Trinity Gallery to host art salon featuring Bae Joon-sung amid Seoul art fairs

Part of Korean artist Bae Joon-sung's lenticular artworks during his recent exhibition in Seoul. Captured from the Trinity Gallery website

As Seoul buzzes with the opening of Frieze and Kiaf Seoul — two of the world’s major art fairs — the Trinity Gallery is drawing attention with a special art salon featuring Korean artist Bae Joon-sung.

According to gallery CEO Sojung Trinity Park, the program, "Salon Romantique 2: with Artist Bae Joon-sung," will take place Monday at the Paris Bar inside the Grand Hyatt Seoul.

Bae is best known for his lenticular works, which combine images with painting to merge tradition and modernity, art and photography, and stillness and movement in a single frame. As viewers shift their position, the images change, transforming his work into an exploration of how we perceive art.

One example depicts a gallery wall hung with portraits. Depending on the viewer’s angle, one of the paintings shifts between an image of a contemporary nude woman and a woman with a dress.

“Just as the salons of 18th-century France were spaces where art, philosophy, music and literature came together, this program aims to reimagine that tradition today by bringing visual art and music into dialogue. By reviving the salon’s essence of conversation and exchange in a contemporary way, we hope to open up a new path for experiencing art,” Park told The Korea Times.

“Artist Bae has been working in France a lot, and we wanted the venue to capture a French atmosphere,” Park added on the decision to host the event at a hotel bar.

The event is co-hosted by the Tourism Sciences Society of Korea, and sponsored by the Grand Hyatt Seoul and the Seoul Business Agency.

Cultural columnist Kim Tae-hoon curated the music for the salon. The program begins at 2:30 p.m. and runs for three hours.