PKM Gallery is pleased to present Jorge Pardo, a solo exhibition by Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo (b. 1963), from November 27th, 2024, to January 11th, 2025. Globally recognized for exploring spatial aesthetics by merging design and fine art, Pardo returns to Korea for the first time in 22 years since his 2002 solo show at PKM Gallery. This exhibition features over 20 new works – including paintings, drawings, lamps, furniture, and textiles – that bridge the realms of art and everyday life.

Jorge Pardo, Untitled, 2024, PETG 2 mm, automotive acrylic enamel, birch, and aluminum, 70 x 70 x 87(h) cm

Pardo has consistently expanded functional materials into the language of fine art through flowing light, vivid colors, and organic forms. His work embodies both aesthetic beauty and practicality, seamlessly crossing the genres of art, design, interior design, and architecture. The artist first gained international recognition in 1998 with the 4166 Sea View Lane project at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where he constructed a house on a Los Angeles hillside using wood, concrete, and glass, and designed the space with lamp installations. His decade-long Tecoh project (2012) in the Yucatán jungle, Mexico, remains a career milestone, converting a historic estate into a vibrant, habitable artwork—a space where one could quite literally “live inside a work of art.” In 2018, his vision culminated with L’Arlatan, a hotel in Arles, France, where Pardo designed every detail, from floor and wall tiles to furniture, railings, and chandeliers.

Installation View

This exhibition presents 14 hanging and scone lamp sculptures created in 2023-2024, alongside custom-designed a cabinet, benches, and a carpet. Pardo’s iconic lamp sculptures, part of an ongoing series since the 1980s, serve as drawings for exploring color, as sculptural works, and as functional lights that illuminate architectural interiors. These new pieces incorporate laser-cutting techniques, evoking the flexible structures of biological forms such as molecules, honeycombs, and spines.

Installation View

The paintings and drawings adorning the walls are abstract compositions created by deconstructing and layering historical and personal imagery. Each titled Untitled, these works do not carry fixed meanings; instead, they invite moments of unexpected discovery—serendipity—as they are built up and observed. By freely navigating the boundaries between functionality and beauty, design and fine art, and even life and art, this exhibition offers viewers a unique experience to redefine their perception of space and time within a collective artistic environment.

PKM GALLERY
40, Samcheong-ro 7-gril, Jongno-gu, Seoul
82 2 734 9467

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