Anish Kapoor reflects on Korea’s maturing art identity, as Kukje Gallery leads the charge
Anish Kapoor isn’t South Korean, but his latest group of convex-mirrored 'non-object' towers now on view at Seoul’s Kukje Gallery may reflect more than selfie opportunities. 'This whole context of what’s going on in Korea is quite interesting,' says the British sculptor, who protests 'artists are not pop stars' although he is rather well-revered throughout Korea – even if he has yet to reach the heights of TOP or G-Dragon.
Kukje – which translates as 'international' – is a three-winged gallery campus of architecture ingenuity, public sculpture gardens and a restaurant that ultimately unfurls as South Korea's main hub for the homegrown and global art scene. Kapoor has been showing with the gallery for 'a good many years' and, thanks to them, landed a solo retrospective at the technology-driven Leeum Samsung Museum of Art a few years ago.
But for his latest show, 'Gathering Clouds' – on view in Kukje Gallery's K1 and K3 buildings until the end of October – it opened in time for the art world’s descent onto Korea for the Gwangju, Seoul Mediacity and Busan biennales.'Gallery shows for artists like me are very particular. I have different bodies of work,' explains Kapoor, who additionally showed his trademarked Vantablack voids. 'The great thing about gallery shows, as opposed to institutions, is they there are places where one can try out a body of work.'
What sticks here is media art, which explains why so much of South Korea’s contemporary art scene skews towards the genre. Samsung, Hyundai and LG have prompted the 'Korean Miracle' economic boom, where the peninsular nation now touts the 11th largest global economy, particularly thanks to the areas of technology – a significant achievement considering Korea only became an independent state in 1948. Culturally, that date is the marker for the creation of modern South Korea, and thus the young country's art history is still a largely unwritten tale.
'Korean art history is Nam June Paik, then there is nothing,' says Kukje Gallery founder and director Lee Hyun-sook of the first video artist who rocked the Western world with his use of broadcast media and recordings. Nowadays, tech giants fund contemporary art through their own museums, galleries and prizes, which eventually make their way to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA).
It's an attempt to draw interest from the Korean public. Yet, engagement with art remains murky. Luring large, local crowds to exhibitions is a challenge, as MMCA director Bartomeu Mari explains: 'Art does not belong yet to popular culture. Art can grow a lot.'
However, Kukje Gallery could well be scribing the next chapter of Korean art history, while positioning itself as an essential locale for art seekers. Located in swish Samcheong, the gallery looks outward by showing art stars of the West, including Julian Opie, Ugo Rondinone, and Jenny Holzer, and is working inward towards identifying historical art movements, starting with Dansaekhwa. Hyun-sook says the gallery 'chose Dansaekhwa because there were enough works to spread around to museums and such, but they’re not directly related. From there, there’s a slow connection [between generations of artists] and that’s what we’re trying to build.'
The names currently being collected in South Korea (and the US) include Park Seo-Bo and Ha Chong-Hyun, who both have upcomings shows in New York. Interestingly, alongside headliner Kapoor, Kukje Gallery has hung little known Dansaekhwa painter, Wook-kyung Choi, a woman who slipped through borders to attend the New York School from the early 1960s through late 1970s, flopping her brushes in big strokes à la Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning and Robert Motherwell.
But just as Park and Ha both told us that they reject Western narratives and see themselves as individual artists, Wook did too. It's a point which plays a bigger role in the identity of Korean fine art than has been acknowledged — or exported.
INFORMATION
'Gathering Clouds' runs until 30 October. For more information, visit the Kukje Gallery website.
ADDRESS
54 Samcheong-ro
Sogyeok-dong
Jongno-gu
Seoul
South Korea
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Julie Baumgardner is an arts and culture writer, editor and journalist who's spent nearly 15 years covering all aspects of art, design, culture and travel. Julie's work has appeared in publications including Bloomberg, Cultured, Financial Times, New York magazine, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, as well as Wallpaper*. She has also been interviewed for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, Observer, Vox, USA Today, as well as worked on publications with Rizzoli press and spoken at art fairs and conferences in the US, Middle East and Asia. Find her @juliewithab or juliebaumgardnerwriter.com
-
Art Basel returns to Paris: here is everything to see and do
Art Basel Paris 2024 (18 - 20 October 2024) returns, opening at the newly renovated Grand Palais
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
PAD London’s 16th edition is a blisteringly optimistic case for human achievement
At PAD London, collectible design is more than rarefied furniture; it is a compelling case for the uplifting power of craftsmanship at the dawn of the AI revolution
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Aston Martin bring the Midas touch to their super tourer with the DB12 Goldfinger Edition
Released in honour of the sixtieth anniversary of the iconic James Bond film, Aston Martin has gone all out to the DB12 Goldfinger Edition a worthy collector’s item for high rolling film fans
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
‘Humanity is always the centre of my practice': Alex Prager's new work blurs the line between reality and fiction
Alex Prager speaks to Wallpaper* about her new body of work, 'Western Mechanics', which opened at Lehmann Maupin in Seoul
By Gameli Hamelo Published
-
An avant-garde Korean art movement resurfaces in LA
LA's Hammer Museum gets its teeth into avant-garde Korean art with ‘Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s’
By Anne Soward Published
-
Kim Whanki, ‘the father of abstraction in Korea’, is celebrated at Frieze Seoul
Kim Whanki’s work has its moment at Frieze Seoul 2023, where it is reimagined for the digital age
By Ann Binlot Published
-
Frieze Seoul 2023: everything you need to know
Frieze Seoul 2023 focuses on Asian galleries as it opens its doors for the second time in COEX, Gangnam
By SuhYoung Yun Published
-
14th Gwangju Biennale review: a stage for new voices and ancient ideas
South Korea’s 14th Gwangju Biennale (until 9 July 2023) takes water as its central theme, in which climate, Daoism, historical trauma, local craft and voices of the marginalised float to the surface
By Will Jennings Published
-
A’strict: the South Korean digital art collective bringing nature to urban life
As part of our Generation Generative series, we spotlight a’strict, the artistic unit of South Korean digital media design company d’strict, whose immersive art aims to bring viewers closer to nature
By SuhYoung Yun Published
-
Francis Gallery Los Angeles is a haven of harmony, natural materials and Korean art
We speak to gallerist Rosa Park, founder of the new Francis Gallery Los Angeles, which has opened with a show of six emerging and established Korean artists
By Tilly Macalister-Smith Last updated
-
Frieze Seoul 2022: all you need to know about the inaugural fair
SuhYoung Yun reports on a dynamic, emotional opening day of Frieze Seoul, and speaks to key figures about what the fair means for Korea’s wider cultural scene, both locally and internationally
By SuhYoung Yun Last updated