Arario Launches 7-Storey Mega Gallery in Seoul

With the new space, Arario is looking to capitalise on a flurry of art activities in South Korea.

Arario Gallery opened their new seven-storey space in Wonseo-dong district near the heart of Seoul today.

Arario's Executive Director, Sojung Kang, said that the timing 'could not be better' as 'a flurry of art and cultural activities in South Korea in recent years' has cultivated a larger audience and taste for Asian art.

The new gallery space, which neighbours the Arario Museum, occupies an imposing concrete edifice designed by Korean modernist architect Kim Swoo-geun in the 1970s.

The interior renovations were led by Japan-based Schemata Architects, who created four exhibition spaces and two private viewing rooms.

The use of white bricks indoors lend an experimental atmosphere to the gallery.

The gallery's inaugural exhibition, Romantic Irony, is a group show that continues through 18 March. The line-up reflects the gallery's current focus on Asia, following the re-opening of their Shanghai space last year.

Featured artists include photo-sculptor Osang Gwon, creator of surreal miniatures Dongwook Lee, the anatomically-obsessed Kim Inbai, painter Ahn Jisan, and Noh Sangho, who uses carbon paper to create physical collages from digital images.

Arario is not the only Seoul gallery to upscale since the city was pushed to the forefront of the East Asia contemporary art scene with the arrival of Frieze Seoul in 2022.

Thaddeus Ropac and KÖNIG GALERIE opened new spaces in 2021, while Pace Gallery expanded their Le Beige Building to include new exhibition spaces and a tea house last year.

'We are very excited that Arario Gallery is in a position to expand alongside the ever-vibrant art communities across the region,' said Kang. —[O]