Artist Choi Goen. Photo by Kanghyuk Lee. ©Frieze Seoul

Korean artist Choi Goen has been named as the recipient of the 2024 Artist Award at Frieze Seoul. Now in its second year, the Artist Award enables an emerging or mid-career artist to realize an ambitious new body of work. Choi’s installation debuts at Frieze Seoul, 4–7 September, at COEX.

Choi repurposes and transforms industrial elements – such as exhaust pipes and air-conditioning units – to reveal the complex physical materials that sustain our digital connections and silently permeate our urban environment. This new commission takes the form of two large-scale sculptures: White Home Wall: Welcome and Gloria.


Choi Goen, Trophy, 2022, exhibition view. Brass pipe, 160 × 70 × 160 cm. ©Amado Art Space

Choi considers the fair itself a vast technological medium, creating a work akin to a performative experience. Her installation is an interplay of the positions, angles, positions and rhythms that animate the space of COEX and beyond, highlighting the ever-evolving relationship between art, technology and the urban landscape.

The jury for the Artist Award at Frieze Seoul was composed of leading industry figures including Sungah Serena Choo (Curator, Leeum Museum of Art), Jeon Joonho (artist), Kim Sung woo (Curator and Director, Primary Practice) and Yung Ma (Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery). The award is supported for a second year by Bvlgari.

Choi Goen (b. 1985, South Korea) had her first solo exhibition at KIMCHONGYUNG MUSEUM in 2016. And her previous exhibitions include Art Sonje Center (2023), Amado Art Space (2022), Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2022) and P21 Gallery (2021).

References