P21 presents a group exhibition 《Pigment Compound》 on view through September 20. This exhibition examines how ten artists from Korea and abroad engage with the material world of cosmetic consumption.

In conjunction with Kiaf·Frieze Seoul 2025, this exhibition brings together works presented for the first time in Korea—from internationally renowned artists to emerging talents gaining recognition on the global stage.

The exhibition brings together works across four decades that highlight the affective intensities of cosmetics and make-up, revealing the allegorical ways in which body, skin, and psyche are reworked by ever-growing markets of consumer goods that derive their power from users’ improvised ritual responses to trauma.

The exhibition eludes simple representations of beauty in favor of a more psychological, atmospheric, and materialist aesthetic—one concretely made up of powders, lotions, sprays, and plastic packaging. The works presented by the participating artists reveal that we have all become incorporated into a system of chemical self-improvement — even our moms (Haena Yoo), our politicians (Simon Fujiwara), and our artists.

The material innovations in make-up in the industrial age far surpass that of paint, so artists can choose either to employ its enchanted pigments directly (Anna Munk, Pamela Rosenkranz) or subliminally evoke them (So Young Park).

The consumer packaging of beauty—a sensual ecology of plastic casings and other artfully protective shells—becomes an object of intense commodity fetishism (Diane Severin Nguyen). In our minds and visual culture, consumer products often stand in for bodies and skins quite literally, but also psychologically (Haneyl Choi, Ju Young Kim).

Cosmetics today are found everywhere, in every shape, for every problem—and yet we continue to suffer. This consumerist dilemma is particular in being felt so closely on the body, in the most specific materiality. Beauty capitalism renders the epidermis the theater of all our achievements and aspirations, our fears and shame.

Participating Artists: So Young Park, Pamela Rosenkranz, Diane Severin Nguyen, Haena Yoo, Haneyl Choi, Sylvie Fleury, Simon Fujiwara, Sanja Ivekovic, Anna Munk, Ju Young Kim

“Pigment Compound”
2025.08.09 - 2025.09.20
Tue – Fri 11:00 am – 6:00 pm, Sat 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
P21
74, Hoenamu-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea