A number of new art exhibitions have begun in Seoul, inviting the aesthetically inclined to take an autumn stroll to one of the city's many galleries. The following is a selection of three shows that stand out, featuring works by international artists.
Galerie Eva Presenhuber’s pop-up exhibition in Seoul
Based in Zurich and Vienna, Galerie Eva Presenhuber has opened a pop-up exhibition with Seoul-based P21 gallery in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, showcasing a solo exhibition by Scottish artist Martin Boyce.
The exhibition “Celestial Snowdrops” centers around a mobile installation called “The Weight of the Tides," which comes into view upon entering the gallery. The artist compares mobile works to memories or dreams, in which fragmented elements try to form a complete image but remain unstable, constantly shifting, according to Galerie Eva Presenhuber.
Three framed woodblock panels are part of the exhibition, each woodblock bearing a word -- “Oceans,” “Falling” and “Always” – forming a three-word poem. Boyce received the Turner Prize in 2011 and represented Scotland at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. The exhibition in Seoul runs through Nov. 30.
Richard Aldrich's first show at Gladstone in Seoul
New York-based artist Richard Aldrich opens his first solo exhibition in Seoul at Gladstone Gallery Seoul in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, bringing together paintings and sculptures from the past decade. The artist has explored the recontextualization of objects and ideas, forging new relationships and meaning across forms, mediums and scale.
“Initially I had the idea to think of the two floors of the gallery as the dual sides of a personality. Personalities usually have more than two sides, but for the sake of the show, I thought that it could be generalized into two,” the artist said of the exhibition.
Aldrich alludes to a wide array of influences, ranging from art history to popular culture and science fiction. He has developed a visual language that navigates binaries in abstract and figurative forms while teetering between the conceptual and the physical properties in his mark-making. The exhibition runs until Dec. 21.
Thilo Heinzmann’s deliberate accident paintings
German painter Thilo Heinzmann has collected hundreds of different types of pigments from around the globe. The artist has returned with his signature “pigment paintings” at Perrotin Seoul, where his first Seoul exhibition was held in 2017.
Heinzmann's pigment paintings feature abstract compositions of divergent and overlapping tangential calligraphic marks augmented with bursts of pure pigment exploding across the surface. The exhibition “upfront, wild and unchained” comprises some 10 recent untitled abstract paintings.
The artist's rhythmical pigment paintings emerge from a process that he predetermines, but this also leads to chance encounters beyond his control. Heinzmann makes these works in a garden courtyard next to his studio and exposes vibrant pollen-like pigments to natural elements such as the wind. The exhibition at the Perrotin Seoul in Gangnam-gu will run through Dec. 21.
