Dreamy nights, punchy wit: Art exhibitions to catch in May
Installation view of Harold Ancart's solo exhibition "Good Night" at the APMA Cabinet in Seoul / Courtesy of Gagosian
There’s something about spring — the soft light, the slow breeze — that pairs perfectly with art viewing.
From dreamy paintings that whisper good night to genre-pushing experiments edged with punchy wit, the following two exhibitions may be just what you need to liven up your cultural outings this spring.
Harold Ancart’s ‘Good Night’
To Harold Ancart, night is “when children dream and prisoners escape.”
It is this enigmatic time that the Belgian artist channels with full creative force in his first exhibition in Korea, aptly titled “Good Night.”
Within the APMA Cabinet — a project space tucked inside the Seoul headquarters of cosmetics giant Amorepacific — Ancart’s five nocturnal paintings are cloaked in a dreamlike hush. Soft beige pleated curtains envelop the gallery, transforming it into an intimate living room where every corner seems to whisper a tender farewell before sleep.
The works in “Good Night” blur the line between figuration and abstraction. “During nighttime, things do not appear as clearly. The way you perceive things becomes different, and things start shape-shifting or metamorphosing,” the artist said during a walk through the space.
Harold Ancart's "Sleeping Tree" (2025) / Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
From a lone tree with cloudlike foliage nearly dissolving into a blotchy blue sky (“Sleeping Tree”), to a stark white house emptied of people, its walls adorned instead with paintings of landscapes (“Good Night”), Ancart captures both nature and architecture as if seen through the softened distortion of twilight.
Yet for the artist, these subjects are ultimately just conduits — “alibis,” as he puts it — for exploring the “infinite laboratory” of color. Here, it is blue, his favorite, that happens to dominate the canvas, evoking the mercurial moods of nightfall.
“I am not so much interested in subjects themselves,” he said. “Painting is interesting when it goes beyond the subjects — when it transcends them.”
“And the world we’re surrounded with is not made of outlines; it’s masses of color that superpose.”
“Good Night” marks the second exhibition presented by international powerhouse Gagosian in Seoul, a city where the dealer has yet to establish a permanent outpost.
The exhibition runs through May 16.
Installation view of "Our Set 2025: Gimhongsok × Kiljong Park" at Suwon Art Space Gwanggyo in Gyeonggi Province / Suwon Museum of Art
‘Gimhongsok × Kiljong Park’
Since 2022, Suwon Art Space Gwanggyo, operated by the Suwon Museum of Art in Gyeonggi Province, has hosted “Our Set,” an annual exhibition series that pairs creators from different genres in unexpectedly inventive dialogue.
Last year’s iteration, for instance, brought together octogenarian conceptual art pioneer Sung Neung-kyung and indie singer-songwriter Lee Lang in a collaboration both surprising and resonant.
This year, the series returns with “Gimhongsok × Kiljong Park,” featuring two artists who have each experimented across a variety of mediums with remarkable conceptual fluidity, often laced with barbed humor.
Gimhongsok frequently works with both intangible materials — voice, text and breath — and physical objects, crafting pieces that make visible the mechanisms of perception and the invisible workings of power.
His “8 Breaths (MATERIAL)” is a cast bronze sculpture of eight balloons, each one inflated by a member of his family. The result is more than just a sculptural object; it’s an intimate portrait, an imprint of fleeting breaths frozen permanently in metal.
In “Solitude of Silence,” hyperrealist human figures lounge behind animal masks, posed beside text panels that outline their supposed professions and biographies. By replacing live performers with these anthropomorphic stand-ins, Gimhongsok interrogates the ethical and hierarchical dynamics that often govern the relationship between artist and hired performer.
Installation view of "Our Set 2025: Gimhongsok × Kiljong Park" at Suwon Art Space Gwanggyo / Suwon Museum of Art
Meanwhile, Park transforms the gallery into a site of quiet invention, unlocking hidden potentials within everyday objects.
Among the standouts are “An Exhibition Walker” and “Hide Hide, Your Hair’s in Sight,” both inspired by an older woman the artist once saw in the street, who had ingeniously repurposed an old baby stroller into a makeshift wastepaper cart.
In homage, Park assembles a whimsical assemblage for the show: an electric fan, alarm clock, mop, headlight, metal basket and wheels that come together to form a multifunctional walker. This piece invites visitors to not only observe, but also to move, interact and imagine alternative forms of mobility.
“Gimhongsok × Kiljong Park” runs until Oct. 12.