Seoul – Pace is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new and recent digital works by the interdisciplinary art collective teamLab at its newly expanded arts complex in Seoul. On view from September 2 to October 29, the presentation, titled Massless Suns, will coincide with the inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul and Pace’s unveiling of a new outdoor sculpture courtyard and Osulloc Tea House in Seoul.
teamLab is an international group of artists, programmers, architects, engineers, animators, and other specialists. Known for its multisensory, immersive work, teamLab explores the relationships between individuals and the natural world, encouraging new modes of perception through pioneering, technologically advanced installations. In recent years, teamLab has presented solo exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco; Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul; Kairakuen Garden in Mito, Japan; and many other institutions and venues around the world.
The collective’s upcoming exhibition at Pace’s arts complex in Seoul will spotlight the never-before-seen interactive digital installation Massless Suns and Dark Spheres (2022) along with the monitor-based digital works Waves of Light (2018), Dissipative Figures – 1000 Birds (2022), Dissipative Figures – Human (2022), and Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II (2019), all of which will be displayed in the gallery’s ground floor exhibition space equipped for experiential, immersive artworks, which was unveiled in March 2022. The interactive digital installation Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light Color, Sunrise and Sunset (2022) will be presented in the gallery’s new outdoor sculpture courtyard, opening to the public on the occasion of Frieze Seoul.
Massless Suns and Dark Spheres comprises glowing spheres of light and darkness. Uncontained by bulbs or casing, these spheres interact when viewers try to touch them—since they’re made of light, the spheres can’t be physically sensed. As such, the installation engages with notions of perception, obscuring the boundary between the viewer and the artwork. The opening of the new first floor exhibition space where Massless Suns and Dark Spheres and the monitor-based works will be installed reflects the strength of the gallery’s digital arts program and its commitment to supporting the advanced studio practices of its artists. Visitors engage with new, boundary-pushing works in this space, delving into the sensorial possibilities of contemporary art.
Each of the monitor-based works in the exhibition engages with themes of continuity and renewal, two focuses of teamLab’s practice. Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II, for example, depicts flowers repeating the processes of life and death, blooming and evolving in real-time with the passing days and seasons as they are generated by a computer program. Dissipative Figures – 1000 Birds and Dissipative Figures – Human, which are part of a new body of work by the collective, examine flows and transmissions of energy through semi-abstract, mesmeric compositions. Waves of Light meditates on the movements of the ocean, featuring rising and falling waves drawn based on calculated trajectories of water particles.
With the interactive installation Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light Color, Sunrise and Sunset, which will be installed in Pace’s new outdoor sculpture courtyard in Seoul, teamLab brings its investigations of color to the fore. The ovoids that make up the work can change into 61 newly defined solidified light colors. The installation will respond to climatic conditions and visitors’ interactions with it, making the courtyard environment a key component of the artwork.
The opening of the sculpture courtyard—along with a new Osulloc Tea House offering locally produced teas and Korean-tea infused cocktails—builds on Pace’s strong presence in Seoul, where it has operated since 2017. A rotating display of prints, editions, and multiples as well as titles from Pace Publishing, the gallery’s imprint— including a Korean translation of artist Adrian Ghenie’s recent book The Hooligans—will be on view and available for purchase in the tea house.
Concurrently with teamLab’s upcoming exhibition, Ghenie will present a solo exhibition at Pace’s arts complex in Seoul. On view from September 2 to October 22, Ghenie’s presentation, marking his first solo show in Asia, will spotlight a new body of works on paper. This will be the artist’s first exhibition devoted entirely to his drawing practice.
In addition to these exhibitions, the Tokyo and London-based artist duo A.A. Murakami is set to preview Floating World—the second NFT project to be released as part of a new partnership between Art Blocks, the leading platform for generative art, and Pace Verso, the gallery’s web3 hub—at Pace’s Seoul gallery during Frieze Seoul. Known for creating unique sensory installations that explore phenomena of the natural world, A.A. Murakami has developed Floating World as an ode to primordial life on Earth. Further details about Floating World will be released in the coming weeks.
teamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective, an interdisciplinary group of various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. teamLab aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world and new perceptions through art. In order to understand the world around them, people separate it into independent entities with perceived boundaries between them. teamLab seeks to transcend these boundaries in our perception of the world, of the relationship between the self and the world, and of the continuity of time. Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity of life. teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Asia Society Museum, New York; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Amos Rex, Helsinki.
Pace is a leading international art gallery representing some of the most influential contemporary artists and estates from the past century, holding decades-long relationships with Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Barbara Hepworth, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, and Mark Rothko. Pace enjoys a unique U.S. heritage spanning East and West coasts through its early support of artists central to the Abstract Expressionist and Light and Space movements.
Since its founding by Arne Glimcher in 1960, Pace has developed a distinguished legacy as an artist-first gallery that mounts seminal historical and contemporary exhibitions. Under the current leadership of President and CEO Marc Glimcher, Pace continues to support its artists and share their visionary work with audiences worldwide by remainingat the forefront of innovation. Now in its seventh decade, the gallery advances its mission through a robust global program—comprising exhibitions, artist projects, public installations, institutional collaborations, performances, and interdisciplinary projects. Pace has a legacy in art bookmaking and has published over five hundred titles in close collaboration with artists, with a focus on original scholarship and on introducing new voices to the art historical canon.
The gallery has also spearheaded explorations into the intersection of art and technology through its new business models, exhibition interpretation tools, and representation of artists cultivating advanced studio practices. As part of its commitment to technologically engaged artists within and beyond its program, Pace launched a hub for its web3 activity, Pace Verso, in November 2021.
Today, Pace has nine locations worldwide, including a European foothold in London and Geneva, and two galleries in New York—its headquarters at 540 West 25th Street, which welcomed almost 120,000 visitors and programmed 20 shows in its first six months, and an adjacent 8,000 sq. ft. exhibition space at 510 West 25th Street. Pace’s long and pioneering history in California includes a gallery in Palo Alto, which operated from 2016 to 2022. Pace’s engagement with Silicon Valley’s technology industry has had a lasting impact on the gallery at a global level, accelerating its initiatives connecting art and technology as well as its work with experiential artists. Pace consolidated its West Coast activity through its flagship in Los Angeles, which opened in 2022. Pace was one of the first international galleries to establish outposts in Asia, where it operates permanent gallery spaces in Hong Kong and Seoul, as well as an office and viewing room in Beijing. Pace’s satellite exhibition spaces in East Hampton and Palm Beach present continued programming on a seasonal basis.