After many months of speculation, and then many months of anticipation, Frieze Seoul's inaugural edition opens Friday at the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in the Gangnam district, adjacent to the Korea International Art Fair. Hundreds of exhibitors from all over the world will be present. In many other countries, galleries are still closed for the summer holidays, but not here. The entire South Korean capital has been opening major exhibitions in recent days, hoping to attract visitors who are in town for the fairs and perhaps in the mood to buy. Below are five exhibit options to see from the many dozens that are on offer.
Chung Chang-Sup at PKM
This exhibition of later works by the Dansaekhwa legend (“monochrome painting”) Chung Chang-Sup, who died aged 84 in 2011, opens with a masterstroke: a handful of off-white paintings from his final series, “Meditation,” glowing in the weak light. Its edges are carefully lined with tak — craggy fiber from mulberry bark, which Chung has mixed with water — and its centers are immaculately flat, empty, but not quite empty. They amount to tender invitations to look closely and then look again. In other rooms, the smoky color awaits, and the all-black pieces seem to contain unfathomable depths, capable of absorbing light and thought.On display until October 15th at PKM gallery , 40 Samcheong-ro 7-gil, Jongno-gu.
Taeyoon Kim in Whistle
Step into Taeyoon Kim's elegant solo show at the compact Whistle gallery, and suddenly the frenetic energy of the Itaewon neighborhood disappears. The room is dark and the mood is serene. Small videos offer fleeting glimpses of everyday life: a puddle of water, a piece of street. Some small abstract drawings are based on afterimages of these works, says an accompanying text. The speakers provide a seductive soundtrack that features birdsong, rustling leaves (perhaps) and faint melodies. Call it improvised ambient art or soft structuralism: everything loosely connected. It's nice to experience the world this way.
On view through October 1 at Whistle, 12, Hoenamu-ro 13-gil, 3rd floor, Yongsan-gu.
Haneyl Choi at P21 and Gallery2
Haneyl Choi, an adventurous sculptor of the human form who turned 30 last year, sees imposing 3D-printed naked men, an irregular polystyrene plate almost abstraction to melt the mind of David Smith and others that evidence an artist who feels very free and that I would like the visitor to feel very free too.
On view until October 1 at P21, 74 Hoenamu-ro, Yongsan-gu and gallery2, 204 Pyeongchang-gil Jongno-gu.
'Magnetic Fields' at BB&M
The four undulating, swirling abstractions that Lee Bul forged from acrylic paint and mother-of-pearl make this exhibition a must-visit. But more delights abound in this sharp display of five artists from BB&M's multigenerational roster. Jin Han Lee has fiery paintings that suggest a natural world altered by hallucinogens, Bae Young-whan's taut (aesthetically and conceptually) silver canvases riff on David Bowie's "Space Oddity", and Jeongsu Woo's sunny paintings with syncopated patterns. , are palate cleansers – like sweet but nuanced ice cream – in this multi-course feast.
On view through October 8 at BB&M, 10 Seongbuk-ro 23-gil, Seongbuk-gu.
Eugene Jung at Museumhead
It's unclear what happened, but all hell broke loose, and its aftermath includes this ultra-confident show by Eugene Jung, who was born in 1985. Sandbags form a curving wall, crowd control barricades are diverted to the side, and sculptures that resemble rusty sheet metal look like makeshift post-disaster architecture, now decaying. The pool of water in front of this trusty nonprofit space contains fractured pieces of what could have been an airplane fuselage or an exploded Modernist sculpture (from Styrofoam and other materials). Jung shows a futuristic dystopia that looks uncomfortably like the present. On view until September 7 at Museumhead , 84-3, Gyedong-gil, Jongno-gu.
