted by bending and hammering the surface to mimic mountain ridges. Kang’s sculptural landscape encompasses the surrounding space and time with its simplicity.

Among the international artists featured in the booth is Jenny Holzer’s watercolour drawing federal crime (2020) based on the ‘Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,’ or the Mueller Report. This piece reflects on the ongoing era of global surveillance and hostility between nation states. The Mumbai-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor will be showcasing Spanish and Pagan Gold satin (2020), from his iconic series of concave mirrors. The work explores the dynamic interplay between what exists, what is seen and what is perceived—an inquiry that he has delved into over the two decades. Kapoor is currently participating in a major Nordic solo exhibition ANISH KAPOOR UNSEEN at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Ishøj, Denmark.Julian Opie presents Walking in Busan. 5. (2023), capturing the dynamic scenes of pedestrians in Haeundae and Centum City in Busan during the summer of 2023, bringing the vibrancy of the city to London. Lastly, Michael Joo’s EP Print (v. 4) (2024) incorporates genetic imagery visualised via complex processes such as electrophoresis, combined with the colourful hues made manifest through dichroic glass. Embodying the genetic information which is the basic unit that constitutes an organism, the artist encourages the viewers to contemplate the often-neglected fundamentals of both life and that of our surrounding environment. Joo is currently holding a solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery.