At this year’s Frieze Seoul, Kipton's selection of ten artists spans generations, geographies, and disciplines, offering a lens into the diverse ways contemporary and modern masters continue to shape the art conversation.
Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, both rooted in the 1980s New York scene, represent the intersection of art, activism, and cultural identity. Haring’s bold, graphic style became synonymous with public accessibility and social advocacy, while Mapplethorpe’s refined black-and-white photography challenged conventions of beauty, sexuality, and form.
By contrast, Anish Kapoor brings a sculptural investigation into materiality and perception. Known for his monumental forms and explorations of the void, Kapoor’s work carries a philosophical weight that differs from the figurative immediacy of Anna Park, whose large-scale charcoal drawings capture the chaotic, fragmented energy of contemporary life.
Oliver Lee Jackson and David Salle both emerged in the American art scene with distinctive painterly vocabularies, yet from different vantage points. Jackson’s abstract, lyrical compositions often blend figuration and gesture with a spiritual undertone, while Salle’s postmodern juxtapositions layer imagery from art history, advertising, and pop culture into dynamic, often theatrical canvases.
Moving to a younger generation, Maia Ruth Lee’s practice navigates themes of migration, identity, and translation, often working with textiles and symbolic systems of communication. In dialogue with her is Markus Saile, whose atmospheric paintings hover between abstraction and representation, offering subtle meditations on light, space, and perception.
The Korean masters included—Kibong Rhee and Kim Tschang-Yeul—anchor the group in the local context of Seoul. Rhee’s dreamlike canvases evoke ephemerality through layers of mist and reflection, while Kim, celebrated for his iconic water drop paintings, blends hyperrealism with philosophical inquiry, embodying a meditative balance between East and West.
Together, these ten artists form a dialogue across mediums and generations: from the iconic voices of Haring and Mapplethorpe, to the conceptual weight of Kapoor, to the atmospheric poetics of Rhee and Kim. The selection underscores how art at Frieze Seoul is not just about individual works, but about conversations—between cultures, histories, and the ever-evolving present.