SEOUL.- Mennour is heading to Frieze Seoul 2026 with a presentation that stretches across generations, geographies and radically different approaches to making art. From early 20th-century figures to some of the most recognizable names working today, the gallery's booth will bring together sculpture, painting and conceptual practices in a deliberately broad conversation.
The fair takes place at COEX in Seoul from September 2 through 5, with Mennour presenting at Booth C19. The gallery's participation is still forthcoming as of August 29. Mennour's own current program confirms its participation in Frieze Seoul during those dates.
The presentation reads almost like a compressed journey through modern and contemporary art. Among the artists announced are Alighiero Boetti, Daniel Buren, Alexander Calder, Eugne Carrire, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Picabia and Lonard Tsuguharu Foujita, alongside contemporary figures including Petrit Halilaj, Camille Henrot, Anish Kapoor, Tadashi Kawamata, Idris Khan, Yayoi Kusama, Alicja Kwade, Lee Ufan, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and Ugo Rondinone.
Also represented are Sidival Fila, Julien Heintz and Bertrand Lavier.
Rather than centering the booth around a single movement or generation, Mennour's selection places different ideas about material, perception and space alongside one another. A work by Giacometti can share a context with the conceptual rigor of Buren, while Kapoor's investigations of form and perception enter into dialogue with Kwade's fascination with reality, measurement and the physical world.
Several works have been singled out ahead of the fair.
Among them is Alicja Kwade's Sige du Monde, 2026, a new work whose title — “Seat of the World” — carries the philosophical undertones that frequently run through the artist's practice. Kwade is known for transforming familiar objects and materials into situations that destabilize assumptions about weight, value, time and physical reality.
The booth will also feature Lee Ufan's Resonanse, 2026. Lee's work has long been defined by restraint: a small number of elements, carefully considered relationships and the spaces between objects can carry as much importance as the materials themselves. His inclusion is particularly resonant in Seoul, where his work is part of a broader conversation around postwar Korean and Japanese art.
Mennour is also bringing Yayoi Kusama's Dots Accumulation (MX2) from 1999, connecting the presentation to one of the artist's most persistent visual ideas. Kusama's dots, repeated across paintings, sculptures, environments and bodies over decades, can appear playful at first glance but have become part of a much larger exploration of repetition, infinity and the dissolution of the individual within an endless field.
A new work by Ugo Rondinone, titled zwlfterapril zweitausendund sechsundzwanzig, or “twelfth of April two thousand and twenty-six,” also forms part of the selection. The date-based title fits Rondinone's longstanding interest in marking lived time through works that can feel both deeply personal and deliberately universal.
The breadth of the presentation is characteristic of Mennour's program. The gallery currently represents or collaborates with many of the artists included in the Seoul presentation, among them Buren, Sidival Fila, Halilaj, Henrot, Kapoor, Kawamata, Khan, Kwade, Lavier, Lee Ufan, Lutz-Kinoy and Rondinone, while its estates include Carrire and Giacometti.
The gallery's presence in Korea will extend beyond the fair itself. Ryan Gander is participating in The Find Seoul, running from August 31 through September 10. Lee Ufan, meanwhile, appears in several exhibitions across Korea during the same period.
At the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Lee is included in the group exhibition “Road Movie: Art Between Korea and Japan Since 1945,” on view through September 27. His work is also part of “Korean Art: From Late Joseon to the Contemporary” at the Gyeongju Arts Center through October 18, and he is participating in the 5th Jeju Biennale 2026, continuing through November 15.
That wider Korean context gives Mennour's Frieze Seoul presentation a dimension beyond the four walls of an art-fair booth. Lee Ufan in particular provides a bridge between the gallery's international program and the artistic histories of Korea and Japan, while the presence of artists such as Kusama, Kwade, Kapoor and Rondinone brings a distinctly global contemporary perspective.
With historical figures appearing beside newly made works from 2026, Mennour's booth is less about presenting a single narrative than allowing different generations to collide. A century of artistic experimentation is compressed into one space — from the fragile intensity of Giacometti and the conceptual interventions of Buren to Kusama's repetition, Lee's quiet restraint and Kwade's philosophical uncertainty.
Frieze Seoul 2026 runs September 2–5 at COEX in Seoul. Mennour will exhibit at Booth C19.
