Frieze Seoul

Past
Sep 4 – Sep 7, 2024
Seoul

ART FAIR DETAILS

Frieze Seoul
Booth A10
COEX
Sep 4 – 7, 2024

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At the 2024 edition of Frieze Seoul, Pace’s booth will situate its contemporary program in lively conversation with 20th century icons, bringing together works by Lee Ufan, Elmgreen & Dragset, Kylie Manning, Robert Indiana, Lee Kun-Yong, Yin Xiuzhen, and Alejandro Piñeiro Bello.

A 1988 painting by Lee—who is presenting a sculpture exhibition in the gardens of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam through October 27—will be featured on the booth, nodding to Pace’s coinciding exhibition of his work at its Seoul gallery. Just before Frieze Seoul, on August 31, Lee will open an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In the way of figurative painting on Pace’s booth, a 2024 canvas by Manning, titled Haenyeo, will showcase her ability to imbue two-dimensional compositions with a sense of constant motion and flux. In this new work, Manning’s rapid brushstrokes suggest both a push and a pull, wherein the abstract elements that coalesce into figurations also threaten to obliterate the narrative scenes they compose.

Did I Grow? (2024), a new figurative sculpture of a young boy by Elmgreen & Dragset, will also figure prominently in Pace’s Frieze Seoul presentation. This work, rendered in marble and brushed steel, reflects the duo’s deep and enduring interest in questions of identity and belonging. Another highlight will be a small-scale polished bronze LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, one of the most inventive artists of the 20th century. Employing language and color as key materials for his works across media, Indiana called himself an “American painter of signs,” developing a uniquely graphic visual vocabulary that he imbued with literary, political, and spiritual import. Concurrent with Frieze Seoul, Robert Indiana: The Sweet Mystery—an official Collateral Event of the 60th Venice Biennale—is on view at the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice’s Piazza San Marco through November 24.

Also on Pace’s booth, a new painting by Piñeiro Bello, who joined the gallery’s program this year, will bring contemporary abstraction to the fore of the presentation. Using traditional materials such as oil on raw linen or burlap, Piñeiro Bello creates striking layers of color in his paintings, evoking the natural landscapes and folkloric traditions of the Caribbean. His abstract and semi-abstract compositions take on otherworldly, fantastical qualities, revealing unexplored places in the artist’s own subconscious. A recent Bodyscape painting by Lee Kun-Yong and a mixed media sculpture composed of porcelain and used clothes by Yin Xiuzhen—whose work is included in the group exhibition Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists, opening at the MMCA in Seoul on September 3—will also feature in this intergenerational exchange.

On View in Seoul

Past

Correspondence

Lee Ufan and Mark Rothko

Sep 4 – Oct 26, 2024

Seoul

Past

Wang Guangle

Sep 4 – Oct 26, 2024

Seoul

Featured Works

Robert Indiana

b. 1928, New Castle, Indiana
d. 2018, Vinalhaven, Maine

Robert Indiana’s LOVE, 1966–99 (1966/1999) is an intimately-scaled example from the artist’s most iconic body of work. Indiana first introduced the stacked LOVE symbol in 1966, revolutionizing the visual and linguistic landscape of American art. The crisp, hard-edged letters arranged in a square formation with the signature tilted o immediately became a universal icon, representing a powerful message of love and peace amidst a tumultuous socio-political era. This “one-word poem,” as the artist described, draws on his career-spanning engagement with the aesthetics and vocabulary of highway signage and protest imagery, as well as his upbringing in the Christian Science church, where “God is Love” (also the title of another of Indiana’s series) is inscribed over the platform where the readers conduct the service. Indiana explained in a 1977 interview that LOVE is “...purely a skeleton of all that word has meant in all the erotic and religious aspects of the theme and to bring it down to the actual structure of the calligraphy itself is like a skeleton. It’s reducing it to the bare bones. It was really a matter of distillation.” [1] Indiana’s distillation of this loaded term into the elemental forms of language has led to one of the most recognizable motifs in contemporary art: LOVE sculptures are featured prominently in major institutions and public spaces, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; Des Moines Art Center, John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Iowa; John F. Kennedy Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also known as LOVE Park; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Tate Modern, London.

1. Robert Indiana quoted in Donald B. Goodall, “Conversations with Robert Indiana,” in Robert Indiana (Austin: University of Texas, 1977), 36.

Sam Gilliam

b. 1933, Tupelo, Mississippi
d. 2022, Washington, D.C.

Sam Gilliam was one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. He emerged from the Washington, D.C. scene in the mid 1960s with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting. Gilliam pursued a pioneering course in which experimentation was the only constant. Inspired by the improvisatory ethos of jazz, his lyrical abstractions took on an increasing variety of forms, moods, and materials.

Lee Ufan

b. 1936, Kyongsang-namdo, South Korea

Lee Ufan is recognized for his unconventional artistic processes which underscore the relationship between the viewer, the artwork, and the spaces they inhabit and for philosophical writings that challenge prevailing notions of artmaking with attention on spatial and temporal conditions.

Kylie Manning

b. 1983, Juneau, Alaska

Kylie Manning’s new painting Haenyeo (2024) is named for the community of female divers on South Korea’s Jeju Island whose practice of diving to depths as deep as 20 meters to harvest seafood dates to the 17th century. Manning’s whirling composition, rendered in aquatic blues and greens punctuated by warm earthen tones, oscillates between fleeting fragments of figuration—a face or hand in focus—amidst abstracted swathes that capture the dangerous, unpredictable conditions of the frigid South China Sea. Two figures in the foreground reach for each other, seeking connection in the swirling currents and symbolizing the deep bond shared by Haenyeo, who begin training in early adolescence, and many of whom continue to dive into their 80s. The present work belongs to a body of recent works that engage with the cultural and geographic histories of South Korea, a locational specificity central to the artist’s oeuvre. A suite of new paintings in Manning’s one-artist exhibition Yellow Sea at Space K, Seoul, incorporate minerals found in the sediment-rich waters of the Yellow Sea, the body of water between China and the Korean peninsula. Manning's works are deeply informed by her experiences in and around the ocean and are in continuous conversation with the sea and storied seascape painters, including English Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner and 19th century American painter Winslow Homer. In Haenyeo, the artist fuses the titular community’s centuries-long history with the ocean with her own lifelong experiences in and on the water.

Maysha Mohamedi

b. 1980, Los Angeles, California

Maysha Mohamedi’s Crystal Jeremy (2024) draws its title and color palette from her studio neighbor Jeremy, a crystal dealer whose calming energy permeates the walls. Mohamedi’s approach to painting begins with two foundational elements—a conceptual anchor and a carefully chosen palette. From these starting points, she creates her distinctive compositions: archipelagos of forms flooded in a rich Color Field style, interlinked by delicate, exacting lines. The resulting cosmos of inter- connected shapes and lines incidentally evokes complex subterranean root systems and intricate neural network structures, reflecting the artist’s background in neuroscience and her interest in the intersection between the organic and the systematic. Likewise, Mohamedi’s extra- ordinary attention to color mixing as a science, her formulas meticulously recorded in notebooks, recalls her time working in laboratories. Crystal Jeremy is a characteristic blend of abstraction and precision, where fine lines cut around and across forms whose craggy edges are reminiscent of the jagged coastline of her native California, where the artist lives and works. Her exacting process, combined with a deep understanding of her materials, results in works that feel both spontaneous and deliberate, an examination of the interplay between the emotional and cerebral across Mohamedi’s oeuvre.

Aimlessly navigating the canals, he would sometimes leap onto small islands overgrown with reeds, cheering up lonely bulls with his whistles. He'd pick berries from thorny bushes, poke at rabbit burrows to startle the young ones, and giggle at coots... — Kenjiro Okazaki, Aimlessly navigating the canals, he would sometimes leap onto small islands overgrown with reeds, cheering up lonely bulls with his whistles. He'd pick berries from thorny bushes, poke at rabbit burrows to startle the young ones, and giggle at coots dozing on the water's surface. His feet were always muddy and cheerfully wet. / あてなく運河を巡り、葦の茂る小島に飛び移り、寂しげな雄牛を口笛で元気づけ、茨からベリーを摘み、ウサギの巣を突っつき子ウサギを驚かせ、水面で眠るオオバンに笑い、彼の足はいつも泥だらけで朗らかに濡れていました。, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 160 cm × 130 cm (63" × 51-3/16")

Raging waves crash over the breakwater. Change the curtains, transform the room. Giant waves recede, water tilts sharply. Salt traces flushed cheeks, running down the nose.. The memory of your lips. Fra Angelico's allure, separate from you. That... — Kenjiro Okazaki, Raging waves crash over the breakwater. Change the curtains, transform the room. Giant waves recede, water tilts sharply. Salt traces flushed cheeks, running down the nose.. The memory of your lips. Fra Angelico's allure, separate from you. That taste. / 防波堤を超え荒波が叩きつける。カーテンを変えれば部屋は変わる。巨大な波が引き水面が急に傾き、紅い頬を塩味が伝わって鼻筋に下る。あなたの唇の感触。フラ・アンジェリコへの思いはあなたとは関係ない、その味。, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 160 cm × 130 cm (63" × 51-3/16")

Kenjiro Okazaki

b. 1955, Tokyo, Japan

New from renowned Japanese artist and theorist Kenjiro Okazaki, the present paintings are a continuation of the artist’s exploration of large- scale abstraction, which he initiated in the early 1990s. These vibrant works comprise energetic swathes of acrylic paint that rise off the surface, shifting from sheer layers to thick, overlapping impasto. Ranging from warm tones of pink, yellow, and brown to aquatic blues and purples, Okazaki’s brushstrokes appear to melt, fold, and hover over one another, creating rhythmic, dynamic compositions. Although the asymmetrical divisions of the diptychs create distinct fields, the brushstrokes exist in uninterrupted dialogue, drawing the viewer’s eye across and around the canvases. Okazaki’s expert use of color, texture, and balance creates a continuously shifting visual experience that transcends a singular reading. The elaborate titles of these paintings are works of art in themselves, offering poetic introductions to each canvas. Works from this series are held in important public collections, including the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan; Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan; and The National Museum of Art, Osaka.

Paradisus by Alejandro Piñeiro Bello — Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, *Paradisus*, 2024, oil on linen, 36" × 46" (91.4 cm × 116.8 cm)

Alejandro Piñeiro Bello

b. 1990, Havana, Cuba

Through a practice rooted in identity and memory, Alejandro Piñeiro Bello paints the enduring spirit of the Caribbean. Drawing on the local flora and fauna of his hometown and the surrounding land and seascapes of Los Angeles and Miami, Piñeiro Bello implements color, balance, and texture to portray social, cultural, and mythical histories. At the core of his artistic practice is a dedication to his homeland of Cuba, Caribbean diaspora, and surrounding island nations.

Elmgreen & Dragset

Michael Elmgreen | b. 1961, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ingar Dragset | b. 1969, Trondheim, Norway

Did I Grow? (2024) depicts a boy carved from white Carrara marble, standing with one hand curled to his chest in a gesture suggesting vulnerability or introspection. He is positioned on a stainless-steel stadiometer, as if being measured at a doctor’s office. Did I Grow? evokes the anticipation of growing bigger, older, ever closer to adulthood. Elmgreen & Dragset often engage with the theme of childhood in their works, addressing the complicated emotions that come with growing up and the pressures of societal expectations.

In Did I Grow?, the figure is quite literally being measured, which hints at the judgment and comparison children are often subjected to, both by others and themselves. Rendered in marble and stainless steel, materials associated with fine art or long-time use, this everyday scene is imbued with a new significance that underscores the emotional weight of the moment. In choosing to render the figure in marble, a material synonymous with classical statuary and idealized representations of the human body, Elmgreen & Dragset seem to comment on traditional and dated masculine values often imposed on boys from a young age. The enduring nature of the marble is a reminder of the impossibility of capturing the complexities and developments within a human life in a single sculpture. Over time, the figure itself will never grow; it will remain unchanged indefinitely.

Bodyscape 76-1-2022 by Kun-Yong Lee — Lee Kun-Yong, *Bodyscape 76-1-2022*, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 162 cm × 130 cm (63-3/4" × 51-3/16")

Lee Kun-Yong

b. 1942, Sariwon, Korea

Lee Kun-Yong’s Bodyscape 76-1-2022 (2022) features robust swathes of vibrant blue paint overlaid on black acrylic. The artist’s gestural brushstrokes form elegant rows of lines that extend across the canvas, with the shortest swathes appearing at the top and increasing in length as the eye moves down the canvas. The present work belongs to Lee’s ongoing Bodyscape series (1976–), comprised of compositions that reflect the artist’s commitment to recording the physicality of painting and the relationship between performance and art-making. To create these pieces, Lee approaches the canvas from various vantage points—behind or adjacent to the surface—so that he cannot see it. For works in the 76-1 series, Lee stands directly behind the canvas. Working from the same position from start to finish, he produces a series of spontaneous marks. The resulting works are sumptuous records of his movements, echoes of the angle at which he approaches the canvas, and marks that extend only as far as his arms can reach. Throughout this series, the artist explores how performance can be documented through the expressive marks left by his body and chosen medium. Bodyscape 76-1-2022 is a recent example from this stunning body of experimental corporeal works, cementing the artist’s legacy as a pioneering figure in groundbreaking performance art.

Yin Xiuzhen

b. 1963, Beijing, China

Yin Xiuzhen's work explores themes of the past and present, memory, globalization, and homogenization. Yin’s work is invested in exploring cultural memory and the scale of change that occurred in China in the late twentieth century, particularly in how a more international economy and new attitudes toward urbanism have created environments where traditions and objects are treated as ephemeral or disposable.

To inquire about any of the artists or works featured here, please email us at inquiries@pacegallery.com.

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