Frieze Seoul: Technology, Consumerism, Changing Realities

The existential dread of a collective society and personal identity defined by AI, social media and consumer capitalism is all over Frieze Seoul. Here are some of the artists (not) buying in

With artificial intelligence advancing into creative spheres and social media’s omnipresence mediating how we access and process information, emerging technology and its impact on notions of ‘the real’ is at the forefront of many artists’ minds at Frieze Seoul. Here is a selection of those who are interrogating what our surroundings and everyday experiences might mean in this age of unreal reality.

Bank’s group presentation is composed around artist LU Yang’s globally celebrated ‘DOKU’ video installation, which conflates gender, spirituality, technology and youth culture. Nearby, Sun Yitian’s serene hyper-realist paintings focus on the spectacular – and spectacularly vacuous – gleam of consumer ecstasy. Bai Yiyi adds a note of late-capitalist critique, with densely layered abstract paintings like the white noise of futuristic mindscapes.

P21 offers a group show including artist Hyungkoo LEE, who presents a selection from his iconic series ‘Altering Facial Features’. Lee explores the human obsession with changing our bodies with a pseudoscientific approach and bizarre, invented mechanical devices. Hananeyl Choi’s works explore gender, sexuality, consumer culture and normative social structures. He presents a sculpture shown at his recent solo exhibition ‘Bulky’, where he looked at motifs of gay male bodybuilding subcultures.

As part of Galerie Gregor Staiger’s group presentation, Amsterdam-based artist Nora Turato shows new text-based wall works that create a mixed-up visual language from public signage, advertising and display, with fragmentary phrases blurring the lines between the profound and banal.

In Taro Nasu’s group show, electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda uses large-scale audiovisual installations and performance. His mathematical approach uses light and sound to ask what we perceive. Mika Tajima also questions how we are formed as subjects by unseen forces in the industrial and digital landscape, employing information systems and data as raw materials.

Galerie Quynh presents work by Vietnamese artist Do Thanh Lang, whose paintings shimmer with a hazy fluorescent strangeness. The canvases, created with oil, acrylic, epoxy resin and plastic, are like discarded fragments of memory and stories, likened by Do to ‘virtual trash’.

Lehmann Maupin brings a curated presentation of significant new work by artists including Erwin Wurm, who will exhibit a selection of two- and three-dimensional pieces that explore the human body and desire, showcasing his ongoing interest in issues affecting modern society.

At Arario Gallery, Subodh Gupta is a contemporary Indian artist who transforms everyday objects into complex installations, reflecting the cultural history of India’s rapidly changing society. Gupta questions the ambivalence of a culture caught between traditional customs and globalization, booming wealth and desperate poverty, ancient caste politics, religious beliefs and technocratic fervor. Korean artist KIM Soun-Gui looks at issues of global capitalism, societal changes driven by online culture, the values and roles of art in the neoliberal era, and the philosophy of East and West, through multimedia and video works. KIM relates the “excessive inflation of images and objects” to the developmental curve of the global stock market.

Over at Lisson Gallery, Tatsuo Miyajima presents Time Waterfall-Panel #10 (2018), which comprises panels of LED counters or “gadgets”, across which the numbers 1 to 9 appear and cascade downward at ever-changing sizes and speeds. Miyajima first showed Time Waterfall in 2016 as a light installation spanning the entire façade of Hong Kong’s 490-metre-tall International Commerce Centre. Grounded in the teachings of Buddhism, the “Waterfalls” series expands on Miyajima’s core artistic concepts of continual change and spiritual connection.

Frieze Seoul returns to COEX from September 6–9, 2023. Discover the best art from more than 120 leading galleries from across Asia and beyond. Located in the Gangnam district in the heart of Seoul, the fair runs alongside Kiaf SEOUL, South Korea’s leading art fair.  Become a member now to enjoy VIP access, multi-day entry, exclusive guided tours and more.

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Main image: Ryoji Ikeda, data.scape [DNA], 2019, LCD monitor displays, computer, speakers, 68.4 x 364.5 cm. ©︎ Ryoji Ikeda Courtesy of TARO NASU. Photo by Kei Okano

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The deconstruction of cross-generational stories interrogates the foundation of belief systems

An imagined future where you can inject other people’s memories into your own life.

The ecosystems of fungi examine abstract spaces and non-linear time.

Physical beings that exist in the real world are reduced to data and trace new digital identities.

The sensory dimension of memory and its potential to bridge individual and collective experiences.

A film about remembering another film, often incorrectly.

The search for a physical manuscript raises questions of the ownership of identities.

The Vice Chair of the Whitney Museum chooses five pieces from Frieze Seoul Viewing Room including colourful works by Mit Jai Inn, Trevor Shimizu and Rosha Yaghmai

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Highlights of shows and activations happening at 36 independent spaces across the Korean capital during Frieze Seoul 2023, as well as ARKO's 'Art Space Network' promoting non-profit spaces across the wider region.

We explore the textures of Seoul with the Korean artist, who explains why she is drawn to medieval art in the age of social media