Installation view of “Seok Ho Kang: Three Minute Delight” at the Seoul Museum of Art. Photo : Courtesy Tina Kim Gallery, New York
Seok Ho Kang at the Seoul Museum of Art
Before his 2021 death, at 50, the gimlet-eyed painter Seok Ho Kang had more than a dozen solo shows in South Korea and one outside of it. Let us hope more international exhibitions come soon (New York’s Tina Kim just did one) because, as this taut survey underscored, he was razor-sharp about of-the-moment issues, like how images circulate, and identity is constructed. His best are close-ups of clothed bodies—a crotch in blue jeans, a chest draped in pearls. Like the pictures of Domenico Gnoli and Nolan Simon, Kang’s images are deadpan and a touch fetishistic, both visually and intellectually voluptuous.
December 29, 2023
