Artists: Angela Bulloch - Salvo - Niki de Saint Phalle - Sojourner Truth Parsons

Esther Schipper Seoul presents a sequence of exhibitions based on the premise of Conversations. On the occasion of the newly launched space in Hannam, the gallery is dedicated to continuing efforts to expand the programming in concert with the Korean audience by introducing artists who each in their own way challenge the mediums and concepts with which they engage.

At our core we are community of artists, gallerists, curators and caretakers. All of the artists which will be presented are directly linked to our community. Although seemingly disparate—like the inherent idea of social gatherings between friends and family —the dynamic, playful, underlying and direct interactions between artists and audience will provide opportunities for discovery and discourse.

Our first exhibition features works by gallery artists Angela Bulloch and Sojourner Truth Parsons with Italian painter Salvo and French sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle: Bulloch’s sculptures and wall painting are presented with Salvo’s paintings on the second floor, Parson’s paintings are presented together with Niki de Saint Phalle’s sculptures on the third floor.

Salvo, a renowned Italian artist with unique origins, became associated with the Arte Povera movement in the 1960s through an exploration of Conceptual art. In the 1970s, he made a decisive return to traditional painting, a choice that was unconventional and retro-radical at the time. His paintings are characterized by vivid colors and interplays of light and form, contained within a surreal stillness. Angela Bulloch is a contemporary artist whose work spans multiple media, focused on systems, patterns, and rules, as well as a preoccupation with the history of shapes and human interaction. Her recent sculptures combine an interest in the logic of geometry and seriality. While the two artist’s practices are seemingly unrelated by material, subject matter, and genre, they both draw from a dreamlike stasis; Salvo’s simplified colors and shapes invoke an inherent etherealness, while Bulloch’s geometric shapes and flat colors create optical illusions based on digital optics.

Niki de Saint Phalle is recognized for her bold, colorful, and often provocative sculptures, paintings, and installations. She was a key figure in the Nouveau Realisme movement and is best known for her Nana series, which feature large exuberant, and curvaceous female figures that celebrate femininity, strength, and joy. The two sculptures in the exhibition are from her Nana series, begun in the mid-60s, inspired by her growing feminist consciousness and the desire to challenge traditional representations of the female body in art. Sojourner Truth Parsons’ work interweaves personal and fictional moments that translate psychological and affective experiences into visual form. Her compositions feature references to figures, flora, fauna, and urban landscapes, which serve as anchors for a broader exploration of emotional nuances and the atmospheric intensities of daily life. Flashes of saturated color, flattened space, and vaguely familiar motifs blur the boundaries between interior and exterior worlds. By amplifying sensations, textures, and tones, fleeting interactions of light, sound, and memory are captured. Both artists embrace intense color patterns and flat, graphic compositions and engage with broader themes of femininity, emotion, and space. Saint Phalle’s works evoke a joyful playfulness and vitality, while Parsons’ work focuses on blending personal memories with broader cultural references.