Lotus L. Kang at Kukje

A visit by BTS member Kim Nam-joon, known as RM, has pushed Lotus L. Kang’s Seoul exhibition at Kukje Gallery into wider view. (kukjegallery.com) Kang’s solo show, “Chora,” opened March 19 and runs through May 10, 2026, across Kukje’s Hanok and K3 spaces in Jongno District, central Seoul. It is the Korean Canadian artist’s first solo presentation in Korea. (kukjegallery.com) (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) The work drawing the most attention is “Chora II” (2025–26), a bronze sculpture of a crying baby bird with its mouth open skyward on top of an enlarged lotus form. Kukje’s floor map lists the piece in the Hanok section, and gallery material describes it as the exhibition’s starting point. (kukjegallery.com) (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) “Chora” takes its name from Julia Kristeva’s concept of a space before fixed meaning or form. Kukje says Kang uses that idea to treat the gallery not as a container for objects but as a site of nourishment, transformation, and unstable boundaries. (kukjegallery.com) That framework is built into the architecture of the show. In the Hanok courtyard, or madang, Kang uses the in-between status of a traditional inner court — neither fully indoors nor outdoors — as the setting for the bird sculpture and the exhibition’s larger meditation on inheritance, memory, and bodily change. (kukjegallery.com) (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) Kang told reporters on March 19 that she was thinking through “layers of history and time” in “personal bodies,” “social, national and planetary bodies.” She also said making work for a hanok meant translation rather than replication of tradition. (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) Other works in the show extend that biological language. Kukje says the “Mesoderm” pieces refer to the embryonic layer that develops into muscle, bone, and connective tissue, while the “Synapse” luminograms enlarge nylon produce bags into images that resemble tendons, veins, and cellular structures. (kukjegallery.com) Kang, 41, was born in Toronto to Korean parents and is based in Brooklyn, New York. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024, appeared in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, and was selected by Bvlgari for its pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale at the upcoming Venice Biennale. (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) The RM clip lands at a moment when “Chora” is already positioned as Kang’s Korea debut, but the work itself is built to slow viewers down. The baby bird in the courtyard is small, exposed, and hard to forget, which is exactly how the rest of the exhibition proceeds. (kukjegallery.com) (m.koreaherald.com)