Gala Porras-Kim's Seoul Exhibition Reimagines Museum Collections Through Scholar's Rocks and Institutional Critique
Kukje Gallery in Seoul is hosting Gala Porras-Kim's inaugural exhibition, titled 'Conditions for holding a natural form,' from September 7 to October 26, 2025. The artist, who identifies as Colombian-Korean-American, presents detailed pencil and ink works, such as 'Nine animal shaped stones' and '51 Snuff Boxes at Carnegie Museum of Art' (both 2025), which question conventional museum categorizations. The show includes rocks contributed by residents of Seoul and her 'Forecasting Signal' series, which measures humidity levels in museums. Porras-Kim advocates for new collection methods, including a proposal to the National Museum of Brazil to incinerate the fossil 'Luzia.' She draws on Krzysztof Pomian's idea of museums as communal spaces and investigates 'the invisible museum' and non-human audiences.
Key facts
- Gala Porras-Kim's exhibition 'Conditions for holding a natural form' runs September 7-October 26, 2025 at Kukje Gallery in Seoul
- The exhibition features drawings of scholar's rocks arranged on fictional shelving systems, including 'Nine animal shaped stones' (2025)
- Porras-Kim creates 'collections made from other collections' by reproducing institutional holdings in her drawings
- The artist incorporates letters to museum directors proposing alternative approaches to collections
- Her 'Forecasting Signal' series records museum moisture levels through dehumidifier-created drawings
- Porras-Kim references Krzysztof Pomian's 1990 book 'Collectors and Curiosities' and its museum theories
- The exhibition includes rocks donated by Seoul residents through an open call for scholar's rocks
- Porras-Kim explores non-human audiences for museum artifacts and questions institutional preservation practices
Entities
Artists
- Gala Porras-Kim
- Krzysztof Pomian
Institutions
- Kukje Gallery
- Carnegie Museum of Art
- National Museum of Brazil
- British Museum
- Gwangju National Museum
- MAK Center
- ArtReview
Locations
- Seoul
- South Korea
- London
- United Kingdom
- Cleveland
- United States
- Denver
- Los Angeles
- Mexico City
- Mexico
- Seville
- Spain
- Brazil