One way to understand a city is through its food. We Koreans are rightly proud of our cuisine, but Seoul is a city where you can also find world-class Chinese and Japanese fine dining, inventive Thai cooking and Uzbek and Indonesian cafรฉs.
The cityโs role as a meeting place for all of Asia is reflected in this yearโs Frieze Seoul, where the best established and emerging galleries from Korea join a conversation with their peers from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh, as well as world-leading galleries from Europe and the Americas. This unique dialog between local, continental and global is reflected in the cityโs museums and nonprofits, who have assembled a spread of must-see exhibitions, from Ilmin Museumโs survey of emerging Korean painting and Mark Bradford at Amorepacific Museum of Art to Lee Bulโs largest career survey to date, opening at the Leeum.
As key ingredients in the Frieze Seoul recipe, Iโm excited that the Artist Award as well as our Film, Talks, Music and Live programs are returning this year, and will take place both at COEX and around the city. Our Neighborhood Nights in Cheongdam, Euljiro, Hannam and Samcheong are back too: a unique chance to explore the best of the cityโs culture.
Lastly, donโt miss Frieze House, our brand-new permanent exhibition space here in the city with its own program of events and exhibitions: all based in a characterful, architect-renovated dwelling. In the shadow of Namsam, its landscaped garden features a site-specific installation by renowned Japanese studio SANAA: a perfect instance of the Korean and wider Asian scenes coming together.
Whatever you choose to sample this Frieze Week, eat well and leave full.
As we celebrate the fourth edition of Frieze Seoul, this issue highlights the range of pan-Asian voices represented at the fair. You will find emerging Seoul-based artists, photographers and retailers alongside reports on Japanese galleries, the Thai scene and a survey of young collectors across the continent, from Daegu to Jakarta. Iโm proud to include a tribute to the beloved artist Suki Seokyeong Kang, who passed away earlier this year. Hers is an art that is truly tran scendent: speaking to anyone, in any place.
On the Move ํ๊ตญ๊ณผ ๊ทธ ๋๋จธ์ ์ ์ ์์ง๊ฐ๋ค
Thailand Takes to the Stage ๋ ์ค๋ฅด๋ ์์์ ์์ ๊ณ์ ์ฃผ์ญ
๋ง๋
A solo presentation at Frieze Seoul explores how a complex relationship with China shaped Ulayโs art.
BEYOND THE GREAT WALL
Ulay (1943โ2020) often declared that he became an artist โout of discontentโ w ith himself. Born Frank Uwe Laysiepen in Germany, he was simultaneously iconicized and overshadowed by his 12-year relationship and collaboration with Marina Abramoviฤ (b. 1946). Indeed he often referred to himself as one of the โmost known unknown artists.โ Working at the intersection of photography and performance, he produced a significant solo body of work. In the early 1970s, he relocated to Amsterdam, where he created his early and seminal performative Polaroid self-depictions, presenting himself as a man, a woman, half of both, a S โhe (1973), a white bride, a dead cross-dresser, an elf, transforming a nd manipulating his face and body in myriad ways. His entire life and artistic trajectory were marked by an intense search for identity and his recurring attempts to run away from himselfโhis
name, his origins, the art worldโonly to return to himself again and again. U lay maintained a long-standing personal and artistic connection with China, which informed his later oeuvre in particular. However, the best-known work relating to the country is The Great Wall Walk (1988), conceived with Abramoviฤ, his then partner in life and art. Preparations for this seminal work began in the early 1980s: countless bureaucratic procedures, permissions and negotiations with the Chinese author ities were necessary to realize what had never been done by any Westerner beforeโto walk the full length of the wall. Originally conceived as a durational performance (though Ulay h imself preferred the terms โeventโ or โactionโ), the couple were to begin at opposite ends and meet in the middle. The walk was intended to symbolize the confirmation of their love. Yet, the journey ultimately marked the end of one of the 20th centuryโs most iconic and productive artistic partnerships.
I nspired by Chinaโs vastnessโits landscapes, culture, religion and peopleโUlay documented the journey through photographs and in multiple diaries. ChinaโAlong the Great Wall (1988) is a series of dozens of color photographs capturing the scenery and individuals he encountered. Included in his posthumous retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2020), and subsequently in two exhibitions in China at HOW Art Museum and S PURS Gallery (both 2022), the series is displayed alongside large, gate-like, a luminum sculptures. Suspended from the ceiling and titled Mรฉn (้จ, meaning โdoorโ in Chinese, 1989), they are i nspired by the architecture of the Great Wall and visitors are invited to walk beneath and through them.
Opposite Marina Abramoviฤ / U lay, The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk , 1988. Courtesy: Marina Abramoviฤ Archives, ULAY Foundation, Ljubljana, LI-MA Amsterdam, and SPURS Gallery, Beijing
Above Ulay, Diary from the Great Wall Walk 1986โ1989/2016. Courtesy: ULAY Foundation, Ljubljana, and SPURS Gallery, Beijing
After separating from Abramoviฤ in 1988, Ulay returned to his first artistic love: Polaroid photography, continuing to experiment with larger formats. In 1989, he produced the mid-size Polaroid series The Lovers, in which he restaged The Great Wall Walk as a puppet performance for the camera. His then-wife, Ding Xiao Song, animated the paper puppets, layering new interpretations onto the existing narrative. The final Polaroid images show Song setting the figures on fireโsymbolizing not only the end of Ulay and Abramoviฤโs relationship but also the beginning of a new stage in Ulayโs life. This was a chapter deeply connected to what he describes as the process of โunlearningโforgetting the values by which I had justified myself, my commitment.โ Indeed this mood of searching permeates many of his works from the early 1990s, which remain deeply marked by his experience of the realities of China and its spiritual traditions, as well as the physicality of his own body in motion.
โ I walk. Feet. Bones. Muscles. Veins. Blood. Skin. Mind within. Walls of skin. No thought. Remember, surrender. Walk on,โ Ulay wrote in one of his China diaries in 1988. Like much of his artistic work from this period, these writings remain largely unknownโfragments of a life and art intensely lived, waiting to be traced like the paths he followed in search of himself.
With 22 galleries joining Frieze Seoul from Japan this year, Taro Nettleton surveys the historic and ongoing dialogue between the Japanese and Korean art scenes.
Nettleton)
PARALLEL WORLDS
In the modern era, the paths of Japanese and Korean art have at times been intertwined, at others run parallel. Both flourished in the aftermath of WWII and the Korean War, responded to the influence of art informel and other Western trends, and developed adjacent movements such as the Japanese mono-ha (sc hool of things) and Korean dansaekhwa (monochrome painting), whose specific approaches stood apart from those of their Euro-American contemporaries.
Art practices in Japan and Korea have necessarilyโand sometimes self-consciouslyโaddressed Western influences, global trends and local concerns. With 22 Japan-based galleries across all sections, the fourth edition of Frieze Seoul reflects Koreaโs and Japanโs art histories and future directions.
Participating in Frieze Masters, Tokyo Gallery + BTAP first became involved with Korean art more than 70 years before the launch of Frieze Seoul. Established in 1950, Tokyo Gallery has played a formidable role in the development of both Japanese and Korean contemporary art history. It organized solo exhibitions of gutai painter Kazuo Shiraga in 1962, neo-dada artists Ushio Shinohara and Jiro Takamatsu in 1966, and the group exhibition โTricks and Visions: Stolen Eyes,โ which arguably spawned the mono-ha movement, in 1968. By the 1970s, the gallery had turned its attention to Korea and, in 1975, in a pioneering move, it presented the first exhibition featuring the landmark monochrome painting movement dan saekhwa with โFive Hinsek โWhiteโ: 5 Korean Artistsโโbefore the label โdansaekhwa โ existed.
Tokyo Gallery owner Hozu Yamamotoโs views on the shifts in the Japanese and Korean art scenes of the last 50 years are unsurprisingly panoramic. โIn the 1960s and 1970s,โ he explains, โthere was virtually no market for [avant-garde] art. When there was no market, artists had to cooperate to rent gallery spaces and have group shows, which fostered communication
This page from top Exterior view of Yutaka K i kutake Gallery, Tokyo. Photograph: Moe Machida
Installation view of โKorea: Five Artist, Five Hinsek โWhiteโ,โ 1975, at Tokyo Gallery. Courtesy: Tokyo Gallery+BTAP, Tokyo
Misako and Jeffrey Rosen, 2025. Photograph: Mie Morimoto
and feedback between artists. Today, with thriving markets, art fairs and solo exhibitions have become the norm, and feedback is received through sales. The market has become the strongest influence on the work.โ He also suggests that, within the contemporary market, distinctions based on nationality become blurred as they are superseded by broader cultural trends, such as pop or anime. This year, the gallery will present works by dansaekhwa artists Park Seo-Bo and Suh Seung-Won as well as mono-ha artists Lee Ufan, Kishio Suga and Koji Enokura.
Looking to the more recent past, Tokyo gallery Misako & Rosen cofounder Jeffrey Rosen fondly remembers the inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul in 2022. โThe fair closed on a Monday amid a raging typhoon, and yet it was packed,โ he says. โThe level of enthusiasm was in fectious.โ Rosen, whose gallery this year will showcase the works of three painters โRichard Aldrich, Trevor Shimizu and Margaret Leeโand the multimedia ironist Ken Kagami, says that, with some notable exceptions, both the Korean and Japanese art worlds seem currently to โfavor aesthetic over explicitly political conversations.โ The greatest commonality between the two scenes, he notes, is the healthy growth of โart-forward spaces and artist-run galleries, such as Shower and Primary Practice in Seoul, and XYZ collective, 4649 and Galerie Tenko Presents in Tokyo.โ The growth of these spaces, which are responding to the blue-chip Western gallery model, could be important not only culturally and economically, but socio-politically.
In commercial terms, Rosen notes, the โKorean market for blue-chip work seems to have grown exponentially larger than in Japan,โ while โthe market for lower-priced emerging art is also significantly larger in Korea.โ Perhaps th is is unsurprising as the GDP from the cultural sector in Korea has nearly doubled in the last two decades and the number of art galleries in the country grew by more than 40 percent between 2015 and 2024. Tokyo Gallery owner Yamamoto laments the difference in support that the Japanese and Korean art scenes enjoy: โKorea has a strong cultural policy,โ he says. โJapan doesnโt. Many Japanese leaders in the private and public sectors here think that art should be provided free of charge.โ
Established in Minato, Tokyo, in 2015, Yutaka Kikutake Gallery aims to underscore the social contribution of contemporary art practices. Director Yutaka Kikutake echoes Yamamoto in noting that contemporary works in both Japan and Korea reflect global trends. He feels, however, that Japanese and Korean artists also betray influences of โAsian, or perhaps even Buddhist, thought, resulting in a balance of sensibi lity and reason which differs from those of Western artists.โ
Kikutake thinks that the increase in young collectors is also significant in both the Japanese and Korean markets. โThe a rt scene is reaching a broader audience,โ he says. While both markets are growing, the speed at which they are moving is drastically different: โIf Korea is running at 120 kmph,โ he says, โJapan is moving at about 40 kmph.โ The Japanese market also faces infrastructu ral issues. โMany Japanese galleries and other organizations have raised this,โ he says, โbut the current tax system in Japan is slowing things down.
Above Richard Aldrich, Untitled 2017/2023โ2024. Courtesy: Misako and Jeffrey Rosen, Tokyo
Discover Japanese g a lleries at Frieze Seoul 2025. ํ๋ฆฌ์ฆ ์์ธ 2025์ ์ฐธ๊ฐํ๋ ์ผ๋ณธ ๊ฐค๋ฌ๋ฆฌ๋ค์ ๋ค์๊ณผ ๊ฐ๋ค. A Lighthouse Called Kanata (M20), Anomaly (A37), Art Front Gallery (M03), Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (M01), CON_ Gallery (F04), Taka Ishii Gallery (A32), K a ikai Kiki Gallery (A06), Kosaku Kanechika (C14), Kana Kawanishi Gallery (F02), Kenji Taki Gallery (B13), Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (C06), Tomio Koyama Gallery (C08), Maho Kubota Gallery (B11), Misa Shin Gallery (A22), Misako & Rosen (B12), Nanzuka (C12), Taro Nasu (B15), Kotaro Nukaga Gallery (M06), Parcel (F03), SCAI The Bathhouse (A26), Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (C20) and Take Ninagawa (A34).
Iโm hopeful, however, that recommendations from the private sector will bring change soon.โ Kikutakeโs take is optimistic, especially for the future of young ar tists: โI do see more opportunities for younger artists to exhibit,โ he says. โThe social presence and significance of contemporary art is growing in both countries.โ
At Frieze Seoul, the gallery will feature the works of Tokyo-based Yuko Mohri and Hong-Kong-based Trevor Yeung, whose works have recently been shown at the Venice, Sydney and Lyon biennials. Both artistsโ work deals with systems, and the relation of human and non-human actors. Yeungโs installations, for example, often reference horticulture and fishkeeping; Mohriโs Decomposition (2021) translates changes inside rotting fruit into sound.
The range of works represented by Japan-based galleries participating in this yearโs Frieze Seoul promises a nuanced view of historical and current concerns, and productive conversations on how to negotiate the local and the global. Despite the dominant influence of market demands and globalized culture, Yamamoto suggests, โart fairs al low us to identify trends connected to specific regions by grouping many works together. They promote communication; communication can often matter much more than objects.โ
โI HAVE ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO WHAT LIES BEYOND THE VISIBLEโ
HYEJUNG JANG
We tend to think of the modern world as governed by reason and scientific logic, but ancient belief systems continue to shape our lives in subtle ways. You have consistently acknowledged and explored this through video, painting, sculpture and VR. What initially drew you to this?
IM YOUNGZOO
Over time, I found myself increasingly questioning our shared perception of reality. I started to wonder: Is something truly invisible, or are we simply choosing not to see it? In Korea, technology has advanced alongside longstanding traditions and superstitions, and I noticed that certain realities would be deliberately ignored at times. For a 2016 exhibition, I looked at natural elements like stone and the wind, which are often associated with superstition, and approached them in t he style of textbook experiments, as if they were scientific subjects. The exhibitionโs title, THEWESTLIESWINDCOMESAN DGOES,โ references a weather report issued during the 2011 Tลhoku earthquake and tsunami, and I presented the video Rock and Fairy (2016). This approach has continued to inform my work.
HJ Your practice often bridges historical and contemporary narratives,
drawing on traditional Korean motifs, folklore and superstition. What does โtraditionโ mean to you, and how do you engage with it in your work?
IY As someone who primarily works with video, I am constantly thinking about framing: What is brought into view and what remains outside the frame?
There are certain things in the world that undeniably exist, yet we treat them as if they do not. I think tradition is one such thingโespecially what I would call โpseudo ยญtraditions.โ I am less interested in adding more to the frame than in capturing what has been intentionally left out. Tradition, for me, often exists at the periphery.
HJ Si nce your first solo exhibition in 2015, you have developed an extensive body of work. What strikes me most is how interconnected your work feels, as if each piece is in conversation with the last, building a web of evolving narratives. I understand you have recently been researching people who observe migratory birds. What stories have emerged from that process?
IY I have always been drawn to what lies beyond the visible. My book ์ธ๊ฐ๊ณผ๋ (HUMAN/I, 2021) is a guide on how to pass into the world beyond the visible. I am interested in how people imagine
what they cannot observe directly, and I believe those imaginings reveal something fundamental about the emotional and spiritual life of both the individual and society. Death is an apt example: no one returns from it, but we endlessly theorize and construct stories around it.
Migratory birds appear and then vanish, prompting speculation and mythma king. In Korea, for instance, ducks flying north were once believed to be departing for the afterlife, and their return was considered sacred. This story struck me as a profound reflection of the human need to give meaning to what we cannot fully grasp. While birdwatching, I encountered many such stories. I was especially moved by accounts of soca lled lost birds, and how people would give them names or mimic their calls. I also learned that birdsongs could shift in response to changes in migratory paths and climate change. That led me to think more broadly about the climate cr isis, planetary instability and other apocalyptic scenarios, and it gradually evolved into a meditation on disappearance, and on the human impulse to perceive and fill in what no longer exists.
HJ Your 2025 Frieze Artist Award commission is titled Calming Signal. This yearโs theme is โFuture Commonsโโhow are you responding to that?
YI The title, Calming Signal, comes from a term used to describe behavioral patterns in animals that help reduce anxiety. More specifically, I began by observing dogs spinning in circles or digging at the floor, even when there is no ground to dig. It occurred to me that these โsignalsโ can also be found in human actions. Many of these movements are circular, often resembling da nces that express a desire to realign with the earth, the divine and the planetary. This led me to study circular dances across cultures, such as ganggangsullae in Korea, or Sufi whirling. Sufi whirling adheres to relatively strict rules like spinning in alignment with the Earthโs axis, but it was interesting to see how it is adapted in various contemporary contexts. You might see these da nces stylized in a Kยญpop performance or staged for tourists in Dubai. Around that time, I also came across a study from Seoul National University on rising sea levels and changes in the Earthโs rotational axis.
I saw these seemingly unrelated phenomenaโSufi whirling, Kยญpop choreography, shifts in the Earthโs rotational ax is, repetitive behaviors of animalsโas different ways of sensing the instability of our present. Calming Signal imagines the โFuture Commonsโ as a space where we can bring our various patterns of a nxiety and repetition into focus, and collectively witness their precarious ba lance, even if only for a moment.
The revered painter Kim Tschang-Yeul spent half a century obsessively painting droplets of water. On the occasion of a major retrospective at MMCAโthe first since his passing in 2021โthree experts reflect on the significance of his singular vision.
A little more than 30 years have passed since Kim Tschang-Yeulโs retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Gwacheon in 1993. Now, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul is staging a new survey show. This is a rare opportunity to experience Kimโs oeuvre across the various phases and periods of his career, including previously unseen pieces from his Paris studio, uncovered after his passing in 2021.
Kim is recognized as one of the key figures in Korean monochrome painting, known as dansaekhwa, an abstract art movement that emerged in the 1970s. The traumatic experiences of his early life are visibly reflected in his informel pa intings from the 1950s and early 1960s. His โRiteโ series from the early 1960s, in particular, is characterized by rough painterly textures and intense color contrasts across flat surfaces. In June 1965, following his participation in the International Association of Art under UNESCO, Kim relocated to New Yorkโencouraged by his mentor, Kim Whanki. From the mid- to the late 1960s,
he distanced himself from informel aesthetics and the remnants of war, ex perimenting with new materials such as Plexiglas and exploring more geome tric forms. And between the late 1960s and 1973, he developed his signature water droplet motif, marking a significant, sustained shift in his practice.
Although Kim remains best known for his water drop paintings, this new exhibition provides a broader view of his artistic pursuits, tracing the development of his unique visual language throughout his career. It includes his โRecurrenceโ series, in which droplets are juxtaposed with passages from classical Chinese texts, influenced by his grandfatherโs calligraphic practice. Temporality in his work transforms into atemporality, while the repetitive and performative act often evokes the aesthetics of dansaekhwa Kimโs work embodies the paradox of visibility: the impossibility of truly seeing water drops versus the illusionโand anti-illusionโof their presence.
Above left Kim Tschang-Yeul, Phenomenon 1971. Courtesy: MMCA, Seoul
Above right Kim Tschang-Yeul, Waterdrops, 1983. Courtesy: Estate of Kim Tschang-Yeul and Almine Rech, Paris/ Brussels/London/New York/Shanghai/ Monaco. Photograph: Rebecca Fanuele
On the occasion of the 2023โ24 exhibition โWaterโ at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels, we had the honor of presenting 14 works by the great Korean painter Kim Tschang-Yeul. His evocative depictions of water drops found a natural and touching resonance with the setting of the Villa Empain.
Ki mโs life was shaped by a succession of struggles and exiles. Aged just 15, he fled his village in North Korea under the cover of night. He never saw his family againโmost poignantly, he lost all contact with his beloved grandfather, who had founded the village school and inspired Kimโs vocation. Later, forcibly conscripted to fight against the communists, the artist witnessed the loss of his comrades and narrowly escaped death on the front line.
Kim devoted 50 years to the development of a singular and remarkable body of workโone centered entirely on a lone motif: the water drop. He painted hu ndreds of thousands of water dropsโ each alike, each distinct. With the precision of an illusionist, he deployed his implacable technique, introducing subtle variations in format and medium.
The result is work of extraordinary visual impact, a compelling testament to his painterly rigor and mastery of light and shadow.
โSince 1971, this has been my only path,โ he remarked during a press conference held for the inauguration of his mu seum in Jeju, Korea, in 2016. โThatโs itโ this is what I am meant to do.โ The drops, he insisted, โcarry no meaning,โ nor does the endless repetition of this motif ove r the years.
In his rare confiding moments, Kim acknowledged that the water drops served to โerase the anxietiesโ of a โneedlessly complicatedโ life and to help him โlive without fear.โ His unique body of work reveals an inconsolable man in search of a lost paradise. Kimโs work, poised between dolorism and mysticism, is at once masterful and enigmatic.
Above Kim Tschang-Yeul, Rec urrence 1991. Courtesy: MMCA, Seoul
Opposite from top Hong Jin-hwon, Un documented Mona Lisa 2019/2025. Courtesy: the artist and Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Adriรกn Villar Rojas, The En d of Imagination VI 2024. Installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2024. Courtesy: the artist. Photograph: Jรถrg Baumann
Lee Bul, Willing To Be Vulnerable, 2015โ2016. Installation view at 20th Biennale of Sydney, 2016. Courtesy: the artist and Biennale of Syd ney
Much of Kim Tschang-Yeulโs work presents the dual nature of waterโs austerity (colorlessness) and sensuality (fullness). His paintings of water droplets are often rounded (facing the viewer: forward energy) and flat on the canvas (behind: receding energy); they are light and dark, transparent and refractive. The dialectic between tension and collapse, form and formlessness, reminds me that living ca n be abstracted into cycles of stasis, crisis and transformation. Kimโs work forces me to pause, to meet beauty. The cool gray-white-silver reflections on the surface of the droplets that contrast with the warmth of the yellow-orangebrown refracted light within the paintings remind me that even the smallest prism can possess a luxurious, enigmatic, time-stopping magnetism.
The shallow depth of field in Kimโs works means our attention cannot escape into the painting. Yet, as with other Korean artists retroactively described as making dansaekhwa, or monochrome, paintings, the abstraction and formality of the work offer a kind of respite from sensory overload. The crowds of water droplets, individual yet lacking individuality, set on top of and against backdrops of Chinese characters or newsprint in Waterdrops (1983), present what feels like a harmonious juxtaposition of the natural and the cultural. A co-existence in the same space without necessarily speaking to each other.
In the paintings, water appears to be captured before, during or after implied moments of movement. The drops may soak the paper, magnify or distort newsprint letters or appear to cling roundly to a su rface right before they drip. Looking at Kimโs paintings, I remember that water and oil repel each other, which reminds me that not everything can coalesce, merge and dissolve.
Louma Salamรฉ is director of the Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium.
Sun Yung Shin is a writer and poet based in Minneapolis, USA.
Five to See
โPanoramaโ at Songeun
The lively survey of work by the juryselected โKorean Artists Todayโ provides an overview of the Korean art landscape. songeunartspace.org
Adriรกn Villar Rojas at Art Sonje Center
The debut exhibition in Korea by the nomadic artist, admired for his richly textured, often melancholic sculptural installations. artsonje.org
โLee Bul: From 1998 to Nowโ at Leeum
A homecoming for a towering figure in Korean art. This touring international su rvey is the most comprehensive exhibition of her pioneering work ever st aged. leeumhoam.org
โMark Bradford: Keep Walkingโ at Amorepacific Museum of Art
Two decades of work by the seminal Los Angeles artist, including painting, sculpture, video and an interactive โw alkable painting.โ apma.amorepacific.com
Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries vs. Hong Jin-hwon at Buk-Seoul Mu seum of Art
In the museumโs annual โTitle Matchโ series, two Korean artists square off over questions of political action in an overwhelming media sphere. sema.seoul.go.kr
At Frieze Seoul 2025, Kim Tschang-Yeul is included in the presentations of BHAK (Stand M10), Tina Kim Gallery (Stand B19), Johyun Gallery (Stand B01) and Almine Rech (Stand C22).
A retrospective of Kim Tschang-Yeul, the first major mu seum exhibition since his death, is on view at MMCA, Seoul, Korea, until January 4, 2026.
Translated from the Korean by Sara Liu.
MASTERS OF ART
HOMAGE TO
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR
<Luncheon of the Boating Party> 1880-1881, Oli on canvas, 129.9ร172.7cm
From Seoul to Shanghai, Taipei to Tokyo: young collectors to watch across Asia-Pacific. By Payal Uttam
์์ธ์์ ์ํ์ด ,
(P ayal Uttam) ์ด ์ ํ๋ค
ON THE MOVE
Soyoung Lee
Seoul, Korea
Installed high on a wall of collector Soyoung Leeโs home in Seoul is a dramatic fabric and wire sculpture shaped like a moth orchid. The recent acquisition is a piece from Korean artist Hannah Wooโs โBleedingโ series. For Lee, its soft yet dynamic folds evoke female genitalia. โItโs surprisingly fresh and original,โ she says of the piece that presides โlike a guardianโ over the space.
An avid supporter of emerging Korean artists, Lee discovered Wooโs work at Frieze Seoul last year. Her collectionโ now comprising around 270 worksโchampions young local artists, such as Woo, Shin Min and Lim Heejae, as well as international female artists including Etel Adnan, Carmen Herrera and Rosemarie Castoroโmany of whom gained recognition later in life. Lee sees the role of collector as both patron and custodian. โThrough collec ti ng,โ she says, โwe can
preserve and spotlight voices that may otherwise be omitted from art history.โ
In 2008, Lee founded Joymuseum, an art education organization that fosters mu seumยญba sed learning for children through collaborations with leading art institutions. In addition, she runs Re:Art Ground in Seoul, a community art space where she conducts art lectures for fellow collectors and enthusiasts. With an academic background in both art history and art education, she regularly publishes essays and is writing a book tentatively titled Forgotten Women Artists
For Lee, the act of collecting extends far beyond the pursuit of personal satisfaction. โAn art collector is not merely someone who owns artworks,โ she says, โbut someone who discerns and records the artistic sensibilities of our current era. By selecting and collecting artwork, they are ultimately preserving the values and perspectives of our times.โ
Opposite Soyoung Lee at her home, Seoul, 2025. On wall from left: Pam Evelyn, Below, 2021; Jason Martin, Unt itled, 2021
Photography Jiuk Kim
Hyunji Kim and Jaeyong Cho
Daegu, Korea
About 15 years ago, when Korean collector Hyunji Kim opened a new plastic surgery clinic in Daegu, she acquired some prints and small sculptures by Yayoi Kusama, alongside a print by Kim TschangยญYeul. Her husband, Jaeyong Cho, was shocked at the cost. โAt the time, I wa snโt familiar with contemporary art,โ he recalls. โThe prices seemed outrageous.โ Soon after, they were introduced to t he Daeguยญba sed Misuhoe, a group of seasoned collectors, and everything changed. โJust two hours into meeting them, I felt as if I had discovered an entirely new world,โ says Cho. โLike a frog in a well seeing the ocean for the first ti me.โ He apologized to his wife and began reading about the history of art.
โThe more I learned, the more exhilarated and moved I felt,โ he says. โEventually, we began acquiring contemporary works, one piece at a time.โ
Initially, they bought established masters; their home is dotted with multiยญ colored paintings by Damien Hirst a nd Takashi Murakami as well as playfu l sculptures by Kenny Scharf and Erwin Wurm. But over time, they have expanded their scope. Today, the couple actively supports young galleries in Korea and abroad. They now own more than a hundred works, which are displayed in t heir home that doubles as a private museum called the Cho & Kim Collection. One of their most meaningful acquisitions was Christ Child (2012), by the Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi. When they first encountered the piece, the couple were struggling to conceive a child, and the work struck a chord. Today, they see every artwork that they acquire as a new addition to their family, and a central thread running through the collection is the idea of joy and happiness.
Deeply involved in the Korean art scene, the couple are known for hosting regular gatherings for the art community. โCollecting has helped us grow beyond our own small world,โ says Cho. โOne of the most meaningful roles of buying art is to share joy and connection with ot hersโand we hope the Cho & Kim Collection continues to do exactly that.โ
Ji Won Kim Seoul, Korea
When she was a child, Korean collector Ji Won Kim remembers leafing through exhibition catalogs alongside her picture books, surrounded by the paintings that filled her home. One piece in particular left a lasting impression: a luminous depiction of water by Korean artist Kim TschangยญYeul. โI remember staring at the transparent droplets on faded paper,โ she recalls, โcaptivated by how restorative it felt.โ Years later, her grandmother gi fted her the workโthe first piece in her collection.
In 2014, Kimโs father established the Hansae Yes24 Foundation, a nonยญprofit dedicated to fostering cultural exchange between Korea and Southeast Asia. Inspired by the foundation, Kim began to take a more active role in the art world and started collecting. Today, she often buys works from artist friends, such as Sooyoung Chung, Meeyoung Kim, SAMBYPEN and GRAFFLEX. Kim also enjoys discovering emerging na mes and often collects pieces by artists who have participated in the foundationโs exhibitions. Recently, she acquired Listen to Your Mentors (2024), a s urreal ist oil painting by Thai artist
Wal Chirachaisakul, which now hangs in her office.
Cu rrently, Kim acts as an ambassador for the foundation. She is passionate about introducing lesser ยญknown Southeast Asian artists to Korean audiences. Earlier this year, for instance, the found ation opened โContemporary Art of Thailand: Dream and Reflectionโ at the Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center. โWhile collecting brings me joy, I feel most energized when Iโm promoting crossยญ cu ltural dialogue,โ she says, adding that she hopes to become more involved in the foundationโs exhibition programming in the future.
Looking ahead, Kim is committed to creating new opportunities for the public to access contemporary art, especially emerging talents: โI still carry the same feeling I had as a girl standing in front of my grandmotherโs waterยญdrop painting,โ she says. โThat sense of calm and emotional clarity. I want others to have the ch ance to encounter art in that way, too.โ
Above Ji Won Kim at her office, S e oul, 2025; on wall: Zulkifli Yusoff, Untitled 2014
Photography Yongsoo Cho
O p posite
Hyunji Kim and Jaeyong Cho at their home, Daegu, 2025; on wall from top: Austin Lee, Stack , 2021; Tomokazu Mat suyama, Chronic Vertigo Jump 2022
โWithout art, my life would be very plain,โ says Jakartaยญba sed collector Evelyn Halim. โIt would be like being on a diet of only white rice.โ As one of the most dynamic young collectors in Indonesia, Halimโs life is anything but plain.
Halimโs interest in contemporary art took root during her university years in London, where she studied economics and accountancy. Outside the classroom, she immersed herself in the cityโs art museums. Upon returning to Jakarta, she was inspired to start collecting. A chance encounter with veteran collector Wiyu Wahono at a gallery opening sparked a deeper interest in contemporary art. During the Covidยญ19 pandemic, he shared a stack of art theory books with he r and became her mentor. โIt opened my mind and changed my collection,โ she says, explaining that she began acquiring more strategically rather than just following her instinct.
Today, her collection features leading Indonesian artists including Jompet Ku swidananto, Heri Dono, F.X. Harsono and Nindityo Adipurnomo, as well as internationally acclaimed figures such as Anri Sala, Anicka Yi and Pierre Huyghe.
Ha lim houses the majority of her collectionโincluding large installationsโ in a private art space that she opens to artists, friends, visiting collectors and cu rators. Selected works also hang in her home, including wedding gifts from ar tists. Her most prized possession is a painting by Raden Saleh, a seminal 19thยญ century artist often seen as the father of modern Indonesian art.
Her commitment to the local art ecosystem extends beyond collecting. Halim actively supports artists through com missions, such as a large underwater installation by Indonesian artist Teguh Ostenrik off the coast of northern Bali. For Halim, collectors play a key role in nurturing the countryโs cultural la nd sc ape: โIndonesiaโs contemporary art scene is still developing,โ she reflects. โWe should learn to appreciate it and take part in shaping its future.โ
Cherry Xu
Shanghai, China
Itโs difficult to keep track of Shanghaiba sed cultural entrepreneur and collector Cherry Xu. A regular on the artยญfa ir circuit, she is constantly crisscrossing the globe in search of fresh talent to add to her burgeoning collection. Last year alone, nearly all her acquisitions were by artists who were new to herโamong them a textile sculpture of an oversized watch by Portuguese artist Bruno Zhu.
Xu began painting as a child and later studied fine art at university in Ca lifornia. The first piece she acquired was a light box by Julian Opie from Lisson Gallery. Since then, she has added works by the likes of Japanese artist Yu Nishimura, German artist Cosima von Bonin and French artist David Rappeneau to her collection.
This year, she launched Cheruby, a nonprofit cultural institution in the city that bridges the worlds of fashion and art. The organization will champion interdisciplinary artists and new designers th rough an ambitious slate of exhibitions, residencies and public programming.
Although she hasnโt yet opened a permanent space, Xu is already mounting pop ยญup e xhibitions such as โTaste,โ a solo show that opened in March at the Ziwu Gallery in Shanghai. Curated by Harriet
Min Zhang, it featured experimental work by Los Angelesยญba sed artist Andrew J. Greene. Today, Xu supports artists across the globe. Most recently, she backed Zhuโs first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, โLicense to Liveโ at the Chisenhale Gallery in London, and contributed to โA Map of the Pit,โ the closing performance of Mire Leeโs recent Turbine Hall com mission at Tate Modern.
Kankuro Ueshima
Tokyo, Japan
When Japanese entrepreneur and investor Kankuro Ueshima began collecting in 2022, he purchased artworks almost daily, amassing some 500 pieces within a year. While he has since slowed down, he still has a voracious appetite. Today, he often spends more time researching and acquir ing art than doing his day job. โMy lifestyle changed after I started collecting,โ he says. โEven when I travel, I am thinking more about the culture or history of each country and what kind of a rt and museums can be found there.โ
While Ueshima owns a handful of modern works, such as prints by Andy Wa rhol, his vast collection focuses on contemporary art. An Agnes Martin watercolor hangs in his living room and he recently acquired an ethereal light installation by James Turrell. He also supports young local artists, including re cent university graduates and emerging names such as Nanae Mitobe and Kohei Yamada. โLiving artists inhabit the same atmosphere as me,โ he explains, โand they are developing new ideas and concepts from our current environment, so I enjoy exploring their works.โ
Unlike many collectors in Japan, who tend to keep a low profile, Ueshima is passionate about sharing his collection of more than 700 works with the public. Early on, he created a detailed website and shared his acquisitions on Instagram. Last year, he converted a former school in Tokyo into the Ueshima Museum to display his collection. The sixยญ story building with a tea house on the top floor covers more than 1,500 square metres. โWe spend so much time in the digital world today on our smartphones and computers,โ he says. โArt is a tool to rehabilitate ou r mindset. It has the power to pull us back into the real world. That is the story of my collection.โ
Vicky Chen
Taipei, Taiwan
Taipeiยญba sed collector Vicky Chen grew up surrounded by art. When she was young, she remembers her father carefully assembling a collection of Chinese antiques. โHe has always been my biggest inspiration to collect,โ she says. โArt has become a shared language between us, a bridge.โ While Chen often visited major museums and galleries with her father, she embarked on her collecting journey while traveling with friends. โIt opened my eyes when we visited smaller, offยญthe ยญradar events and fairs,โ she recalls. Her first purchase was a 3D lenticular print by Indonesian collective Tromarama, which she spotted at the Singapore Biennale.
Today, Chen handles acquisitions of contemporary art for her family. Recent additions to the Tao Art Collection include Pierre Huygheโs Mindโs Eye (2021) as well as video works by Carsten Nicolai in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto.
โThe collection is a reflection of the journey of my life,โ she says, explaining
that she is interested in themes such as feminism, identity and the environment.
In 2020, Chen and her father co ยญfounded Tao Art, a private exhibition space designed by Japanese architect Jun Aoki. Conceived as a platform to support the artists they collect, the space also celebrates emerging Taiwanese talent. Chen frequently collaborates with curators to mount shows that place antiquities in dialogue with contemporary works. She also invites young Taiwanese artists, such as ceramicist Christina Liu, to create work that responds to the antiques in t he collection.
A committed patron, Chen enjoys helping artists bring ambitious projects to life. After presenting an exhibition for French artist Laurent Grasso at Tao Art in 2023, for instance, Chen funded his project on Lanyu, off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, where he created the film Orchid Island (2023). โSupporting a project rooted in our region felt especially meaningful,โ she says. โHe brought this small, relatively unknown island to the world.โ
Tony Lyu
Seoul, Korea
Itโs not every day that you step into an art fair and find yourself face ยญto ยญface with a colony of penguins. โIt was like they lost their way during migration and wandered into Frieze London. It was very visceral,โ says Korean venture capitalist and collector Tony Lyu, referring to an installation of penguinยญshaped foil balloons that he acquired from the fair last year. The whimsical piece by Danish artist Benedikte Bjerre is one of many striking works that now sit in his spacious Seoul home.
Lyu began collecting in 2019, initially to decorate his home. When a friend enlisted his help to build an online platform to support emerging artists, his curiosity was piqued. He started learning more about the art world and began collecting seriously.
Soon after, Lyu moved into a new apartment where he dedicated an entire floor to his collection. โIf I had had a choice, I would have been an artist, but collecting is another avenue of selfex pression,โ he explains. โHaving this space helped me to kickstart the process.โ His early acquisitions were luminous glass and metal sculptures, as well as abstract works by artists such as Tomรกs Saraceno and KyouยญHong Lee. Later, he began exploring artwork that embodied dualities between East and West, and old and new.
Having spent his childhood in Korea, Japan and the United States, and subsequently lived in Sri Lanka, Germany and Au stria, Lyu naturally gravitates towards artists with diasporic backgrounds, such as ColombianยญKoreanยญAmerican artist Gala Porras ยญKi m and New Yorkยญba sed Korean artist Jesse Chun.
Beyond collecting, Lyu has invested in the Art Busan fair, a media outlet called ARTART and an art storage company. He has also started supporting museums. โDonating, investing or purchasing is all part of the same spectrum,โ he says. โItโs a way for me to contribute to the art ecosystem and a way to keep learning.โ
From top
Cherry
Vicky
Evelyn Halim Photograph: Indra Leonardi
Xu Photograph: Yujie Fan
Kankuro Ueshima C ourtesy: Ueshima Museum Collection
Chen Photograph: Hazel Chiu
Tony Lyu Courtesy: Tony Lyu
This page, clockwise from top From the collection of Soyoung Lee: Jiwon Choi, The Death of Wasps 2022
From the collection of Soyoung Lee: Eunha Kim, Stump Mushrooms Bloom Stool 2025
Soyoung Lee in her l ibrary at home, 2025; on wall: Sung Inje, Wind 2021; on floor: Suh Yongsun, Head , 2015
Photography Jiuk Kim
Opposite page, c lockwise from top
From the collection of Ji Won Kim: Wal Chirachaisakul, Listen To Your Mentors 2024
Photography Yongsoo Cho
Hyunji Kim and Jaeyong Cho at their home, Daegu, 2025. On wall, left to right: Zeng Fanzhi, The Christ Child 2012; Alejandro Cardenas, Benedict, 2024
Hyunji Kim and Jaeyong Cho at their home, Daegu, 2025. On wall, in centre: Jeppe Hein, I am right here right now, 2018
Photography Jiuk Kim
September 3โ6, 2025
Colors Drawn from Nature: Persimmon Color Drawn from the rich hue of a ripened persimmon in autumn, this color symbolizes the passage of time and a sense of abundance. Through it, Park Seo-Bo reflected on natureโs smooth rhythmโone that ripens slowly, without haste. To him, the persimmon color embodied maturity, ripening, and the deep density of life. LG OLED captures the subtle variations in saturation and brightness of this persimmon color, visually conveying the warmth of a fully mature sensibility in this exhibition.
Looking in part to Korea, Thailand invests in its global artworld ascent.
THAILAND TAKES TO THE STAGE
When DIB Bangkok opens the doors on its more than 6,000-square-meter exhibition space this December, its striking sawtooth roof will be a crown on the new landscape of contemporary art in Thailand. A former steel warehouse converted by WHY architectsโthe same firm behind Frieze Los Angeles, led by Santa Monica-based Thai expat Kulapat YantrasastโDIB Bangkok plans to mount exhibitions of works from the collection of the late beverage magnate Petch Osathanugrah. The opening show, exploring the theme of โinvisible presence,โ will bring together impressive sculptures by Korean pioneer Lee Bul and German master Anselm Kiefer alongside an installation by the revered Thai sculptor Montien Boonma. Chaired by the collectorโs heir, Purat โChangโ Osathanugrah, DIBโs program will be overseen by the Japanese curator Miwako Tezuka.
Led by dedicatedโand financially committedโpatrons, institutions like DIB speak to a growing collector base in Thailand, which is ripe for further development. In recent years, growing the footprint of arts and culture has been a focus of Thai government policy.
In 2023, prime minister Srettha Thavisin a nnounced a target of 400 trillion Thai baht for the sector. Inspired in part by the success in Korea of initiatives such as the Korean Arts Management Service (KAMS), several cultural agencies have been established, including a national Soft Power Strategy Committee, and the Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA). An example of the success of such developments: the Th ailand-set third season of HBOโs The White Lotus starring K-idol Lisaโ rebated 30 percent of their production costs through central funding.
This page Kornkarn Rungsawang, M ALI BUCHA: Dance Offering , 2024. Performance view at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul. Courtesy: Leeum Museum of Art, Se oul. Photograph: Yeonje Kim
At a THACCA event earlier this year, the present Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra emphasized the โOne Family, One Soft Powerโ policy as a means of โempowering individuals with the tools, skills and knowledge to turn creativity into economic opportunity.โ
The international standing of contemporary Thai artists is testimony to this g rowing soft power. Take Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who has showcased Thai experience and landscape in films such as the Palme dโOr-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), alongside a parallel practice as a visual artist. His multi-channel video work Primitive (2009), filmed in a village in northern Thailand, was acquired for Tate Modern in 2011 by the museumโs A sia Pacific Acquisitions Committee, spearheaded at the time by Korean curator Sook-Kyung Lee. The Whitworth gallery in Manchester, UK, where Lee is now director, recently staged an e xhibition by Thai artist Jakkai Siributr, whose richly embroidered textile pieces evoke the experiences of his female forebears, including a touching monument to his deceased mother.
The t heme of intergenerational heritage is found across art institutions that have opened in Thailand since 2010. When her children came of age, the thoughts of Seoul-raised, Korean-Thai collector Marisa Chearavanont (aka Kang Soo-hyeong) turned to her own legacy. A renewed commitment to patronage birthed the Khao Yai Foundation. Opened in early 2024, the foundationโs Bangkok Kunsthalle in the cityโs Chinatown aims to promote Thai contemporary art, while forging a dialog with the international scene. Its opening display of work by video pioneer Michel Auder was followed by an expansive exhibition by much loved Bangkok-born Korakrit Arunanondchai. Three hoursโ drive from the Kunsthalle into the countryside, more than 60 acres of land have been transformed by the foundation into the Khao Yai Art Forest, where Chearavanont and founding director Stefano Rabolli Pansera seek to sensitively integrate works by the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Elmgreen & Dragset and Thai stupamaker Ubatsat into the surrounding landscape.
In the countryโs lush north, Chiang Maiโs MAIIAM Contemporary A rt Museum was cofounded in 2016 by the Asian antiquarian Jean Michel Beurdeley, his wife Patsri Bunnag a nd their son, Eric Bunnag Booth. In 2016, it mounted the first survey of Weerasethakulโs work in his homeland. Booth, who serves as managing director of the historic Jim Thompson Silk Company, also oversaw the expansion of the Jim Thompson Art Center, an e legant concrete and tile building in downtown Bangkok. The center recently hosted an exhibition by Kader Attia and โFragmented Reality,โ a curated selection from the DC Collection, formed by US-trained Thai lawyer Dr. Disaphol Chansiri, which includes Thai artists like Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook alongside international blue-chip names such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker.
A g rowing dialog between Thailand and the wider Asian art scene has been evinced over the past few editions of Frieze Seoul. Timed for the debut fair in 2022, Gladstoneโs Seoul outpost presented an exhibition by the internationally acclaimed Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija: โSUBMIT TO THE BLACK
COMPOSTโ featured two robotic arms writing on the Gangnam-based galleryโs wall Ever a champion of fellow artists (the same year, Tiravanija nominated Wantanee Siripattananuntakul to show in Frieze Londonโs Artist-to-Artist section), in 2024 he was artistic director of โArtSpectrumโ at the Leeum Museum, a group exhibition that included artists from Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere alongside their Korean contemporaries in a surreal structure inspired by a haunted mansion.
This year, Sac Galleryโestablished in 2012 in central Bangkokโis dedicating its stand to several bodies of work by Prapat Jiwarangsan, whose digital manipu lation of archival portraiture explores issues of social belonging. This marks a return of sorts to Seoul for Jiwarangsan, who in 2023 won the Nam June Paik: Post-Fluxus Sense Award with his film Parasite Family (2021), which was in s talled in Gwanghwamun Square.
Sacโs program is often boundary-pushing: earlier this year, the gallery mounted an exhibition dedicated to queer artists from Myanmar, many of whom have settled in Thailand because of intolerance i n their home country. This spirit is indicative of a new generation of Thai galleries, whose local identity is informed by an alertness to the global scene.
Having exhibited in Focus Asia at Frieze Seoul 2024, emerging gallery Nova Contemporary this year cut back on fair participation to realize its relocation to a larger space in Bangkokโs Bang Rak district, advantageously sited near the Hualamphong Templeโa magnet for i nternational visitors to the city as well as a Thai icon. Chatting during an exhibition the gallery mounted in London in January as part of the Condo initiative,
Above Prapat Jiwarangsan, The Portrait of Siamese Family no.5 2024. Courtesy: Sac Gallery, Bangkok Overleaf from top Nova Contemporary g allery stand at Frieze Seoul, 2024. Photograph: Lets Studio. Courtesy: Frieze and Lets Studio
Dib International Contemporary Art Museum, Bangkok, 2024. Courtesy: Dib International Contemporary Art Museum. Photograph: Wison Tungthunya
founding director Sutima Sucharitakul told me of the inspiration she draws from many London-based dealers, including Emalin and Sadie Coles HQ. Her main aspiration, however, is for connection.
โI really hope for a strong dialog between A sia, America and Europe,โ she told me.
โWhat we need for a young market like Thailand is conversation.โ Frieze Seoul is shaping up to be just the place for such a n exchange.
Sac Gallery is showing a solo presentation of Prapat
Jiwarangsan at Frieze Seoul 2025 (Stand A14).
Matthew McLean is creative director of Frieze Studios and editor of Frieze Week. He lives in London, UK.
With a philosophy of โlook fine, work fine,โ Koeun Kimโs Finork brings refined craft pieces from Japan, Korea, the UK and beyond to Seongsu. Hayoung Chung reports.
There was a time when all my weekends were spent in the pottery studio. Kneading c lay, balancing shapes on the wheel, making thin, intense lines, drying, firing, carving and painting, glazing and firing again. Despite my amateur status, t he piecesโcups, plates, jarsโfelt infinitely more precious because they were so unlike the polished ceramics in department stores. Imperfections from unexpected distortions during firing didnโt detract; instead, they vividly captured each fleeting moment of the processโone in which the maker imagines someone using the piece in their daily life.
Some of that same spirit can be found at Finork, a design store nestled close to Seoul Forest, just off the bustling cafรฉa nd-boutique-lined Yeonmujang Street in Seongsu. Finork, though, doesnโt display t he wares of amateur weekend hobbyists but the dedicated craftsmanship of artisans who shape their entire lives through t heir skill.
Founder Koeun Kim majored in ceramics and once considered further studies, aspiring to become an artist. However, at a crossroads in her journey, she, along with her family and mentors, saw a unique potential rooted deeply in her nature and talents. She had a feel for multiple genres like music, architecture and design, and knew how to bring t hem together to tell new stories.
True to its nameโwhich combines โfineโ and โworkโโFinork is a design store meticulously curated by Kim that introduces unique, contemporary craft pieces. Kim herself finds it hard to define Finork in a single word. Courageously (or perhaps recklessly), she opened her first store in Seongsu in 2020 during the pandemic. Delaying her initial opening for half a year when the end of restrictions remained uncertain, she eventually decided to go ahead regardless. Initially, only three people could enter her modest showroom at a time, and promotion was minimal. Now, in Finorkโs fifth year, Kim reflects, laughing, โI was naive enough not to know how tough it would be.โ
Walking up to the second floor of an otherwise unremarkable building, where the subtly backlit Finork sign quietly marks the outer wall, visitors step into a space that feels considered yet u npretentious. Pristinely elegant, it has the analog warmth of a friendโs tasteful studyโan environment that invites both contemplation and comfort. More than 30 designersโ pieces, spanning ceramics, glass, wood and metal, are displayed on white pedestals. In one corner, a softly humming turntable and a well-worn, plush sofa encourage visitors to linger and immerse themselves in the ambience.
When Kim opened the store, she placed everyoneโs objects prominently,
Opposite A selection of objects available to purchase at Finork, Seoul
including signature pieces like the threadintertwined creations by American ceramist Karen Gayle Tinney. Initially, Finork was about introducing unfamiliar international figures discovered through Kimโs tireless research and outreach.
But today, with its growing reputation, Finork operates differently. Visitors often have certain pieces in mind from the website, and come to โmeet them before t aking them home,โ leading Kim to transition to a by-appointment system. Now, specific makers and moods are selected in advance, with each guestโs visit thought out, providing a more personal and exclusive interaction akin to a private dialog with the pieces. Meanwhile, a branch in Busanโs Ananti Resort is open to casual visitorsโa strategic decision that balances exclusivity with accessibility.
The items in Finork reflect Kimโs own distinctive taste. Instead of widely available domestic artisans, she favors international makers less well known in Koreaโfrom Japan, the UK and the US. Discovering craftspeople at design fairs and on social media, she meticulously digs into their backgrounds and observes their development over months and years before featuring them at Finork.
When asked which of her collaborators she has been most impressed by, Kim i mmediately mentions Japanese glassmaker Miwa Ito. Active with Finork since
its early days, Ito, who was born in 1995, has attracted young audiences through her social media videos that show her making process. She is known for glassblowing in playful forms and vibrant colors, popular not only in Japan but now also in Korea.
Kimโs long-term vision for Finork is sustainable growth alongside its artisans. To achieve this, she emphasizes the need to lower barriers to connecting with c raft. Reflecting on past experiences, she acknowledges the psychological remove that Korean consumers feel toward craft: โThey hesitate to buy a 50-dollar cup,โ she says, โbut happily spend that on a T-shirt from a museum store.โ Her solution has been to produce Finorkโs own line of goodsโtote bags, T-shirts, stationeryโ that extends her storytelling and reflects the items in the store. This initiative helps overcome any resistance or reticence to craft by creating accessible items that serve as entry points, gently embedding design into the everyday. That, after all, has always been Finorkโs mission: to bring a fineness to the functional things in life.
Above right Alex Zablocki, Yellow, Purple, Orange Glaze Stack Vase 2023
Photography Yoongeun Shin
JAE YONG KIM
AMERICAN EXPRESS LOUNGE FRIEZE SEOUL COEX SEPTEMBER 3โ6, 2025
Stationer and author Juhee Mun on the โhealing stillnessโ of letter writing.
PUTTING PEN TO PAPER
Writing a letter is, in many ways, composing an intimate monologue. Recently, I w rote 20 letters and, with each one, I felt a reconnection to those I had lost touch with. I reminisced about the trips we took and the conversations we once shared. Some letters were addressed to public figures I had never met, some long since passed, each having, in one way or another, shaped my thinking. In the process, I found myself tracing the subtle ways the past shapes who I am today.
As I revisited days that I cannot call well-lived, some letters brought tears, others a sense of warmth. Putting these feelings down on paper felt like a veil of fog that had weighed on my heart was beginning to lift.
This, I believe, is the art of letter writing: in writing to another person, we confront ourselves and discover new ways to reflect and express what lies w ithin. By the time I finished the twent ieth letter, I felt a calming stillness, as if standing in a damp forest at dawn, waiting for the sun to rise.
geulwoll.kr
Juhee Mun is the owner of the Geulwoll stationery shops in Seoul devoted to letter writing, and the author of The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing , published in Korean in 2022 and in English in 2025. She lives in Seoul, Korea.
Left Letter from Park S eo-Bo to Lee Ufan, March 31, 1969. Courtesy: Lee Ufan
โArtist of the Yearโ 2025
Charmaine Poh
Photography by Sungjae Oh
ETERNAL BLOSSOMS
Sungjae Oh is a photographer. He lives in Seoul, Korea.
A symbol of resilient beauty, the national flower of Korea is the hibiscus syriacus or mugunghwa . For Seoul-based photographer Sungjae Oh, this icon provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of heritage. Using other traditional forms, including hanji paper kites and the cards flipped in the game Ddakji, Oh infuses surfaces with planes of deep colorโas if clothes, skin and lens alike have been dipped in dye. A group of women are draped in wish-ribbons, turning their bodies into trees, while a cheek becomes a soft petal. Drawing together nature and culture, Ohโs refined eye pictures a world where contemporary life dances through deep time, like a kite on the wind, or pollen on a breeze. โ MM
Curators Miranda Lash and Lauren Mackler and artists Oscar Murillo and Gala Porras-Kim remember the artist Suki Seokyeong Kang, who passed away in April this year.
I admire Sukiโs work and her way of thinking. It has taught me so much about traditional thoughts and forms and how to incorporate them successfully into works in a way that makes aspects of the past feel relevant today. I was a big fan before we met, and when we did meet I was very excited, fangirling and relieved that she was so approachable. We ended up hanging out spontaneously in different parts of the world over the years, but the shape of our friendship seemed to occupy a separate timeframe, so that it felt like a continuous moment, regardless of the time that passed between meetings. When we were together, I felt like we were our best grandpas. With her, I learned how to think about history a nd tradition and how to recognize them in contemporary life; to identify the essential qualities of something ancient, and understand which parts were circumstantial and could be altered to move someone today. She was so encouraging and realistic in โdirectorโs cutโยญt ype conversations where she advised me on how to do practical things as an artist.
Iโm so glad for the time we had together. When I see and think about her works, I feel as if they are prompting me to have a conversation with her through them, so Iโll be glad to run into them once in a while.
Opposite above Suki Seokyeong Kang, โ Willow Drum Oriole,โ 2023. Exhibition view at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul. Photograph: Cheolki Hong Opposite below Suki Seokyeong Kang, 2023. Courtesy: Kukje Gallery, Seoul. Photograph: Lee Jae ยญa n The work of Suki Seokyeong Kang is represented by Commonwealth and Council Gallery (Stand A21), Tina Kim Gallery (Stand B19) and Kukje Gallery (Stand A3).
๊ณ (ๆ ) ๊ฐ์๊ฒฝ์ ์ํ์ Commonwealth and Council Gallery(A21), ํฐ๋ํด๊ฐค๋ฌ๋ฆฌ(B19), ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ ๊ตญ์ ๊ฐค๋ฌ๋ฆฌ(A3) ์์ ๋ํยท๊ด๋ฆฌํ๋ค.
Suki Seokyeong Kang will be remembered for many reasons, including her elegant approach to incorporating elements from Koreaโs art historical past with the concerns of our present. Her artworks urge us to surrender to the beauty of the โpauseโ as a tool for cultivating an awareness of oneโs own being in relation to others. I think of the quiet moments she allowed between claps of the bak , notes of birdsong or stanzas of poems. I recall the careful pauses between movements of the body in her activations ( gaps between the slow wave of an arm or the bend of a leg), and the exquisite joy of pausing before her artworks to absorb their intricate details. In the โ Mountainโ sculptures, there is a graceful elision between time as it is experienced by us mere mortals and the deep time of the landscape around us. In Colorado, where admiration for the mountains is already everยญpresent, it was moving to see our visitors respond to these arrestingly streamlined depictions of peaks. In unexpected materials, we witnessed portraits of different seasons and climates in ways that made these meeting places between heaven and earth feel intimate. The mountains became ours.
We existed in soils of love, mutual respect, care and laughter โฆ
Shared knowledgeโour differences, cherished spirits and ancestors metโthe studio a hive of active masteryโradically turning ancestry on its head. Dancing!
A grounding star system internal eternal
Travel served to bridge gaps, but also act as a vessel of spiritual intimacy which upon landing bursts into joy and pure energy โฆ people, gently a landscape appearsโsouls
A warm embrace
Mother, child, friend
The studio! Determinedโceaselessly
Cosmos, world, nature, universeโcourage!
More laughter โฆ landscape of generosityโlove
My Dearest Suki, thank you for your eternal laughter, warmth and friendshipโplease read this telegram, upon my early morning landing, letโs meet for galbitang.
In 2018, at the Schindler House, amid the bustle of West Hollywood, Sukiโs sculpturesโa delicate arrangement of disparate formsโteeter with precision. Others, set on wheels, seem ready to c ruise. They are immobile though, fixed in perfect balanceโuntil the video on a monitor on the floor comes into view.
I n Black Under Colored Moon (2015), two performers are arranging Sukiโs objects around the black rectangle of the screen. This bearingยญless space reminds me of Derek Jarman, who described his own velvety backdrop as the โblack without end, that lurks behind a blue sky.โ And it is against this pregnant voidโthat fertile, interstellar space out of which planets are forgedโthat Suki stages her carefully crafted objects; steel skeletons wrapped in thread (for โfrictionโ she says) or flawlessly painted. Her actors (one, perhaps, recognizable to Korean viewers from a soap) are personifying a Goryeo ยญ era poem called Love at the Dumpling Shop. The result is abstract. Sukiโs โblack underโ is a โtimeless spaceโ where the two figures never meet. It is also a surrogate for the Jeongganbo; a precise traditional Korean notation system that places rhythm, pitch and movement into a grid, allowing language, sound and gesture to be read simultaneouslyโessentially spatializing time. Within her grid, Sukiโs pastelยญcolored objects are stacked and disassembled to make shapes, like an alphabet, and the figures become a language too.
Sukiโs work reflects a commitment to tradition as it underpinned her daily life, and a sense that by collapsing the two she could embed an idea into an object, deconstruct the structures of her world and hone her focus on how the individual works within the whole. Through the rigor of her thought and the devotional quality of her craft, she alchemized materials into a new metricโa nonยญl inear, nonยญworldly time, that draws the past into the present.
Lauren
is a
based in Los Angeles, USA. In 2018, she included Suki
Kangโs work i n โPublic
The
Objectorโ at MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, USA.
Above
Suki Seokyeong Kang, โ Willow Drum Oriole,โ 2023. Exhibition view at Leeum Museum of A rt, Seoul. Photograph: Cheolki Hong
Below
Suki Seokyeong Kang, 2019. Photograph: Albrecht Fuchs
