KÖNIG SEOUL is pleased to present the group show INNER SPACES, the very first exhibition to be held in the gallery’s new location in Itaewon, Seoul. Featuring over 50 works by 25 different artists, this unique constellation of voices and formats celebrates the theme of interiority, understood both as the literal inside of an architectural space (where many of the scenes on offer take place), and the inner life that animates the visions realized in this diverse grouping.

With an elastic concept of the interior at hand, works that parade the heterogeneity and color-richness for which KÖNIG GALERIE is known can be experienced together, allowing a breadth of techniques and media to illuminate this theme and give shape to the myriad understandings of inner spaces. From two-dimensional supports, there are gouaches, watercolors, acrylics, and oil paints on wood (Stephan Balkenhol, Johanna Dumet), linen (Robert Janitz, Emily Weiner, Rachel Garrard), paper (Xenia Hausner, Jorge Galindo, Agnes Questionmark, Tue Greenfort), canvas (Marcella Barceló, Christian Achenbach, Karl Horst Hödicke, Amir Fattal, Bjarne Melgaard, Andy Denzler), among other mixed media. In Hausner’s CODE UNKNOWN, 2024, for example, the interior is pictured as a state of mind, a cinematic gaze over the shoulder of a young woman sitting near a telephone. A small bathroom sink is given portrait status in Hödicke’s eponymous 2002 painting, while Denzler’s FACE LIT FROM THE MOVIE SCREEN, 2023, problematizes the fraught relationship between the outer image projected to the world and the blankness that often lies behind it.

Within the sculptural idiom, there are glazed stonewares (David Zink Yi), blown glass pieces (Monira Al Qadiri), bronze sculptures, both finished (Erwin Wurm) and raw (Ayako Rokkaku), as well as mosaics (Zsófia Keresztes), powder coated aluminum (Jeppe Hein), and textile constructions (Joana Vasconcelos, Yussef Agbo-Ola, Armin Boehm). Rokkaku’s bronzes, recently showcased in Venice this year, give form to the imagination and fantasy that is the exclusive province of an inner world. The inner sanctum is both a religious concept and one in secular life that denotes a place of reflective peace, as in Keresztes’s WAILER, 2024, with its precarious internal spaces that move in through the wall-hanging sculpture. The interior also names that which is unseen or unknown, which is given life in Al Qadiri’s glass-blown MAN OF WAR, enlarging a prehistoric species of underwater life that used to populate the waters of the Gulf Region, from which the artist hails.

While the formal vocabulary of each work is specific to its own artist and their visual language, the unifying impulse behind INNER SPACES allows for a more nuanced and focused appreciation for what makes each artist and each work in this exhibition singular and unique. As INNER SPACES marks the first show within KÖNIG SEOUL’s new location, the territory explored via the concept of the interior, be that psychological or architectural, takes on greater significance and highlights the continued relevance of carefully curated spaces for contemporary art. The idea of the inner world, of both the mind and body, also bridges temporal and geographical divides, which might otherwise hamper the ability for such works to interact with one another and reveal unthought-of connections between generations and media. Such mobility, along with the latent potential for ongoing, productive dialogue, is a fitting tribute to the mission of the gallery and the artists it continues to support. / KÖNIG SEOUL