Damien Hirst's Four Decades of Art to Be Shown at Frieze Seoul 2026 by Gagosian

Gagosian will present a comprehensive survey of Damien Hirst's work at Frieze Seoul 2026, spanning four decades of his career. The presentation, at Booth C10, will run from 2nd to 5th September 2026 at COEX. It comes after Hirst's first museum retrospective in Asia attracted over half a million visitors in Seoul. The exhibition will include iconic Spot Paintings and Spin Paintings, as well as medicine cabinets, pills, flowers, figurative paintings, and relics from his fictional shipwreck series, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable. Notable works include 'Imitation Gold' (2016) from the Colour Space series, 'Garden of Fun and Games' (2023) from The Secret Gardens Paintings, 'The Shot Crow' (2009) from the Blue Paintings, 'Nemesis' (2007) and 'Twenty One Pills' (2008) exploring themes of medicine and faith, and 'The Severed Head of Medusa' (2008) and 'Daisy' (2019) from the Treasures series. Hirst expressed surprise and gratification at the Korean reception, noting parallels with UK responses in the 1990s. The presentation aims to highlight his recurring preoccupations with beauty, belief, science, chance, and death, while showcasing his distinct visual languages. Hirst, born in Bristol in 1965, studied at Goldsmiths and organized the legendary 'Freeze' exhibition in 1988, becoming a key figure in the Young British Artists movement. He won the Turner Prize in 1995 and has had major retrospectives at Tate Modern (2012) and in Venice (2017).