Five-artist presentation ranges from a 1957 work by Rhee Seundja to Park In-kyung’s 2024 ink paintings

Paris-based Galerie Vazieux will present abstract works by five Korean artists at Kiaf Seoul 2026.

Titled “Korean Artists in Paris: Trajectories of Abstraction, 1957-2024,” the presentation will run from September 2–6 at COEX in Seoul. The participating artists are Lee Ungno, Nam Kwan, Rhee Seundja, Park In-kyung and Lee Young-sé. The gallery will be located at booth A77.

The presentation spans 67 years, beginning with Rhee’s “Untitled,” dated circa 1957, and ending with Park’s 2024 works “Stone” and “Seed 1.” It also includes Nam’s paintings from the 1960s, works produced by Lee Ungno between the 1960s and 1980s, and an early work by Lee Young-sé from the 1980s.

Rhee moved to Paris in 1951 and shifted from figurative painting toward abstraction around 1957. Her “Untitled” combines overlapping white rectangles with a blue ground, using dense brushwork and geometric construction.

Nam will be represented by paintings made between 1965 and 1967. His 1966 work “Rhythm of the East” brings together forms resembling rocks, ruins and pictographic characters with a weathered surface. Nam received the Grand Prix at the Menton International Art Biennale in France in the same year.

Lee Ungno’s works trace his development from letter-based abstraction and semi-abstract compositions to his later crowd paintings. He moved to France in 1958 and signed an exclusive contract with Galerie Paul Facchetti in 1962. The presentation includes “Composition” from 1963, works dated 1974 and 1979, and the 1985 ink-on-hanji painting “Crowd.”

Lee Young-sé developed a process involving abstract motifs carved into wooden boards and the transfer of textures using water, ink and natural materials. His 1987 “Untitled,” made with natural pigments on canvas, will be shown alongside works produced by Lee Ungno during the same decade.

The presentation also includes recent work by Park, who marks the centenary of her birth this year. Born in 1926, she has lived in the Paris region since 1959 and has continued to work primarily with ink. “Stone” and “Seed 1,” both made in 2024, use repeated dots and forms on hanji to translate subjects drawn from nature into abstract compositions.

Founded by Sabine Vazieux in Paris in 1999, Galerie Vazieux specialises in postwar Western and Asian abstract painting. Its Kiaf presentation examines how Korean artists working in the shared environment of Paris developed separate approaches rather than converging on a single abstract style.

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