Kiaf SEOUL: Sally J. Han, Caroline Wong, Julia Bondesson

 

4 – 8 September, 2024

Coex Center, Seoul, Korea

 

 

 

Sally J. Han (b. 1993 in Shenyang, China) lives and works in New York, US. Her techniques hark back to the century’s old alchemy of painterly expression, while creating scenes of everyday life that are simultaneously very contemporary and yet utterly timeless. Raised in South Korea, Han moved to New York where she received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, 2016, with a Silas H. Rhodes Scholarship. In 2019 she received an MFA with an emphasis on drawing at the New York Academy of Art. Han's first solo exhibition in New York was at Fortnight Institute in January 2020. Since then Han has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, including Nine Lives, Gallery Belenius, Stockholm, Sweden, 2023, Lost and Found, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY, 2022, and a Solo Presentation at Independent Art Fair, New York, NY, 2021. 

 

Caroline Wong (b. 1986 in Ipoh, Malaysia) lives and works in London, UK. Wong’s work responds to traditional, restricted representations of East Asian women. Her beginnings, as an artist, lay in more traditional forms of portraiture, yet, as she has grown, she has nurtured the epicurean side of herself, moving towards more excitable, expressive mark-making driven by a hedonistic desire for fun. Wong received her MA from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2021. Prior to that, she received her Diploma in Contemporary Portraiture from The Art Academy in 2018. Solo exhibitions include Soho Revue, London, Soy Capitán, Berlin, 2022, Castello di San Basilio, Pisticci, Italy, Rusha & Co., Los Angeles, 2023, and Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, 2024. She has been shown at several international fairs and was one of the selected artists in Whitechapel's auction in 2024. In Sweden, her work has been shown in the solo show Picnics and Parties, 2024 at Belenius, Stockholm.

 

Julia Bondesson (b. 1983 in Kinnared, Sweden) lives and works in Åled, Sweden. Bodies and body parts are the backbone of Bondesson’s works. Her material is predominantly wood, and the meticulously carved and chiselled sculptures, with occasional scorch marks, have an exposed and vulnerable quality. Bondesson  graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2011 and has also studied hand puppetry in Taiwan and art in Japan and Thailand. Recent solo exhibitions include Kungsbacka konsthall, 2023, Trelleborgs konstmuseum, 2022, Belenius, Stockholm, 2021 and Moderna Museet, Malmö, 2021.  Bondesson was represented by Belenius at Art Brussels 2024 and is part of the collections of Moderna Museet, Hallands konstmuseum, Malmö Art Museum (to name a few) and many other prominent private collections. 

 

Photo credits: Jason Mandella, Graeme Duddridge and Belenius