Kukje Gallery will be participating in the first iteration of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms, running from March 20 through March 25, 2020. Upon the cancellation of the 8th edition of Art Basel Hong Kong in face of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Art Basel invited all exhibitors to its new online platform. While the digital initiative is designed to run in parallel to the physical shows and allow galleries to showcase additional curations of works not presented at the fair, this first edition of Online Viewing Rooms will serve to introduce works that were initially intended for the physical experience of the fair. Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel, remarked that “The Online Viewing Rooms platform will heighten the possibilities for galleries to communicate with potential clients from around the world, while simultaneously providing a sense of personal connection, which is the essence of the art market.” The Online Viewing Rooms will be available on the Art Basel website (artbasel.com/viewing-rooms) and the Art Basel mobile App, allowing collectors to browse through thousands of works, searching by galleries, artists, and medium, and to directly contact the gallery with sales inquiries.    

Kukje Gallery will showcase celebrated works by a roster of leading contemporary Korean and international artists on Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms. Highlights include important pieces by Dansaekhwa artists including Lee Ufan’s From Line (1982), Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture (描法) No. 120213 (2012) from his renowned Ecriture series, and Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 2001-1003 (2001) from his signature Conjunction series. Also on view will be Untitled (Short People) - 6 balloons (2018), a sculpture by the conceptual artist Gimhongsok, who frames novel perspectives through everyday ideas.  

Kukje Gallery’s Online Viewing Room will also include major works by modern and contemporary international artists including Donald Judd’s Untitled (Treitel-Gratz 78-4) (1978), a significant piece that captures the reserved artistic vocabulary of one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the 20th century. A major retrospective of the artist at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled Judd (on view through July 11, 2020), is temporarily closed due to the impact of the pandemic. Further introduced in Kukje Gallery’s Online Viewing Room are the French contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Murano glass necklace piece titled Collier Or Blanc (2019); Mirror (Black Mist) (2018) by the celebrated British-Indian contemporary artist Anish Kapoor; and the Berlin-based artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset’s Tailbone (golden) (2019), a giant version of the human tailbone in golden hue.