Gallery SP
Since 1989, this artist’s print workshop has produced over 20,000 prints with Korean and Western artists, including Michael Craig-Martin, Julian Opie, and John Baldessari. SP grew into a gallery starting in 1998, representing both mid-career and emerging artists. The team also has a consulting business advising local companies, international hotels, and hospitals. Their most recent exhibition featured Lee Jae Heon’s ethereal, blurred-out portraits.
Gladstone Gallery
Barbara Gladstone opened her Seoul location this past April with Phillipe Parreno, followed by Anicka Yi. For the gallery’s third exhibition in Seoul, international Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “Submit to the Black Compost” opens on Aug. 31, his debut with the gallery.
Perrotin
Perrotin’s New Seoul Location
One of the first international galleries to establish a location in Seoul, Perrotin has been in Samcheong since 2016, and is currently showing Barry McGee’s bright, kaleidoscopic grid paintings through Sept. 8. However, the big news is: Perrotin has opened a second space in Dosan Park, a larger outfit, with their first show of British-American landscape painter Emma Webster.
König Galerie
The leading Berlin gallery currently represents over 40 international emerging and established artists, mostly belonging to younger generations, and opened their Seoul Branch in April 2021, led by P21 gallery founder Soo Choi. To coincide with the upcoming fairs, the gallery will present 12 new paintings by classically-trained realist Matthias Weischer. Depicting interior scenes that play with the rectangular confines of the canvas, “Mirrors and Things” opens on Sept. 1.
UM Gallery
Installation view from Um Gallery’s 2019 Hwang Young Ja exhibition
One of the smaller established galleries on our list, Um Gallery represents nearly 20 artists, largely from Korea, with recent solo exhibitions including figurative painter Hwang Young Ja and minimalist drawings by Hong Myung-seop. The gallery is one to watch, we’re told.
