India Art Fair 2025: 11 art works by three Korean artists on display at KCCI booth

These include art works by veteran Orientalist artist Kim Keun-joong; painter Lee Gil-woo; and Kim Deok-han, a new generation artist who is a master of lacquer and Korean paper works, and he was at India Art Fair 2019 too.

ACN Correspondent On Feb 5, 2025

New Delhi, India. With the growing influence of Korean culture in India, interest in Korean fine and visual arts is also on the rise. Reflecting this increasing enthusiasm, the Korean Cultural Centre India has been invited by the India Art Fair to operate a dedicated Korean exhibition booth. This special invitation will bring the essence of Korean contemporary art to the 16th edition of India Art Fair, that will be organised from February 6 to February 9 at National Small Industries Corporation Exhibition Ground (NSIC) in New Delhi.

The Director General of the prestigious National Gallery of Modern Art, Dr Sanjeev Kishor Goutam, will be the guest at the KCCI exhibition booth at 12:30 pm on 6th February, the opening day of India Art Fair 2025.

Participating in the institutions sector representing Korea, Korean Cultural Centre India’s K-Art special exhibition booth will feature works by veteran Orientalist artist Kim Keun-joong; Korean painter Lee Gil-woo; and Kim Deok-han, an artist of the new generation who is a master of lacquer and Korean paper works. Kim Deok-han, who has arrived in India especially to be at the India Art Fair 2025, will be present at the KCCI exhibition booth during the event.

Interestingly, for Kim Deok Han, it his second visit to India as he had put on display “Overlaid Series” paintings at the India Art Fair 2019 in New Delhi also. At that time, Gallery Palais de Seoul that participated in India Art fair 2019 with the support of Korean Cultural Centre India, had introduced Kim Deok Han here.

The India Art Fair, which celebrates its 16th anniversary this year, is the world’s largest art fair in terms of number of visitors, with an average of 100,000 visitors per day. Hosted by the Indian subsidiary of Angus Montgomery Arts – an art exhibition consulting firm based in London – it is one of the largest fairs hosted by the company around the world.

The size of the venue is also very large at 16,000 square meters, and the 2025 Fair will feature representative artists and galleries from major countries such as the US, UK, France, Germany, China, Australia, Switzerland and Sweden.

The KCCI exhibition booth at the 2025 India Art Fair will present a unique perspective that harmoniously blends Korean traditional heritage with contemporary artistic expression. Artist Kim Keun-joong’s works will reinterpret ancient murals and traditional Korean painting with bold colours and intricate detailing. His series “Flower World” highlights peonies, symbolising prosperity and wealth. “I wanted to move beyond traditional depictions of desire and instead express the essence of the human heart,” he said.

Lee Gil-woo is known for his distinctive incense-burning technique on ‘hanji’ (Korean Traditional Paper). His double-pose works combine traditional landscapes with modern characters in a pop-art style, exploring the coexistence of Eastern and Western cultures. “The burned silhouettes reflect the duality and complexity of human nature,” said Lee.

The artist is known for his exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in UK during the 2012 London Olympics, the 2010 Grand Prize at the ‘Bangladesh Asian Art Exhibition’ – the first Biennale in Asia.

Kim Deok-han is an artist of the newer generation who expresses the sense of subtlety through the traditional material of lacquer. He layers lacquer in multiple colours and repetitively peels them off, leaving only traces of each layer. This laborious process takes a long time as each coloured layer must dry completely before the next is applied.

The artist explains that this process creates a record of time and space. By peeling off each layer and leaving only its traces, he captures individual moments of the past on the plane of a single artwork. Kim’s meditative approach to his materials and his choice of earthy colors inspired by traditional Korean ‘hanbok’ dresses leave a strong and profound impression in his works.

Hwang Il Yong, Director of Korean Cultural Centre India said, “The status of Korean culture in India is on the rise. The Korean Wave, which was sparked by K-pop and Korean dramas, is now becoming increasingly diversified and segmented. It is now expanding into Korea’s traditional culture, fine art, and visual arts. We have been planning and preparing through long-term consultation with India Art Fair team over the past year to showcase carefully the essence of selected Korean fine art and visual art at India’s largest art platform, India Art Fair. We are grateful to the organiser, India Art Fair, for their continued interest and cooperation.”

About Kim Deok-Han: Kim Deok-Han (b. 1981) is an artist of the newer generation who expresses the sense of “淡” (subtlety) through the traditional material of lacquer. He layers lacquer in multiple colors and repetitively peels them off, leaving only traces of each layer. This laborious process takes a long time as each colored layer must dry completely before the next is applied. The artist explains that this process creates a record of time and space. By peeling off each layer and leaving only its traces, he captures individual moments of the past on the plane of a single artwork. Kim’s meditative approach to his materials and his choice of earthy colors inspired by traditional Korean hanbok dresses leave a strong and profound impression in his works.