[Exhibition of the Week] MMCA Collection Exhibition 'Picasso Ceramics' · International Gallery Anish Kapoor Solo Exhibition and More

▲MMCA Collection Exhibition 'Picasso Ceramics' = The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) is holding the collection special exhibition 'Picasso Ceramics' at the MMCA Cheongju Art Storage Center (hereinafter Cheongju Branch).

Exhibition view of Picasso ceramics. [Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

This exhibition showcases 107 ceramic works by Picasso from the Lee Kun-hee Collection donated in 2021 and is organized to highlight Picasso (Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973) as a ceramist. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death, providing an opportunity to rediscover his art and life through ceramic works, re-examining his creative world and his extensive influence not only on 20th-century modern art history but also on the history of ceramics.

Picasso was a pioneer of Cubism and a genius painter of modern art who passionately explored various media beyond painting, including sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and stage design, never settling in one field. In particular, ceramics was a new challenge he undertook in his later years, when he achieved remarkable accomplishments as a painter, becoming fascinated by the nature of clay and fire and producing numerous works.

Picasso first encountered ceramics in 1906 when he met Paco Francisco Durrio (1868-1940), a Spanish ceramist. After seeing ceramic works by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) introduced by Durrio and discovering the charm of ceramics, Picasso continued his curiosity about ceramics, collaborating with ceramist Jean Van Dongen (1883-1970) in 1929 to create vases. His serious engagement with ceramics began in 1946 when he visited the Madoura workshop in the Mediterranean coastal city of Vallauris during a vacation.

Picasso, 'Large Bird and Black Face'
[Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

At the Madoura workshop, he diligently learned the essential elements of ceramics. He mastered ceramic materials such as kaolin, oxides, and glazes, as well as the characteristics of fire and clay and the firing process. He studied regularly produced plates, bowls, and vases at the workshop and became deeply captivated by the allure of ceramics. Initially, he created works by designing on plates with the help of ceramic artisans, but gradually he transformed the shapes of ceramics, forming his own sculptural characteristics. The charm of Picasso ceramics lies in the discovery of elements of painting, sculpture, and printmaking within ceramics.

The exhibition is organized by themes such as women, mythology, faces, and bullfighting. The exhibition space is designed to allow visitors to view edition records on the back of ceramics, and it also features 56 archival items including photographs capturing the Madoura workshop and its working environment at the time, as well as one film (Luciano Emmer, Meeting Picasso, 2000) that guides the creative journey. The exhibition runs until January 9, 2024, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Cheongju Art Storage Center, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do.

The Kukje Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition of Anish Kapoor. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo show in Korea in seven years.
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

▲Anish Kapoor Solo Exhibition 'Anish Kapoor' = International Gallery presents Anish Kapoor's solo exhibition for the first time in seven years since 2016. This is the artist's fourth solo exhibition at International Gallery, showcasing a wide range of his diverse works including sculpture, painting, and drawing across the K1, K2, and K3 spaces in Seoul.

Recognized as one of the most pioneering artists of the 21st century, Kapoor reaffirmed his position last year with a large-scale exhibition in Venice that opened new horizons in his innovative artistic world. Particularly at the Venice exhibition, Kapoor juxtaposed his signature black works with paintings, a medium he has recently focused on, emphasizing his continuous exploration of the physical and conceptual limits of visual art. For Kapoor, this group of black works intersects with his contemplation of painting’s operation; he explains painting as “a history of ways to visualize something, whereas I have been obsessed with the exact opposite, that is, how to make something disappear.”

In this exhibition, Kapoor organizes the space with the same approach to painting and sculpture. Utilizing architectural spaces of different characters from K1 to K3 in Seoul, he proposes new dialogues between works and expresses his focus on the ‘body,’ a theme emphasized throughout his oeuvre. This exhibition, introducing abstract gestures in various forms with diverse materials, ultimately consistently chants the sublime intensity of life ? the fierce sublimity of life that is the core resource constructing Anish Kapoor’s formal language.

The Kukje Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition of Anish Kapoor. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo show in Korea in seven years.
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

First, four massive sculptural installations capture the audience’s attention. These heavy masses refuse categorization into specific types, evoking geological formations while also resembling anatomical internal organs. Among the sculptures painted in Kapoor’s signature deep red and black, two pieces titled 'Shadow' and 'Ingest' subtly hint at the context and sources of inspiration behind the works.

The paintings that condense the artist’s grammar throughout the exhibition are also noteworthy. Visually intense and explosively expressionistic, these paintings are made with oil paint, fiberglass, and silicone to realize a raw state. They not only evoke bloody internal organs but also suggest the blossoming of existence. Within these paintings, where paint appears splattered on the canvas, we sense the presence of matter whose internal and external boundaries have been blurred by tremendous force, indicating Kapoor’s ongoing interest in the porous boundaries of the body. The exhibition runs until October 22 at International Gallery, Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Source, 'Acoustic Space Series S1', 100 x 146 x 100cm
[Photo by Pyo Gallery]

▲Jung Bowon Solo Exhibition 'Infinite Space' = Pyo Gallery presents Jung Bowon's solo exhibition 'Infinite Space.' Jung Bowon is a sculptor who emphasizes that the tension arising between different entities is more important than creating a single structure with mass. He states that the tension between structures, between volumes, and even the invisible air currents or sound waves surrounding them are part of his artistic domain.

The artist has created works focusing on sound or sound waves filling the empty space around structures under titles such as 'Concerto for Four Pianos' (1991), 'Cantata BWV56,' 'Deconstruction of Polyphony,' and 'Sound Space' at LG Art Center in 1999.

Source, 'Infinite Space 21-1', 176 x 99cm [Photo provided by Pyo Gallery]

As part of his work utilizing sound waves, he recently presented experimental works visualizing BTS’s music, including 'Movement of Sound Series S1' and 'Sound Space Series S1.' These two works visualize the frequencies of BTS’s music and rearrange them into various forms, visually expressing the diversity of the music as artworks. The artist’s attempt to visually express invisible sensations enriches his artistic world and plays a role in communicating with audiences as a space of urban interaction, offering a vision for the future.

Additionally, through his works, the artist conveys a message modeling the organic interaction between human existence and the environment based on abstract forms and geometric structures. Through this, existing urban spaces evolve from mere functional spaces into places where more meaningful human-centered communication and activities are possible. The exhibition runs until October 7 at Pyo Gallery, Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.