Private View: May 25–26, 2022
May 27–29, 2022
Convention & Exhibition Centre
1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai
Hong Kong
Lehmann Maupin returns to Art Basel Hong Kong with a curated selection of works that illustrate the programmatic focus planned for the first year at our newly expanded Seoul gallery. Works in the booth draw conceptual and material connections between artists McArthur Binion, Tom Friedman, Catherine Opie, Alex Prager, and Lari Pittman, among others.
In 2017, Lehmann Maupin was one of the first international galleries to establish a permanent space in South Korea, solidifying its reputation as a pioneer among Western galleries after having opened its doors in Hong Kong in 2013. Over the past decade, artists on the gallery’s roster have gained heightened visibility and prominence through numerous solo and group museum exhibitions, biennials, and art fairs across Asia. In March 2022, Lehmann Maupin opened its doors to a new-renovated gallery space in Hannam-dong, Seoul, an expanded venue for staging more ambitious exhibition programs in the city.
On view at the fair will be a new painting by Lari Pittman, from the series Opaque, Translucent and Luminous which was unveiled at Lehmann Maupin’s new Seoul location, as the artist’s first solo exhibition in South Korea. Over the past several decades, Pittman’s unique visual sensibility—with skillful layering of signs and symbols, varied painting techniques, and rich, intricate patterns—has established him as one of the most significant painters of his generation. His traveling retrospective, which originated at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2019–20) will continue to travel globally, opening this November at Museo Jumex in Mexico City, and the Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker, Norway in early 2023.
Tom Friedman’s highly conceptual work engages both maximalist and minimalist aesthetics, as well as recalling those of Pop Art, and his practice is deeply engaged with the history of sculpture. In his celebrated large-scale sculpture Looking Up (2020), on view at the fair, a figure looks to the sky, inviting viewers to stand at its base and do the same. Friedman’s first solo exhibition in Asia is scheduled for May 2022 at the gallery’s Seoul outpost.
Both a photographer and filmmaker, Alex Prager is known for her elaborately staged scenes that capture a moment frozen in time, inviting the viewer to “complete the story” and speculate about its narrative context. Prager cultivates an uncanny, dreamlike mood throughout her oeuvre—an effect heightened by her use of timeless costuming and richly saturated colors that recall technicolor films, as well as the mysterious or inexplicable happenings she often depicts. Prager’s work is the subject of the survey exhibition “Big West,” currently on view at the Lotte Art Museum, Seoul.
Lehmann Maupin’s full 2022 calendar for its Seoul space includes current and forthcoming solo exhibitions by gallery artists: Lari Pittman (through May 7, 2022); Tom Friedman (May 12 – June 25, 2022); Catherine Opie (July 7 – August 20, 2022); McArthur Binion (August 21 – October 22, 2022); and Heidi Bucher (November 3 – December 31, 2022).