Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul to expand

Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul will expand its current space in the Fort Hill building in Hannam-dong, central Seoul, doubling the exhibition space with the addition of a ground-floor gallery, the European gallery announced Thursday.

The gallery opened its first space in Asia in October 2021 to expand its presence in the Asian market. Austrian gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac has been running galleries for 40 years, operating spaces in Salzburg, London, Paris and Seoul. The gallery represents more than 60 artists across the world.

The new gallery space on the ground floor will be unveiled to the public with the opening of the solo exhibition of Joseph Beuys on Sept. 4, coinciding with the second edition of Frieze Seoul. The gallery will present Donald Judd’s solo exhibition at the same time, featuring the artist’s three-dimensional works and paintings in the current space. The show will be curated by Flavin Judd, the artistic director of Judd Foundation.

“With this expansion of our Seoul gallery, we now have multiple exhibition spaces in all of our galleries around the world, permitting us to mount shows of different artists’ work at the same time,” Ropac said in a statement.

“Each artist had personal ties to South Korea -- Beuys largely through his friendship with Korean artist Nam June Paik, and Judd through the formative year he was stationed in Korea with the US army in 1947, when he was deliberating between becoming an architect or an artist,” he added on the upcoming exhibitions.

The Fort Hill building is an architectural landmark in the city designed by SAI architects, led by architect Park Ju-hwan. The building received the Korean National Architecture Award and Seoul Architecture Award in 2011.

Currently, the gallery is showing Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth’s solo exhibition, titled "Looking the Goat in the Eye," through June 10.

“The new 2,200-square-foot (205-square-meter) ground-floor exhibition space has been renovated by acclaimed interior designer Teo Yang Studio to harmonize with the existing space on the first floor, which he designed in 2021. With the larger space, we can further contribute to Seoul's burgeoning art scene and community,” said Hwang Kyu-jin, executive director in Seoul.

On June 21, American-born artist Cory Arcangel 's solo show will kick off at the gallery, which will encapsulate the breadth of the artist's practice. Arcangel, who describes himself as a pioneer of digital technology-based art, will present video, performance, wallpaper and wall-mounted works at his first solo exhibition in Seoul.