The upcoming edition of Kiaf will bring together 164 galleries from 17 countries, marking the largest domestic fair’s most international edition to date. Having launched in 2002, Kiaf has consistently supported contemporary art in Korea, focusing on emerging talent and establishing a reputation as one of Asia’s leading international art fairs. Furthering its mission to promote and champion Korean galleries to international audiences, Kiaf will also launch a satellite fair titled Kiaf PLUS at the SETEC Convention Center (approximately 20 minutes away from COEX), focusing on experimental presentations across diverse genres and practices including new media and NFTs that are less commonly presented at traditional art fair settings.   Kukje Gallery’s booth at Kiaf will feature a broad range of works by both contemporary Korean and international artists. The booth will highlight Nucleus 88-50 (1988) by Lee Seung Jio, a celebrated leader of Korean geometric abstraction. Resisting abstract-expressionist styles that defined the Korean art scene during his generation, Lee instead pursued a restrained visual language that employed metallic tones and minimal yet striking compositions. These elements are exemplified by his Nucleus series, that used repeated geometric shapes, often referred to as "pipes." This important work will be shown alongside those by critically acclaimed international artists including the British-Indian contemporary artist Anish Kapoor’s Mipa 5 and Magenta Mist (2020) from his iconic series of concave discs, coinciding with the artist’s major solo exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Palazzo Manfrin in Venice (open through October 9). The booth will also introduce Oracle (2022) by Jean-Michel Othoniel—created in dialogue with Indian glass artisans, this work employs mirrored glass bricks as a unit of composition which, for the artist, is one of the most rudimentary and universal forms that symbolizes the primitive yet essential desire for “living.” Also on view will be Highway Painting, No. 6 (2019) by the Berlin-based, Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. First shown in the artists’ solo exhibition with Kukje Gallery in 2019, this sculptural painting uses rectangular pieces of asphalt as a ground and paint that is normally used for painting road markings. Formally reminiscent of Minimalist geometric abstractions, the signs on the asphalt painting refer to a shared urban language that is subverted and turned into signifiers that point to both the familiar and the subconscious, blurring the division between the public and private. Shown alongside will be the Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX’s Beat The Air (2022), a familiar colloquial phrase recreated as an LED sign that riffs on commercial advertising and invokes reflections on the meaning and reach of cliché in popular culture.   Kukje Gallery is also excited to showcase a special section presenting the work of Yoo Youngkuk. The centerpiece of this section is Work (1962), an early piece featuring the artist’s signature mountainscape rendered in amorphous abstraction. Yoo’s early works are generally characterized by abstract shapes that transform natural elements, emphasizing the texture of oil paint (matière), as the artist began to establish his unique aesthetic and style with his use of color and distinctive approach to abstract composition. This presentation overall will broadly show different stages of the artist’s career, with special emphasis on Yoo’s exploration of basic formal elements—the dot, line, side, shape, and color—and his abstract, almost sculptural, compositions that transform color fields into imagery through the command of a diverse palette and rigorous approach to composition.   To coincide with Frieze Seoul and Kiaf SEOUL 2022, Kukje Gallery is very pleased to announce the opening of LEE SEUNG JIO, the gallery’s first exhibition of pioneering Korean geometric abstract painter, across all three spaces (K1, K2, K3) of the gallery from September 1 through October 30 in Seoul.  Meanwhile, Kukje Gallery will also open two presentations of the Korean artist Haegue Yang on August 30. Mesmerizing Mesh, featuring Yang’s series of hanji (traditional Korean paper) collages which debuted last year in the gallery’s K1 building, will open under the same title in the viewing room of Kukje Gallery’s recently opened hanok space Song Hyun Jae. And coinciding with the Busan Biennale, Kukje Gallery Busan will open Quasi Legit, a comprehensive presentation that will introduce select works from the artist’s iconic series including Sol LeWitt Upside Down, Lacquer Paintings, and Sonic Sculptures. Both displays will remain on view through October 2, 2022.