2025 Gala Auction - Live Lot
Rashid Johnson | Katharina Grosse | Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.)
Kibong Rhee | Joel Mesler
Kibong Rhee
South Korean, born 1957
Grey and Hazy, 2024
Acrylic and polyester fiber on canvas
55 3/8 x 55 3/8 in. (140.5 x 140.5 cm)
Framed: 56 1/4 x 56 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. (142.9 x 142.9 x 8.9 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Tina Kim Gallery
Estimate: $80,000 - $100,000
Grey and Hazy is a stunning example of Rhee’s fog-shrouded landscapes highlighting a world where reality and illusion intermingle. Evoking an air of mystery, the work appears suspended in an in-between state, both materializing and disappearing. The landscape does not aim for perfect representation but questions the very possibility of it. Rhee seeks to convey the incomplete nature of the world, opening up a philosophical space to explore what cannot be fully articulated.
For more information, please email [email protected]
This lot will be auctioned live at the Gala on February 1, 2025. To register an absentee or phone bid, please email [email protected]
About the Artist:
Kibong Rhee’s work consistently challenges the eye, encouraging the viewer to look intently at his exquisitely rendered landscapes. Primarily interested in the delicate balance between temporal fleeting moments and the eternal, Rhee’s poetic tableaux evoke a rare balance of sensuality and meditative distance.
In his widely celebrated paintings, the artist uses a complex layering technique to create incredible depth and movement. This three-dimensional optical dynamism married with natural scenes constitute an essential part of the artist’s oeuvre. For his site-specific installation, Rhee will be creating a diorama-like scene replete with a life-sized replica of a tree and time-based misting elements — an effect that literally animates his interests in nostalgia and ephemerality.
The artist’s installations and works on canvas reflect his interest in the subtle nature of change and he has observed that all things are in a continual state of evolution and disappearance — a phenomenon he has likened to water flowing. Rhee’s unique painting technique and the highly specific landscapes he chooses to paint, frame this cycle. The artist feels that disappearance is a physical process of nature that arouses a sense of beauty, reflection, and fantasy; in this way physical experiences expand to become both spiritual and transcendent.
Kibong Rhee has had solo exhibitions at Tina Kim Gallery, New York, Arco Center, Seoul; and Kukje Gallery, Seoul. His works have been included in the Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Changwon Sculpture Biennale, Korea; the Mediations Biennale, Poland; the Busan Biennale, Korea; and the Moscow Biennale. Works by Rhee have been included in exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; the Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul; the Daegu Museum of Art, Korea; the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taiwan; the Seoul Museum of Art; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. His works can be found in the private collections of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; the Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Gyeonggi Museum of Art; Seoul City Art Museum; Kandist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Walker Art Center; and ArtSonje Center, Korea.
2025 Benefit Auction - Live Lots
Rashid Johnson | Katharina Grosse | Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.)
Kibong Rhee | Joel Mesler