Im Youngzoo Takes Frieze Seoul 2025 Artist Award for ‘Calming Signal’
The South Korean artist was selected for her video work visualising instinctual responses to ‘an uncertain future’ performed by different cultures and societies. Save to My Ocula
South Korean artist Im Youngzoo will show her work at Frieze Seoul this autumn as part of the 2025 Frieze Seoul Artist Award she received this week.
Im won for Calming Signal, a three-channel video juxtaposing the Earth’s tilted axis with rotational cultural dances within a grid to visualise the outlines of ‘an uncertain future’.
The title nods to soothing gestures animals adopt under stress, just as individuals and societies instinctively perform acts to cope with ‘collective unease’.
Frieze Seoul director Patrick Lee said Im’s work ‘[resonates] deeply’ with the fair’s theme, Future Commons, which explores community and shared experiences.
He praised her ‘innovative approach’ and ‘compelling narratives’, noting she exemplifies the talent from Korea’s contemporary art scene.
Im, who is also shortlisted for The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s 2025 Korea Artist Prize, has a research-based practice which examines overlaps between personal and collective stories, merging scientific inquiry with spiritual belief systems across mediums like video, installation, performance, and virtual reality.
Now in its third year, Frieze Seoul’s annual artist award supports a Korean-based emerging or mid-career artist to realise a commission that will mark ‘a significant milestone’ in their practice.
Previous recipients of the award include Woo Hannah and Choi Goen.
Im’s commission will be featured at Seoul’s COEX between 3 and 6 September 2025. —[O]
Main image: Im Youngzoo, THETA (이탤릭). Exhibition view: diplopia, Arko Art Center, Seoul (24 September–29 November 2020). Courtesy Frieze Seoul.
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