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Celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, Kiaf Seoul (15-17 October 2021) will present over 170 galleries from China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.

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Exhibition view : Kiaf Art Seoul (26-29 September 2019). Courtesy of Kiaf Art Seoul. Photo :　Kiaf Art Seoul Operatingh Committee.

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After a pandemic-induced transition online in 2020, an online viewing room will continue to extend the show’s reach beyond the fair’s long-time COEX Hall venue, where it will return this year, with galleries based in and out of Korea set to bring an extensive range of international contemporary art,

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Exhibition vieｗ : We Connect Art & Future, Kiaf And Incheon Airport, Incheon International Airport, Seoul(27 September-22 October 2021). Courtesy KIAF.

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Arario Gallery will show Subodh Gupta and Kohei Nawa, while Spruth Mager’s booth will feature the likes of George Condo, Barbara Kruger, Gary Hume, and Jenny Holzer. Pace Gallery and Perrotin will hold a solo presentation ofTakashi Murakami, and Pace will exhibit 12 artists including Loie Hollowell, Mary Corse, Sam Gilliam, Alexander Calder, and ALicia Kwade.

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Exhibition view : We Connect Art & Future, Kiaf And Incheon Airport, Incheon International Airport, Seoul(27 September-22 October 2021). Courtesy KIAF.

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Since its inception in 2002, when Kiaf was staged in Busan before moving to Seoul the following year, Kiaf has been committed to promoting contemporary Korean art to a wider international audience while respojding to the discourse and shifts in global art market.

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Suh Seung Won, Simultaneity 73-17(1973), Oil on canvas, 116x116cm. Courtesy of PKM Gallery.

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Between 2006 and 2015, specially organized exhibitions presented regional and national focuses, reflecting a desire to forge ties with the international art world and engage in ongoing discourse surrounding contemporary art and its markets.

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These included Against Insularity: Selling Art in Australia in 2011, Contemporary Art of Latin America, The Rising Star of the Global Market in 2012, and The State of Southeast Asian Contemporary Art And Its Market in 2014.

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Chris Watts, Witnessing presence(2021), Tempera, resin, pigment, lapis lazuli, polyester chiffon, found wood. 119.3x149.8cm. Courtesy Bode Projects.

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Since 2017, Kiaf has shited its focus onto galleries and artists, introducing new sectors to the fair floor including HIGHLIGHT, in which galleries showcase a small selection of artists who are new on the scene or deserve re-introductions; and single-artist exhibitions in SOLO PROJECT, which returns this year.

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Dariush Hosseini, Wide Shut 7(2018), Acrylic on canvas. 140x140cm. Courtesy SARADIPOUR ART.

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This year’s SOLO PROJECT includes Iranian artist Dariush Hosseini at SARADIPOUR ART, whose acrylic painting series ‘Wide Shut’(2016-2019) hints at textures of nature, be it the rough strokes of brown evoking tree bark(Wide Shut 7, 2018) or springs of yellow resembling a field of flowers (Wide Shut 6, 2019).

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Hosseini’s concerns, however, are less concerned with representations of anture than with creating abstracted, flat, and pattern-like forms that proloferate beyond the canvas.

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Dariush Hosseini, Wide Shut 6(2019), Acrylic on canvas. 175x175cm. Courtesy SARADIPOUR ART.

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Also at SOLO PROJECT will be new works by American artist Chris Watts, shown by Bode Projects, who paints on found pieces of wood, wilk, and polyester chiffon.

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‘Kiaf has been Committed to promoting contemporary Korean art to a wider international audience while responding to the discourses and shits in the global art market.’

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※ This article was originally published in OCULA, and reposted under authority of OCULA

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※ Click to Read the Original Article: https://ocula.com/magazine/insights/kiaf-seoul-marks-20th-anniversary/

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