LOCAL SEOUL 서울 GALLERIES TO WATCH:
CYLINDER
CYLINDER is a neutral and variable space born in Seoul in November 2020. The gallery has established its spatial identity between alternative and commercial art over the last few years, going through multidimensional changes in characteristics. CYLINDER willingly plays the role of an intermediary between institution and field and contributes to creating various art ecologies. Our vision is to provide a firm stepping-stone for the participating artists to move to the next level, and at the same time bridging the general public’s distance to contemporary art by lowering the threshold for them, transforming CYLINDER into a shared space.
image below: View of Cylinder gallery space
LOCAL SEOUL 서울 GALLERIES TO WATCH:
JASON HAMM
Jason Haam opened his eponymous gallery in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, in January 2018 with the inaugural exhibition of an American painter, Oliver Arms. Since its inception, the gallery has exhibited an extensive array of international contemporary artists. Founded with an uncompromising ethos for quality, the gallery is dedicated to showing works that are both original and emblematic of their time.
This year Haam announced the expansion of their current premises in Seongbuk-dong. The gallery will soon extend to an adjacent site at 350-4 Seongbuk-dong, effectively tripling our current exhibition space. This development will create a dynamic landscape where visitors can seamlessly move between exhibitions and experience the rich diversity of our program firsthand. The new building will be transformed into a site-specific installation by the renowned Swiss artist Urs Fischer, featuring a new body of sculptures within. This will be Fischer’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, following his first solo show in Seoul in 2022. After the exhibition, the structure will be demolished to make way for an innovative new gallery space, scheduled to open in September 2025.
image below: View of Jason Haam, Seoul
LOCAL SEOUL 서울 GALLERIES TO WATCH:
BARAKAT
Opened in 2016 in the center of Seoul, Barakat Contemporary focuses on in-depth research and planning into the important topics in international society and contemporary art, presenting to the domestic and international audience artists who show a humanities-based perspective on the present era. The gallery supports the long-term growth of unique artists from various cultures, including Africa, America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and offers audiences an uncommon opportunity to explore the contemporary issues arising from the points of contact between each society and culture. Barakat Contemporary is the only contemporary art branch of the Barakat Gallery, which features some 40,000 museum quality artifacts spanning various times and regions. Barakat Gallery has led the way in exhibiting ancient art and spreading the culture of collecting in (its locations in) Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Looking ahead, Barakat Contemporary will continue to combine the ancient and modern to create a new future for contemporary art.
image below: Installation View of Farah Al Qasimi: Blue Desert Online, Barakat Contemporary, 2024
Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) is an innovative art fair concept held in Kyoto with collaboration at its core. One of the leading art fairs in Japan specializing in contemporary art, ACK presents unique collaborations forged between Japanese and international galleries; government and private sectors; and fine arts and other cultural spheres in Kyoto. Hosted in the Kyoto International Conference Center, the fair consists of two sections: “Gallery Collaborations”, which pairs a local Japanese gallery with its international peer in a shared booth; and “Kyoto Meetings”, which features artists with distinct connections to Kyoto. Beyond the fair, special exhibitions and public programs are held in Kyoto City.
Invited international galleries include: A Thousand Plateaus Art Space（Chengdu), N/A（Seoul), Foksal Gallery Foundation（Warsaw), Gauli Zitter（Brussels),
The Shophouse（Hong Kong), Mendes Wood DM（Sao Paulo, NYC, Brussels), i8 Gallery（Reykjavik), Crèvecœur（Paris), Nonaka-Hill（Los Angeles), Tanya Bonakdar Gallery（New York), Kurimanzutto（Mexico City), Weiss Falk（Zurich), Lomex（New York) and more...
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Art Week Tokyo is an annual showcase of the creativity and diversity of contemporary art in Tokyo. Seeking to stimulate the growth of Tokyo’s art ecosystem, the event connects 53 of the city’s leading museums, galleries, and art spaces through four days of coordinated programming and special platforms. The free AWT Bus service links all venues and makes it easier than ever to explore one of the world’s most dynamic art scenes along with all the culture that Tokyo has to offer.
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participating AWT Galleries include >
AWT FOCUS: Launched in 2023, AWT Focus is a curated sales platform with a historic scope. The exhibition invites a guest curator to experiment with new narratives of modern and contemporary art through works drawn from Art Week Tokyo’s participating galleries.
This year’s second edition of AWT Focus will be curated by Mami Kataoka, Director, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, and Director, National Center for Art Research, Tokyo. One of Japan’s most accomplished curators, Kataoka will look at Japanese contemporary art in relation to art practices from across the Asia Pacific.
AWT VIDEO: The pop-up video program AWT Video invites an international curator to select single-channel moving image works by Japanese and international artists drawn from Art Week Tokyo’s galleries. The free program is presented in a special public pavilion.
This year’s AWT Video will be overseen by Sohrab Mohebbi, Director, SculptureCenter, New York. Under Mohebbi’s direction SculptureCenter has emerged as one of the most exciting art institutions in the United States today.