During the Frieze period, numerous galleries vied to showcase their exhibitions. With many prominent artists presenting their high-profile works, there is no shortage of noteworthy displays. Among these, we have selected three major exhibitions featuring domestic artists at local galleries.

| Gallery Hyundai’s John Pai Solo Exhibition: “Shared Destinies”

John Pai (b. 1937), renowned for his geometric steel sculptures, is a Korean American artist and a pioneering figure in the U.S. art scene. He is also an emeritus professor at Pratt Institute in New York. The exhibition "Shared Destinies," held at Gallery Hyundai, marks John Pai’s first solo show in South Korea in over a decade and provides a comprehensive overview of his artistic journey spanning more than 70 years.

The exhibition encompasses the full range of Pai's work, including early steel sculptures influenced by Constructivism from the 1960s, as well as a diverse array of welded steel sculptures, drawings, and paintings reflecting his evolving artistic practice.

John Pai's work is characterized by his ability to capture the dynamic flow of movement inherent in points and lines, observing their relationships and principles of motion to guide the development of his sculptures. He starts his process without a predetermined outcome, engaging spontaneously with points and lines within space to create organic forms. Consequently, his works often manifest shapes that defy the artist's initial expectations, existing in a paradoxical state where they seem both frozen in time and poised for transformation.

A notable example from this exhibition is Involution(1974), a piece inspired by the Möbius strip, a concept from topology that addresses the properties of continuous transformation. Pai describes the work as the result of a dialogue with each individual piece, ultimately culminating in the form it takes today.

The exhibition features over 40 works by John Pai, with more than half already sold. The artworks span a broad price range, from a minimum of 100 million KRW to a maximum of 700 million KRW, reflecting the diversity of the pieces on display.

| PKM Gallery's Yoo Youngkuk Solo Exhibition: "Yoo Youngkuk: Stand on the Golden Mean"

PKM Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Yoo Youngkuk: Stand on the Golden Mean," showcasing the work of Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002), a pioneering figure in Korean abstract art. The exhibition, running until October 10, features 34 oil paintings from the 1950s to the 1980s, alongside 21 smaller works that are being publicly displayed for the first time since the artist's death in 2002.

Despite their small size, Yoo Youngkuk’s smaller works were renowned for their high level of artistic achievement. However, their size led many to seek them at reduced prices. Yoo Youngkuk, however, refrained from selling these pieces, maintaining that their value should not be determined by their scale. This exhibition marks the first opportunity for the public to view these previously held artworks.

Yoo Youngkuk, known for his large-scale works, was motivated to create smaller pieces partly in response to advice from fellow artists. These artists suggested that a great painting is not necessarily defined by its size and that one could achieve a high level of artistic density in smaller works. Yoo Youngkuk sought to demonstrate his exceptional skills through these smaller pieces. Consequently, even in his smaller works, the integration of lines, shapes, and colors is as meticulously crafted as in his larger pieces. The density and aura of these smaller works reflect a quality that is remarkable and consistent with his larger-scale creations.

While Yoo Youngkuk's major works typically command prices in the range of 1 to 1.5 billion KRW, his smaller pieces are by no means inexpensive. The smaller works, which were not sold during Yoo Youngkuk's lifetime, have achieved significant value as anticipated by the artist himself. As the popularity of smaller works among collectors continues to rise, these rare pieces by a master like Yoo Youngkuk gain even greater significance.

For this exhibition, the smaller works are priced as follows: pieces of size 4F range from 270 to 290 million KRW, while those of size 6F are priced between 280 and 350 million KRW. In contrast, works of sizes 30F and 40F are valued between 700 million and 850 million KRW. During the Frieze period, three smaller pieces sold for between 270 and 350 million KRW, and a piece of size 100F fetched 2 billion KRW, finding a new owner at the fair.

Following the artist’s passing, Yoo Youngkuk's work has garnered increasing acclaim. In 2016, a major retrospective commemorating the centennial of his birth was jointly held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung, and the Busan Museum of Art.

Subsequently, in 2023, Yoo Youngkuk’s first solo exhibition abroad was launched at Pace Gallery in New York. Currently, a solo exhibition of Yoo Youngkuk is being held at the Querini Stampalia Foundation as part of the parallel program of the 2024 Venice Biennale. This exhibition has been highlighted as one of the must-see shows at the Venice Biennale, attracting significant visitor attention and interest.

| Kukje Gallery’s Kyungah Ham Solo Exhibition: “Phantom and A Map”

Kyungah Ham (b. 1966) is an artist known for integrating her reflections on political and social issues into her work using a distinctive personal language. She is particularly renowned for her "Embroidery Project," where she sends sketches of her artworks to handcraft workers in North Korea and waits for the completed pieces to return.

Her solo exhibition "Phantom and A Map," running at Kukje Gallery until November 3, is a major presentation spanning three exhibition spaces within the gallery. The show features works that embody the profound sense of interminable waiting intensified by recent years of pandemic and political turmoil.

The K1 exhibition space features the "Embroidery Project," which has been prominently showcased since 2008. Notably, a new work in this series involves the installation of long strips of tape between two embroidery pieces, vividly expressing the artist’s prolonged period of waiting and suffering.

In the Hanok space, the series "Phantom and A Map / Did You Come by Photograph or Train?" is presented, reflecting the artist's feelings of melancholy and despair during the pandemic. It is particularly significant because the artist, who usually refrains from revealing personal emotions in her work, has explicitly expressed her feelings in this series. The artworks depict the sense of despair experienced at the time through the imagery of colored tears flowing across the fabric.

Due to the large number of works featured in this exhibition, it has been confirmed that fewer than half have been sold so far. Works measuring 30 x 30 cm are priced starting at $40,000, while those measuring 140 x 300 cm are priced around $140,000.

Among these, the triptych artwork, which features multiple horizontal strips of tape connecting the embroidery pieces to symbolize the passage of time, is priced at approximately $140,000. Additionally, a large new work displayed in Gallery 3 is priced at around $110,000.

References

• 갤러리현대, 존 배
• 철사 조각 하나 하나가 나의 음표… 존 배가 잉태한 '철의 교향곡'
  
• PKM갤러리, 유영국
  
• "소품이니까 싸겠지?"…안 팔았던 유영국 '작은 그림' 최초 공개
• 국제갤러리, 함경아
• 북한에 미완성作 보냈다, 돌아올 수 있을까