Weekly News Roundup: December 20, 2024
By The Editors
View of the Whanki Museum’s main building. Courtesy the Whanki Museum, Seoul.
Whanki Museum Reopens After Major Refurbishment
Following a ten-month-long renovation, the private Whanki Museum in Seoul’s Buam-dong hillside neighborhood has reopened its doors to the public. The institution, which is dedicated to the late Korean abstract artist Kim Whanki (1913–1974), had closed in February to revamp its 33-year-old building and gallery spaces. Speaking with The Korea Herald, museum director Park Mee-jung explained that aside from switching to LED lights in the galleries, the building’s granite exterior had to be reconditioned “before it got too old.” The refurbished Whanki Museum welcomed visitors with two new exhibitions, “Kim Whanki_The Immortal Nature” and “Kim Whanki_The Duet,” which spotlight more than 100 drawings, oil paintings, and archival materials by the eponymous artist and will run through early March 2025.
Portrait of ARIJIT BHATTACHARYYA. Photo by Devadeep Gupta. Courtesy Kunstlerhof Frohnau and the Department of Art and History Reinickendorf, Berlin.
Arijit Bhattacharyya Wins Ruckhaberle Award 2024
The Künstlerhof Frohnau (KHF) and the Department of Art and History Reinickendorf in Berlin have announced Indian-born, Weimar-based interdisciplinary artist Arijit Bhattacharyya as the winner of their sixth annual Ruckhaberle Award, which honors visual artists living in Germany whose work illuminates underrepresented social and political narratives. Bhattacharyya was selected for his ongoing research project, The Night of Long Silence (2024– ), a series of small-format drawings depicting vivid landscapes of violence by right-wing extremists, shown alongside museal objects and an evocative audio commentary. Along with a EUR 2,000 (USD 2,073) stipend, Bhattacharyya will participate in an artist residency at Künstler Frohnau and develop a solo exhibition and publication of his work. Works by all seven finalists are currently on view in a group exhibition at the GalerieETAGE in Berlin’s Museum Reinickendorf, which will run through March 2, 2025.
ANISH KAPOOR’s Yellow to Spanish and Pagan Gold, 2020, aluminum and paint, 221 × 221 × 47 cm. Courtesy the artist; Galleria Continua, San Gimignano/Beijing/Les Moulins/Habana/Rome/Sao Paulo, Paris; and India Art Fair, New Delhi.
India Art Fair 2025 Reveals Further Program Details
The 16th iteration of the India Art Fair is set to return from February 6–9, 2025 at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi. In its most ambitious edition to date, India Art Fair 2025 will gather a record 118 exhibitors, including 78 galleries and major art institutions from South Asia and beyond. Alongside local and international talents, the event will feature diasporic South Asian artists such as Anish Kapoor and Huma Bhabha, and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Indian performance artist Nikhil Chopra, who was recently appointed as curator of the sixth Kochi-Muziris Biennale, will also return to the fair. The citywide program includes an outdoor site-specific LED installation by Italian British artist duo Claire Fontaine based on their acclaimed series Foreigners Everywhere (2004– ); a major retrospective of Indian painter and poet Gulam Mohammed Sheikh at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art; and a solo exhibition by Mumbai-based conceptual artist Shilpa Gupta at Bikaner House. In a press release, fair director Jaya Asokan stated: “Our program of commissions will see the city come alive . . . South Asian art is truly having a moment and we’re incredibly proud to be playing our part in sharing it with the world!”
Portrait of GRIDTHIYA GAWEEWONG. Photo by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon. Courtesy the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York.
CCS Bard Announces 26th Curatorial Prize Winner
On December 17, New York’s Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) named Thai curator Gridthiya Gaweewong as the recipient of its annual 2025 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, which celebrates innovative and outstanding curators. In her curatorial practice, Gaweewong—who is currently the artistic director of the Bangkok-based Jim Thompson Art Center—focuses on the social changes in the post-Cold War era experienced by artists from Thailand and beyond. Having curated exhibitions internationally, including in Berlin, Mexico City, and Tokyo, she was also the artistic director of the Thailand Biennale 2023 in Chiang Rai alongside Thai installation artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. CCS Bard’s executive director Tom Eccles remarked that her innovative curatorial approach “subverts institutional narratives in lieu of artist-led and personal perspectives.” Gaweewong was selected by an independent jury comprising leading curators, artists, and museum directors, and will receive a USD 25,000 cash prize. Accepting the award, Gaweewong stated in a press release: “It inspires me to curate passionately, trusting art’s power to foster resilience and meaningful societal change.”
