Kukje Gallery will be participating in the inaugural edition of FIAC Online Viewing Rooms (hereafter FIAC OVR), running from March 2 through March 7, 2021. FIAC OVR is a new digital initiative of FIAC (Foire internationale d'art contemporain), an annual art fair widely considered one of the most important along with Art Basel and Frieze. Following the cancellation of its 47th iteration last year due to the pandemic, the fair’s new online platform will host 214 galleries, both emerging and established, in the fields of modern and contemporary art and design. FIAC OVR will be powered by Artlogic, an online platform that brings together integrated database, sales, marketing, website, and Online Viewing Room products that help art businesses to adapt and thrive online. In addition to the galleries’ dedicated pages and a “View on a Wall” feature that helps view works in scale, FIAC OVR will also present Through the Eyes Of, a program of artwork selections presented by five French and international curators, inviting visitors to join virtual curatorial visits; and Conversation Room, a program for discourse on subjects that invigorate and inspire contemporary creation, extended to renowned French and international institutions including the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection and Petit Palais in Paris, Muséo Tamayo in Mexico City, and M WOODS in Shanghai. The launch of FIAC OVR marks another milestone event. The 47th edition of the in-person fair, which will open on October 21 through October 24, 2021, will take place at the Grand Palais Éphémère on the Champ-de-Mars near the Eiffel Tower, an exciting transition from the iconic Grand Palais on Champs-Élysées.   

Kukje Gallery’s virtual booth for FIAC will feature works by a celebrated roster of Korean and international contemporary artists. This selection will include the Dansaekhwa master Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 18-19 (2018), 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 will be the contemporary artist Haegue Yang's Sonic Obscuring Hairy Hug (2020), a hanging sculpture covered with plastic twine and black brass plated bells that generate unique visual patterns and acoustics, evoking a multisensory experience when manually activated, and Suki Seokyeong Kang’s Rove and Round – face, mat, belly #18-02 (2016-2018), a work that references the artist’s own body as well as drawing upon her personal history to reflect upon profound changes throughout modern and contemporary Korean history. Another work from the same series, Rove and Round – face, mat, belly, #18-01, was the centerpiece of Kang’s 2019 solo exhibition at Mudam Luxembourg, held to celebrate the artist’s acceptance of the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2018. These works by some of today’s most acclaimed Korean artists, will be exhibited alongside those by international contemporary artists including the French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Rose of the Louvre (2020), a sculptural rendition of his La Rose du Louvre paintings, which are permanently installed in the Louvre’s Puget Courtyard, made from the artist’s signature mirrored glass beads. The presentation also includes the Australian artist Daniel Boyd’s Untitled (TBONSSWM) (2020), whose work confronts established perspectives of Australian colonial history using clear white dots of glue to cover the surface of the painting, where they act as “lenses,” shifting our worldview.

Kukje Gallery currently has on view Robert Mapplethorpe: More Life, a much-anticipated solo exhibition of the legendary American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, in the gallery's K2 (Seoul) and Busan spaces. One of the most acclaimed photographers of the late 20th century, Mapplethorpe’s iconic work defined its era and remains central to discussions of queer identity, celebrity, beauty, and censorship. This first presentation of the late artist’s work to be held in Korea will remain on view through March 28, 2021.