‘Koo Bohnchang’s Voyages’ — a major retrospective of the artist, featuring over 500 works and around 600 materials — is on view at Seoul Museum of Art through March, 2024. Showing a body of work that spans five decades, Koo’s subject matters range from still objects and people, to places and artefacts. He says, “I’ve always been interested in one’s traces, be it of people or of objects. In hindsight, I am the accumulation of who I was and what I experienced of the past.”

We are pleased to announce the representation of artist Armando Chant. Combining embroidered linen with pigment washes and etching, Sydney-based Chant uses techniques of erasure and negation to arrive at ambiguous, atmospheric landscapes. His work focuses on the inherent potential of the in-between, a place of imaginative engagement and a nascent state of emergence. “I’m interested in the Japanese aesthetic theory of Ma – where a space that appears empty is actually full of content and meaning,” he says. “It ties in with my interest in the Dansaekhwa movement: there is a softness to this minimalist approach, where the void is celebrated as a place where things come into being, rather than a place of nothingness.”

An annual astronomical event, Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. It symbolizes death and rebirth, and thus, new beginnings. As the gradual waning of daylight hours is reversed and begins to grow again, we set intentions and goals, bringing them to fruition in the months to come. Also known as Hibernal Solstice, this is an ideal moment for rest and reflection. The work of Paul Philp and Woo Byoung Yun contemplates on these themes; their practice has time — and particularly empty time — baked into it. Working in ceramic and plaster respectively, the artists’ materials impose periods of rest and inaction upon the creator.

In celebration of our winter show, The Sun Stands Still: A Group Exhibition by Paul Philp & Woo Byoung Yun, we partnered with Minkyu Lee of Cosmic Garden to host a Winter Solstice workshop at our LA gallery.

Nadia Yaron's Gratitude Flower for JB (2023) is part of ‘100 Hooks’, a group exhibition at Blunk Space featuring over 100 esteemed artists and designers from the US, UK, Europe, Mexico, and Japan. The show is a continuation of JB Blunk’s seminal 1981 solo exhibition ‘100 Plates Plus’ held at David Cole Gallery in Inverness, California. In a nod to his training in Japan, Blunk’s plates denied the distinction between art and craft. Blunk enacted a particular synthesis of art and the objects of life, creating these functional objects thoughtfully and artfully throughout his career.

This exhibition consists of 100 different responses to the same brief: to create one hook of any size or material. Hooks, like plates, are utilitarian objects. Each participating artist and designer was invited as a result of an existing connection with Blunk’s work. From exhibiting at Blunk Space, a residency at his iconic home and studio, or through the inspiration of his oeuvre, each participant has been touched by Blunk’s legacy. Each of the artists and designers offers their own approach to materials, form, and process, but also the relationship of aesthetics to function.

We are pleased to announce the representation of artist Sarah Kaye Rodden.

We are pleased to announce the representation of artist Nicky Hodge.

Yoona Hur presents a new body of work that interprets the historic texts, symbols, and sensorial experiences of Korean Buddhist temples. “Having taken inspiration from moon jars and Dansaekwha paintings before, it was natural for me to orient myself towards Buddhism,” says Hur. “These elements all embody emptiness and a philosophy of clearing one’s mind to cultivate oneness.”

Liam Stevens presents new work, including five paintings and two limited edition prints. “Painting is a continuous investigation,” Stevens says. “How to paint and what can be achieved is in itself a layering of time, thought and procedure, which runs mutually with the culmination of pigment and repeat washes in producing a work.”

Sculptor Nadia Yaron carves weighty, organic forms from wood, stone and metal in her home studio in Hudson, New York. Her pieces are hewn with chainsaws and grinders, a necessarily violent practice that contrasts with the tranquil sculptures. “Using a chainsaw is such a cathartic thing,” says Yaron. “There is a push and pull to it, and out of the chaos comes some quiet.” In her studio, a 19th century barn in the grounds of her home, her pieces are heaved up with a chain lift rigged from the rafters, and stacked on top of one another in teetering totemic structures “My work is purposefully imperfect, which reminds me of the fragility of nature,” she says.

Nancy Jiseon Kwon has created a playlist to accompany her solo show, Clear with Rising Mist, at Francis Gallery Bath.