Kukje Gallery will participate in Art Basel’s OVR: Miami Beach, an online version of Art Basel Miami Beach, running from December 2 through December 6, 2020. OVR: Miami Beach is a new iteration of Art Basel's Online Viewing Rooms and will be accompanied by a program of online events, including talks and gallery walk-throughs. The fair organizers have stated, “Given the ongoing impact of the pandemic, which spans from South Florida to other parts of the [United States] and the world, limitations and uncertainty about the staging of large-scale events, international travel restrictions and bans, as well as quarantine regulations within the United States and internationally, Art Basel has no other option but to cancel the 2020 edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach. Art Basel in Miami Beach was scheduled to take place from December 3 to December 6, 2020 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.” Next year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach will be held from December 2 through December 5, 2021.
The upcoming OVR: Miami Beach will showcase a comprehensive selection of works by 255 international galleries from 30 countries, all of which were accepted to the 2020 edition of the physical art fair. 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; Nova, presenting works created within the last three years; Positions, showcasing ambitious solo presentations by emerging artists represented by young galleries; and Survey, highlighting artistic practices of historical relevance. The Online Viewing Rooms will be available on the Art Basel website (artbasel.com/viewing-rooms) and the Art Basel mobile App.
Kukje Gallery’s virtual booth for OVR: Miami Beach will feature works by a celebrated roster of Korean and international contemporary artists. This selection will include works by Dansaekhwa masters such as Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture (描法) No. 041111 (2004), in which the artist’s incisive formal vocabulary highlights the textural qualities of hanji (Korean paper), and Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 20-31 (2020), a powerful example of the artist’s internationally celebrated technique of bae-ap-bub, a singular method of pushing paint from the back to the front of the burlap canvas. Also on view in Kukje Gallery’s virtual booth will be the contemporary artist Haegue Yang's Sonic Gym – Coiffured Cosmic Compression (2019), a hanging sculpture covered with plastic twine and nickel plated bells, generating unique visual patterns and acoustics that evoke a multisensory experience when manually activated, and Suki Seokyeong Kang’s Mat Black Mat 122 x 163 #18-21 (2018-2019), an adaptation of a Korean floor mat called a hwamunseok, on which the traditional solo dance chunaengmu is performed. These works by some of the most important Korean artists will be exhibited alongside those by critically acclaimed international contemporary artists including the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset's Tailbone (golden) (2019), which stands vivid in its highly polished bronze and magnified scale. Founded on sleek and minimal aesthetics that are reminiscent of certain high modernist works by established modern artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Jean Arp, this work incites numerous layers of meaning and invites discourses on our relationship with our bodies, evolution, and the tradition of sculpture itself. The presentation also includes the Danish artist trio SUPERFLEX’s We Are Having The Time of Our Lives (2019), a familiar phrase recreated as a LED sign reminiscent of a billboard that comments on the nature of commercial signage and invokes reflections on the meaning and reach of cliche in popular culture.
In their Seoul location, Kukje Gallery will open two solo exhibitions in December. Opening on December 10, 2020, a widely anticipated show titled IT’S CRUCIAL TO HAVE AN ACTIVE FANTASY LIFE showcases the work of American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. Spanning the gallery’s K2 and K3 spaces, the comprehensive exhibition will feature her iconic LED signs, sculptures, and paintings. Opening shortly thereafter will be NEW WORKS featuring the celebrated French contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel in the gallery’s recently reopened K1 building, from December 17, 2020. Both exhibitions will remain on view through January 31, 2021.
