Kukje Gallery will participate in ART BUSAN 2024 held at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO) from May 9 to 12, 2024. One of Korea’s three largest art fairs, ART BUSAN’s upcoming edition will feature 130 galleries from 20 countries. ART BUSAN 2024 will present a variety of programs introducing the latest trends in contemporary art, including the Main and Future sections, the latter of which spotlights works by emerging galleries and artists; Connect, a special exhibition that challenges the boundaries of traditional art fairs; and Conversations, a place for art professionals to share their insightful perspectives. 

Kukje Gallery will introduce a selection of earlier to recent works by Korean modern and contemporary artists, spanning diverse genres including painting, sculpture, and installation. This includes the vibrant Écriture (描法) No. 20-22 (2022) by the seminal Dansaekhwa artist Park Seo-Bo, and Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 22-79 (2022), which employs his bae-ap-bub technique, a method of pushing paint from the back to the front of the canvas. A pioneer of the Korean avant-garde and a central figure in Dansaekhwa, Ha has recently exhibited his early works (including the White Paper on Urban Planning series) in Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-70s, currently on view at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, after traveling from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In addition, a wood sculpture Add Two Add One, Divide Two Divide One 2019-27 (2019) by Korea’s pioneering woman sculptor Kim Yun Shin will also be presented at the booth. As implied by the title, the work explores the sculptural process of adding one’s spirit to the work, where “two becomes one through interaction, then splits again to become two different ones.” Kim is currently presenting her sculptures at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.  Also on view will be one of Haegue Yang’s "appliance sculptures" titled Twelve Pyeongchang-gil Moisture – #2 JS27346 (2022), in which a kitchen sink has been hung on the wall combined with a hanging venetian blind. As the winner of the 13th Benesse Prize (2022), co-hosted by Benesse Holdings, Inc. and the Singapore Art Museum, Yang will be taking part in an awardee exhibition this June at the Benesse House Museum in Naoshima, Japan. Simultaneously, the artist will execute a long-term project with Apichatpong Weerasethakul at Matabe, the region's new exhibition space. Meanwhile, Park Chan-kyong, a multifaceted artist known for his roles as a media artist, filmmaker, and curator, will showcase A Mountain - Gabsa (2008). Inspired by Park’s journey to Mount Gyeryong, this photographic series offers a fresh lens on Korea's folk religions and mountain veneration, traditions that have been marginalized amidst the tide of Westernization. In conjunction, the booth will highlight Mountain — hours #24-04 (2023-2024) by Suki Seokyeong Kang, whose acclaimed solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery, MARCH, concluded recently. Crafted from cast bronze, skillfully molded and bent to emulate the silhouette of a mountain, this installation work encapsulates the artist’s interest in time and shared cultural symbols.  

Kukje Gallery will also feature major international artists from its roster. The Mumbai-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor will be presenting Untitled (2021), a visceral painting that explores forms that are violent but restrained, fraiming the artist's long-standing interest in the boundaries between materiality and immateriality and the power of pigment to evoke emotion. Currently on view at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, ANISH KAPOOR UNSEEN is the artist's first major solo exhibition in Scandinavia which includes some of the most representative large-scale installations from the artist's 40-year career. Zisterzienserstift Schlierbach I 2014 by German photographer Candida Höfer, whose solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery Seoul opens this month, will also be introduced. The work shows a panoramic view of the Schlierbach Abbey in Austria. The artist, who uses photography to capture public spaces in precise compositions, was recently named the winner of the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024 by the Berlin Academy of Arts. The booth will also include BIT (2023), belonging to the Redaction Painting series by Jenny Holzer, whose solo exhibition at the New York’s Guggenheim Museum in New York is scheduled to open this month. Using oil on linen, the artist translates U.S. government documents released through the Freedom of Information Act into paintings. Masculinity (2023) by the Berlin-based artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset will also be featured in the booth. The prolific duo, who work across various genres including sculpture, performance, design, architecture, and theater, successfully weave a biting wit with poignant and often philosophical observations on society. Also highlighted at the fair is Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Untitled (2023), which is a part of his History Paintings series. The celebrated multi-media artist uses denim as part of his exploration of globalization and the history of labor dominated by a Western narrative. Arunanondchai creates paintings where he layers bleached denim remnants that are left after being set on fire, images captured during the burning process, and other mixed media on canvas, combining these elements into a multi-dimensional narrative. 

Meanwhile, on May 8, 2024, Kukje Gallery Busan will open Easy Heavy, a solo exhibition by the artist Na Kim. The exhibition, which opens a day before the VIP preview of this year's ART BUSAN, will be on view through June 30, 2024. Marking the artist’s first-ever solo presentation at Kukje Gallery, the exhibition will feature nearly 40 works, including paintings, collages, hanging sculptures, and wall paintings. The artist will also participate in an artist talk relating to the exhibition on May 11, 2024, at BEXCO. Scheduled to be held from May 23 through July 28, 2024, at Kukje Gallery Seoul, is a solo exhibition of the German photographer Candida Höfer. The exhibition will feature new works by the artist, who revisited the buildings she photographed in the past, during their renovation in the course of the pandemic.