Kukje Gallery will participate in the second edition of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms, running from June 19 through June 26, 2020. The first iteration of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms was launched following the cancellation of Art Basel Hong Kong in the face of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in March. A tremendous success, Art Basel Online welcomed more than 250,000 visitors worldwide, receiving a wave of positive feedback in response to the diversity of works displayed and unprecedented price transparency. Adeline Ooi, Director Asia of Art Basel, remarked, “The feedback from galleries across Asia has been overwhelming. While the Online Viewing Rooms cannot replace the in-person conversations and exchanges that our galleries were looking forward to at Art Basel Hong Kong, our initiative provided a platform to stay connected with collectors and to build new relationships during a very difficult time for many galleries.”   

  The upcoming edition of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms will showcase a comprehensive selection of works by 281 international galleries from 35 countries. Accompanied by new digital features, engaging virtual events and specialized viewing room categories, the platform aims to mirror the experience of visiting the fair in person. The Online Viewing Rooms will be divided into the following sectors: Galleries, the fair’s main sector; Edition, focusing on editioned works, prints, and multiples; Feature, highlighting curated presentations of 20th and 21st century artists; and Statements, dedicated to emerging artists and their galleries. 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 an extensive selection of over 50 contemporary works by a celebrated roster of Korean and international artists on Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms. Highlights include works by pioneers of modern and contemporary art, including Nam-June Paik’s video installation Pyramid Interactive (1994-1995), a powerful work that captures technological mediation in portraying the everlasting cycle of life through a stacked totem of television monitors; Alexander Calder’s elegant stabile The Micrometer (1968), a painted steel sculpture illustrating the 20th century master’s structural innovation and formal poetry; and Louise Bourgeois’ Couple (2001), a complex work exploring lust, pleasure, love, pain, isolation, and solitude—lifelong themes for the artist who was profoundly interested in psychology and family. 

  Kukje Gallery’s Online Viewing Room will also focus on important pieces by Korean contemporary masters, including those from the Dansaekhwa movement. Lee Ufan’s With Winds (1988) captures the free-flowing movements of wind with bold brushstrokes, while Kwon Young-Woo’s Untitled (1985) demonstrates the artist’s experimentation with color on hanji (traditional Korean paper) during his decade living in Paris from 1978 to 1989. Other works will include Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture (描法) No. 170528 (2017), highlighting the textural qualities of hanji that play a vital role in the artist’s unique artistic vocabulary, and Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 20-24 (2020), which features bae-ap-bub, an innovative method of pushing paint from the back to the front of the burlap canvas, utilizing the coarse weave to create sensuous, evocative effects in the medium.          

  Looking forward, due to the prolonged impact of the current pandemic, Art Basel has announced its decision to cancel its upcoming Basel show, having previously postponed it from June to September of 2020. Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel stated that, “Unfortunately, the uncertainties that we face remain too high. The best way forward for our Basel show is therefore to focus on delivering a fair of the same exceptional international quality that the artworld expects from us next June, as we continue to support our galleries by further developing our digital platforms and by delivering our upcoming shows in Miami Beach and Hong Kong.” As a result of these uncertainties, the next edition of Art Basel in Basel will take place from June 17 to 20, 2021.