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Arario Gallery's Kim Chang-il stands in front of Sigmar Polke's "The Fastest Gun in the West" at Arario Gallery, Cheonan. / Courtesy of Arario Gallery |
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Arario Gallery is holding an exhibition featuring works by top international artists, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Neo Rauch, Sigmar Polke and Tracey Emin.
``Arario's Finest: 20th year Anniversary Exhibition" is being held simultaneously at Arario Gallery in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and in Seoul, through January.
Arario Gallery owner Kim Chang-il decided to show off some prized pieces from his extensive art collection for the special anniversary exhibition. In a meeting with reporters at the gallery Friday, Kim recalled how he started his collection, which includes some famous works by Young British Artists (YBAs) and Young German Artists.
 Kim admitted he was ``lucky" to have acquired works by some artists, who have now become famous. ``When I bought some of the works, the artists weren't that famous yet. They were the reason I became famous. Because I bought them during their early years, and then they became famous," he said.
It's not just luck but his astute sense of quality art that has earned him a reputation as one of the top collectors in the world. He has always been included in the list of most powerful and influential figures in the global art world by art magazines such as Germany's Monopol, London's Art Review and New York's Art News.
A significant work in Kim's collection is German artist Sigmar Polke's ``The Fastest Gun in the West" (2002). Polke is known to be picky when it comes to selling his works to collectors. But after Kim visited Polke in his studio in Germany, the artist decided the mixed-media piece should be sold to him.
Another famous artwork is Quinn's ``Self" (2001), a mold of the artist's head with eight pints of his blood (the average amount of blood in a human body). This is the third one made by Quinn, who pledged to produce one every five years since he originally created ``Self" in 1991.
At Arario Gallery, Quinn's bloody sculpture is displayed in a special refrigerated box, set at minus 18 degrees to prevent it from melting, in a small darkened room. Quinn said he made ``Self" out of a desire ``to push portraiture to an extreme, a representation which not only has the form of the sitter, but is actually made from the sitter's flesh."
The exhibition also features large works ``Der Votrager" and ``Wasser" by Rauch, whose works are characterized by ``surrealist elements combined with Socialist Realism." Again, Kim showed foresight, having acquired Rauch's works years before the artist gained global prominence.
One of Rauch's works, a rainbow-colored racetrack painting ``Etappe," grabbed headlines after Hollywood star Brad Pitt bought it for a reported $960,000 at Art Basel in June.
Aside from "Self" and "The Fastest Gun in the West," the Cheonan gallery also features 20 works, including Antony Gormley's `cast iron body frames `Reflection," Haring's prints and original paintings, as well as other pieces by Sophie Calle and Ki Ki Smith. Meanwhile, the gallery in Seoul features 15 works including Warhol's ``Ethel Scull," and Emin's ``Life Without You Never."
Arario Gallery opened on the fifth floor of a department store in Cheonan in 1989 and re-opened in 2002 as a separate building with 32,000 square feet of exhibition space, making it one of the biggest in Korea. Kim is widely credited with leading the YBA craze in Korea, after having acquired high-profile pieces such as ``Hymn" by Hirst.
Outside the gallery in Cheonan, the Arario Small City park features sculptures by Hirst, Haring, Wang Guangyi and Robert Indiana, as well as Kim's own.
Kim said he plans on putting more works by Asian artists in the park next year
The Cheonan exhibition runs through Jan. 24, and tickets are 3,000 won for adults and 2,000 won for students. The Seoul exhibition runs through Jan. 10 and admission is free. Visit www.arariogallery.co.kr.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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