Choi Goen: Winner of the Frieze Seoul Artist Award 2024

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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 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.

Patrick Lee, Director of Frieze Seoul, said: ‘The Artist Award at Frieze Seoul remains a cornerstone of our programming for a second year. We extend our gratitude to all the artists who submitted proposals and offer special thanks to the jury for their valuable insights. With the Frieze Artist Awards in both Seoul and London spotlighting advanced technologies this year, it will be fascinating to see how two artists interpret this concept differently.’

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.

Watch: Woo Hannah, recipient of the Artist Award at Frieze Seoul 2023, explains the inspiration and work behind her sculptural installation The Great Ballroom, which she suspended from the ceiling of COEX.

About Choi Goen 

Choi Goen (b. 1985, South Korea) gathers everyday objects such as furniture, domestic appliances, ducting and cables and presents them as sculptures or installation works that interact with the space in which they are exhibited. For Choi, the new arrangements of the objects are also birthplaces of the cycle through which they were produced, distributed, discarded and recycled, testifying to the systems of contemporary industrial society and the networks called ‘cities’ that make it all possible.

Previous exhibitions include Art Sonje Center (2023), Amado Art Space (2022), Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2022) and P21 Gallery (2021). 

Further Information

Frieze Seoul is at COEX, 4 – 7 September 2024.

Limited tickets for Frieze Seoul are now on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, multi-day entry, exclusive guided tours and more.

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A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room opens in the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the ability to engage with the fair remotely. 

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^{Main image: Choi Goen, Sunbake, at Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2023. Copper pipe, wood, 170 × 150 m. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center}