The interviews led by Daehyung Lee, the Artistic Director of the project Dialogue, were conducted with the directors of 9 galleries selected as outstanding galleries in Dialogue, a project presented as a part of a report on the achievements of the Grant for Artist Management program. The course of the directors’ life, concerns about promoting Korean art, future strategies for entering the global market and the directors’ anecdotes with their artists were discussed in the interviews.
The Artistic Director of the project Dialogue, Daehyung Lee, values the social role of art in the era of the 4th industrial revolution in the 21st century (critically essential). Lee is expanding the scope of contemporary curation to the environment, community, technology, and the future. Daehyung Lee directed Korean Pavilion in 2017 Venice Biennale and he led the success of CONNECT, BTS – a global public art project exhibited in five cities including Seoul, New York, London, Berlin and Buenos Aires. Lee organized Korea Research Fellow, a research network of 10 domestic and 10 overseas curators from 2018 to 2021 and has also served as a judge for the 40 UNDER 40 of the London art magazine, APOLLO in 2022.
Gallery2 director Jaeho Jung
Q. Whenever I receive mobile copies of Gallery2’s exhibition posters, I think that they are so unique and special that they can almost be artworks themselves. That naturally heightens my interest in your exhibitions and preference for Gallery2. What is the secret behind your special posters?
There are two principles behind what makes our posters special. First is the belief in the fact that exhibitions start with posters that visitors receive. Second is that I personally send out all the posters as the director of the gallery. In general, the gallery starts to have discussions with the artist on what information and what images we want in this “first door” to the exhibition, two years ahead of the show. So when the time for invitation design comes around, we have key images of the works. The artwork in its entirety may be the key visual element of the poster, or a part of the work or the view of the studio in which the work is placed in may be the key design element.
Q. Why do you invest so much time and energy on poster images?
We live in an era defined by excess of information and lack of good images, so it was important for me to come up with images that have minimal text but will leave lasting impressions.
Our posters may lack elements and forms of graphic design, yet the unfamiliarity of raw, unprocessed image can actually trigger curiosity and mark originality, so a good amount of thinking must precede the production of image and communication with it.
Q. You worked at Seoul Auction, Kukje Gallery, One and J. Gallery, and now you are at Gallery2. I am sure your taste and criteria used in artwork and artist selection changed over the years of working at different places. And there must also be principles that have stayed with you all this time.
There aren’t any special principles I adopt in selecting artists. Gallerists meeting artists is within the realm of intuition, not of reasoning. There has got to be things that changed over time, but it is important to save things that didn’t. Had I started out as a collector, I would have selected artists and communicated with people based on clear, pre-determined principles and market analysis, but I used to be an artist myself, so I try to meet and speak with artists based on intuition rather than through words and logic.
Q. In terms of genre, Gallery2 seems to be expanding the type of works it covers and exhibits, including painting. What was the motivation behind it?
There was a lot of common ground between artists in their 30s and me until the mid 2000s. However, this is not so easy any more. Among the projects that Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture supports, there is a program titled 99℃. It is a program in which a mentor selects an artist and they grow together as a mentor and mentee over the course of one year. It was a great opportunity for me to understand not just artworks but also people. Also, in 2021, I had a chance to visit and observe Loop Barcelona, which is an art fair for video and media artists. Founder of the fair Emilio Álvarez said then, “I am not interested in NFTs, which is popular these days. I will only focus on single channel and video installations.” I’ve started to work with young painters such as Suyeon Kim, Hyunsun Jeon, and Eunsae Lee and turn my eyes to other genres. Video artist WoongHyun Kim and installation artist Haneyl Choi are good examples.
There is definitely a need to understand representative technology that leads the change of the era. There may be tens of thousands of standards we may use to determine what is good art and who is a great artist, but in the end, it’s critical that you work with an artist whom you can understand.
(Left) Suyeon Kim,〈Raindrops 5〉, 2021, oil on canvas, 130x130cm, Image provided by Gallery2
(Right) Eunsae Lee,〈As usual at bar〉, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas, 90.9x72.7cm, Image provided by Gallery2
(Left) Hyunsun Jeon [From Fig to Cone] (2020, Gallery2)
(Middle) WoongHyun Kim [Crumpled Man] (2022, Gallery2)
(Right) Haneyl Choi [Manner] (2022, Gallery2)
Q. You organize alternative forms of art fairs such as “Solo Show” and “The Gallerist.” I am impressed by your insight in reading the trend of the art world. The fact that you cooperate with other gallerists is particularly notable. What plans does Gallery2 have for the future art scene?
Works by young and emerging artists are affordable, so it’s not easy to find opportunities to present them in the existing art fair system. Art fairs with over 100 participating galleries may show diversity, but it suffers the side effect of visitors being unable to focus on artworks and artists. Those who draw attention at art fairs are often already established, famous artists. “Solo Show” is an art fair in the form truly desired by artists who really want to show their art world in whole. It was hugely successful. However, I don’t hold this art fair anymore, as it was not a business project but an event intended to convey a message. Gallery 2 can be considered a 1.5 generation gallery that bridges the first generation and second-generation galleries. The logic of capital and the logic of art are both important. Gallery 2 is contemplating its role as a mediator that maintains balance between the two.
Q. Gallery2 is a gallery that many young artists want to work with. What’s the secret behind this popularity?
It is probably not because we are particularly better at one thing than other galleries. Perhaps it is because our utmost priority is pursuing value from the artist’s point of view rather than seeking profit.
In the case of Haneyl Choi, we worked in collaboration with P21 to promote the artist, through which we were able to show that cooperation of two is better than one, and many is better than two.
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Interview / People - 03 Jan 2017Jun Sojung
