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Kukje Gallery has participated in Art Basel, Hong Kong since its inaugural edition in 2013 and has remained steadfast in its commitment to the fair by remaining an active exhibitor throughout the pandemic. For Galleries, Kukje Gallery will showcase Untitled (c. 1960s), a work on paper by the pioneering abstract expressionist painter Wook-kyung Choi, whose independent spirit and bold experimentation charted new paths in modern and contemporary Korean art history. Choi’s works are currently on view at two important group exhibitions: Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (on view through June 11, 2023) and Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London (on view through May 7, 2023). 

▲ Installation view of Kukje Gallery's booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Also on view will be important works by a wide range of Korean modern and contemporary artists including Park Seo-Bo’s Écriture (描法) No. 220510 (2022), part of a new body of work that reinterprets the artist’s iconic series of the same title using ceramic. Made in collaboration with master ceramists and first introduced to the public just last year, this new series serves as a potent reminder that natural landscapes are Park’s primary inspirations, not only as illustrated in his use of color but also with the material.

 

▲ Park Seo-Bo (b. 1931) Écriture (描法) No. 220510 2022 Acrylic on ceramic 62 x 82 cm Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Park Seo-Bo studio Image provided by Kukje Gallery

In this case soil, a core element of nature which is also the key component of ceramic, points to an inspired new direction for the artist. The selection also includes Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 22-38 (2022), a powerful new work from the artist’s internationally celebrated technique of bae-ap-bub, his visionary method of pushing paint from the back of the canvas to the front.

▲ Ha Chong-Hyun (b. 1935) Conjunction 22-38 2022 Oil on hemp cloth 227 x 182 cm Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Chunho An Image provided by Kukje Gallery

The booth will also include Gimhongsok’s Stone Construction-black line (2022) from a new series of sculptures comprised of stones cast in bronze and stacked to form a column. These bronze cast stones are then painted in colors reminiscent of real stones—black, gray, and white—at once mimicking the work’s primary medium (stone) which ends up non-existent in the final product and serving as a reminder of how these works were actually made.

 

▲ Gimhongsok (b. 1964) Stone Construction-black line 2022 Acrylic on bronze 155 x 18 x 14.5 cm Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Chunho An Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Also on view will be Lee Kwang-Ho’s Untitled 4558 (2022) from his series of landscape paintings that depict the Kepler Track wetlands, an indigenous ecology that includes a wide variety of trees, vines, and grass native to the South Island of New Zealand. Towards the end of this year, Kukje Gallery will hold the third solo exhibition of Lee in almost ten years, featuring new paintings characterized by the artist’s distinctive realism.

 

▲ Lee Kwang-Ho (b. 1967) Untitled 4558 2022 Oil on canvas 91 x 116.8 cm Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Jeon Byung Cheol Image provided by Kukje Gallery

In addition, the booth will highlight Haegue Yang’s new sculptures that engage with the artist’s longstanding inquiry into “domesticity,” including Rotating Reflective Running Black Cross-Handle Faucets – Scaly Circles #6 (2023), a new wall-hanging sculpture that features water hoses and faucets on a mirror plate. As is characteristic of many of her sculptures, the work generates unique visual patterns when manually activated.

 

▲ Haegue Yang (b. 1971) Rotating Reflective Running Black Cross-Handle Faucets – Scaly Circles #6 2023 Powder-coated stainless steel and aluminum frame, ball bearing, mirror, stainless steel braided water hoses, faucets, clockwork 64 x 64 x 18 cm Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Jaewon Choi Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Earlier this month, Yang opened her first solo exhibition in South America, titled Quasi-Colloquial, at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (on view through May 28, 2023) in Brazil. The artist’s works are also currently on view at Singapore Biennale 2022 – Natasha (on view through March 19, 2023) and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – In our Veins Flow Ink and Fire (on view through April 23, 2023).

In the coming months, Yang will participate in the group exhibition World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, as well two solo exhibitions at S.M.A.K. in Ghent (titled Haegue Yang: Several Reenactments) and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra (titled Haegue Yang: Changing From From to From). Yang is also looking forward to holding an extensive survey show of her work at the Hayward Gallery in London in the fall of 2024, which will then travel to major institutions in Europe.

▲ Bill Viola (b. 1951) Self Portrait, Submerged 2013 Color high-definition video on flat panel display mounted vertically on wall; stereo sound 10:18 minutes, 121.2 x 72.4 x 9 cm Performer: Bill Viola Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Lastly, the artist was recently announced as one of five finalists for the prestigious an Miró Prize, alongside Tala Madani, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Frida Orupabo, and Mika Rottenberg. The final recipient of the prize will be revealed towards the end of May.These works by some of today's most important Korean artists, will be exhibited alongside those by widely recognized international artists including the pioneering American video artist Bill Viola’s Self Portrait, Submerged (2013), a rare self-portrait that depicts the artist lying placidly on a river bed. Water, which is a recurring element throughout Viola’s practice, signals change, transition, birth, and rebirth; an edition of this video is housed in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and was part of his solo exhibition titled Bill Viola. Electronic Renaissance at the same museum in 2017. Viola is currently the subject of two institutional solo exhibitions.

 

▲ Gimhongsok (b. 1964) Solitude of Silences 2017-2019 Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery Photo: Chunho An Image provided by Kukje Gallery