Juli Yoon’s Top Picks from Frieze Seoul Viewing Room 2023
The Chief Curator of Seoul’s Ilmin Museum of Art highlights five works that are both playful and thought-provoking, including paintings by Minouk Lim, Issy Wood and Agus Suwage
The Chief Curator of Seoul’s Ilmin Museum of Art highlights five works that are both playful and thought-provoking, including paintings by Minouk Lim, Issy Wood and Agus Suwage
MINOUK LIM
Four-blooming flower, 2023
Wooden stick, burlap
64.57" x 11.81" x 11.81" (164 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm)
Presented by Tina Kim Gallery
“Seoul is a city woven of discontinuities. Lim uses his chosen materials as a kind of connective tissue for time itself, creating works that can have a similar effect to what we call ‘history.’ Objects like canes, for example, have been successfully deployed in the artist’s performances. Because the format of so many of Lim’s works do not lend themselves to private ownership, this alone makes Four-blooming flower quite appealing.”
HEESEUNG CHUNG
Untitled, 2023
Archival pigment print
Framed: 32.1" x 24.3" x 1.6" (81.7 x 61.7 x 4 cm framed)
Unframed: 31.5" x 23.62" (80 cm x 60 cm)
Edition of 5 +2AP
Presented by Gallery Baton
“Is photography still a meaningful medium? Heeseung Chung would say yes. There are no tricks in these photographs. Rather, Chung pours the technical achievements of photography, won through the course of its longstanding rivalry with painting, into each individual print. At a moment when every image strives to be quicker than the last, Chung refuses to give up the weight of the photograph. Such, he seems to say, is the destiny of the true photographer. Untitled, which depicts a small bird alighting on a hand, is no exception.”
ISSY WOOD
A lot of missionary, 2023
Oil on linen
90.55" x 33.07" x 1.97" (230 cm x 84 cm x 5 cm)
Presented by Carlos/ Ishikawa
Image © Issy Wood 2023, courtesy the artist; Carlos/Ishikawa, London; and Michael Werner Gallery, New York. Photographer: Damian Griffiths
“So, then, what about painting? For a while, the world of painting was stuck between meaningless geometric lines and overheated expression. It felt as if paintings were either actively trying to act like paintings or pretending they weren’t paintings at all. Issy Wood, however, bestows upon us an entirely new kind of pleasure. Even as she makes us rethink what it means to see and recreate the world, Wood reveals a special affinity for music and literature—distilling all of the above into technically rich and art-historically interesting paintings like A lot of missionary.”
AGUS SUWAGE
Teach Your Children, 2016
Watercolor, tobacco juice and gold leaf on paper
88.19" x 101.57" (224 cm x 258 cm)
Presented by ROH
“Agus Swage cloaks his humor in a strange way. Personally I am drawn to his characters because their human bodies have such unexpected heads attached to them. Something bad must have happened in my childhood. Suwage’s work, which is based on the local colors of Indonesia, is free from the pressure to move beyond modernist painting; in other words, these are painting that didn’t have anything bad happen in their childhood. We need to pay more attention to the methodology of these paintings. In addition, the collaboration between ROH and Whistle (both galleries that are active in the Asian contemporary scene) is one of the reasons I’m most looking forward to being onsite at Frieze Seoul this year.”
LAURENT GRASSO
Future Herbarium
Oil and palladium leaf on wood
Framed: 33.35" x 33.35" x 2.36" (84.7cm x 84.7cm x 6cm)
Unframed: 31.6" x 31.6" x 1" (80.3cm x 80.3cm x 2.5cm)
Presented by Perrotin
© Laurent Grasso / ADAGP, Paris, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
“Recently, South Korea has been rocked by the release of treated radioactive wastewater off the coast of Fukushima. The issue has escalated into a politicized debate that has left many people at a loss. What does this mean for our future? I’m not sure myself. Laurent Grasso’s Future Herbarium deepens the work on plant mutations he has been pursuing in the wake of 2011’s Great East Japan Earthquake. I would like to replace my concerns about the future with this painting. How beautiful—and futile—art can be.”
About Juli Yoon
Yoon Juli is the Chief Curator of Ilmin Museum of Art, a co-curator of WESS and a member of AURORA. He has curated exhibitions and projects across numerous fields with artists, institutions, and companies around Seoul’s visual culture.
FURTHER INFORMATION
About Frieze Viewing Room
Frieze Viewing Room is a free digital platform, connecting global audiences with Frieze's galleries and artists.
Opening to all from August 30-September 12, the Viewing Room is the catalog for the fair and offers fair visitors a preview of the wealth of gallery presentations coming to Frieze Seoul 2023, as well as the chance for audiences around the world to experience and acquire the artwork on show.
Frieze Seoul
Frieze Seoul returns to COEX from September 6–9, 2023. Discover the best art from more than 120 leading galleries from across Asia and beyond. Located in the Gangnam district in the heart of Seoul, the fair runs alongside Kiaf SEOUL, South Korea’s leading art fair.
Become a member now to enjoy VIP access, multi-day entry, exclusive guided tours and more.
To keep up to date on all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to the newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram, Twitter and Frieze Official on Facebook.
Frieze Seoul is supported by official headline partner LG OLED, in a collaboration that brings together the worlds of art and technology, and by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing two decades of shared commitment to artistic excellence.
