Gallery Hyundai continues its mission of gaining global recognition for Korea’s most influential artists and representing prominent international artists in Asia.
The gallery has played an integral role in the development of Korea’s contemporary art infrastructure and has helped foster the careers of major artists such as Kim Whanki, Nam June Paik, Lee Ufan, Lee Seung-taek, Chung Sang-Hwa, Kim Tschang-Yeul and Lee Kun-Yong to name a few. Each of these artists have indelibly influenced the course of Korean art history.
Currently, the gallery continues to represent the artists and estate of such esteemed artists such as Quac Insik, Park Hyunki, Lee Seung-taek, Chung Sang Hwa, Kim Tschang Yeul, Lee Kun Yong, and Lee Kang So. One of the gallery's mandates is to bolster the roster to support influential mid-career Korean contemporary artists such as Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, Seulgi Lee and recent additions to the programme artists such as Choi Minhwa, Kim Ayoung, and Kang Seung Lee. The gallery will continue its role introducing renowned foreign artists to the Korean audience and has hosted Korean exhibitions of artists such as François Morellet, Alice Neel, Tomás Saraceno, Ai Weiwei, Ryan Gander, Fred Sandback, Thomas Struth, and Sarah Morris.
Gallery Hyundai continues to support pioneering Korean and international artists through numerous channels including gallery exhibitions, museum and institutional collaborations and active participation in art fairs. The gallery remains proud of its history and continues its unwavering commitment to artists who push the boundaries of Contemporary art and forward-thinking curatorial visions.
Image credit: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai and the artist Lee Seulgit.
Seulgi Lee’s practice expands on the symbolic significance of communal folk art and language. Recent works with artefacts, blankets, masks and baskets reinterpret communal acts, mores and accumulated knowledge. Since relocating to Paris from Seoul more than 20 years ago, Lee has consistently endeavoured to investigate a physical language of forms that recalls something folkloric but is utterly contemporary in her translation. Lee’s unique artistic practice is immediately recognisable for its use of colour, gesture, simple yet elegant forms, and performance. In spite of (or perhaps linked to) its deference to bright, cheerful colour, Lee has described her sculptural practice as utilitarian, invariably related to the power, fragility, and contingency of the body: her works are tools, to be available at-hand, used by those who are nearby. Culled from everyday belongings, masks, and pedestrian objects, these artworks frequently employ a vocabulary more readily used to describe craft, and challenge arbitrary distinctions between mannered, formal sculptural syntax and a more popularised design or craft aesthetic.
For her Blanket U series which we are highlighting in this section, Lee collaborated with master nubi artisans from Tongyeong, a port in South Korea, where the technique has been well developed for hundreds of years. The works are inspired by folklore and proverbs. In this way, Lee engaged these proverbs some with shamanistic backgrounds to reflect and channel the wisdom of the community into everyday objects.
Lee is currently participating in the Busan Biennale (under the direction of Jacob Fabricius) and has been selected for the prestigious Korea Artist Prize to be opened at the MMCA Seoul in December 2020. She recently held a solo exhibition at La Criee Centre for Contemporary Art Rennes (2019), and participated in Burning Down The House Gwangju Biennale 2014 under the direction of Jessica Morgan. 2014), Intense Proximity (La Triennial, Palais de Tokyo, 2012), Evento (Biennale de Bordeaux, 2009), and Annual Report (Gwangju Biennale, 2007 under Okwui Enwezor) among others.