Minsoo Bhan

The Raised In-Between, 112.1×162.2cm, 2025

Gallery FM is pleased to present Minsoo Bhan’s solo exhibition 《AUCTION HOUSE: BROKEN ILLUSION》, showcasing his latest works from the Auction Series From October 15 to November 15.

Art has always wavered between two poles — one being the value of spirit that cannot be measured in material terms, and the other being the value of exchange that determines its price in the market. These two opposing forces negate yet sustain one another, and only through their coexistence does contemporary art come into being. Minsoo Bhan’s painting begins in the gray zone between them — the space where the truth of art resides.

Broken Illusion, 91×116.8cm, Ink, acrylic on canvas, 2025

Who is the Diver, 33.4×45.5cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2025

Bhan paints faces over the unpredictable spreads of ink. These ink stains belong to a realm even the artist cannot control, mirroring the uncertainty within the human mind. The flow of ink embodies the movement of emotion — unpredictable, instinctive — while the overlapping faces reveal the anxieties, desires, expectations, and emptiness of modern individuals. The crowds that emerge on his canvas gather for reasons unknown, forming a vast “portrait of the collective,” layered with waves of inner uncertainty.

His latest solo exhibition, 《Auction House: Broken Illusion》, continues the artist’s ongoing “ART” series begun in 2022, focusing this time on a single subject within his larger exploration of the art world — the auction.

 Life Is Shorts, 72.7 x 90.9cm, Ink, Mixed media on canvas, 2025

An auction house is a stage where art is most dramatically consumed, a site where fame and value collide. Bhan regards this space not merely as a site of transaction, but as a “psychological theater where desire takes form.” “In contrast to the auctioneer whose features are clearly visible, most of the audience faces away from the viewer. The ink’s diffusion highlights their backs of heads — each distinct in tone and rhythm. Among them may be the aesthetically trained, the financially astute, or even the lucky bidder who once bought Banksy’s shredded work and saw its value multiply thirtyfold.” These are the anonymous masses who judge the value of art, the collective portrait of an era that measures creativity by market logic. Somewhere within that crowd, unseen yet present, stands the artist himself.

Rise And Fall, 72.7×90.9cm, Ink, acrylic on canvas, 2025

Bhan’s work reveals the ambivalent reality surrounding art — the tension between spiritual and financial worth. His use of ink stains exposes the elusive truth that lies between them. Between the will to preserve artistic purity and the necessity to accept its commodification, Bhan acknowledges uncertainty — and from that very uncertainty, he extracts truth. For him, painting is an act of recording uncontrollable traces of desire and emotion, and those traces ultimately culminate in a portrait of contemporary humanity.

In 《Auction House: Broken Illusion》, the backs of the spectators leave a stronger impression than the artworks themselves. These faceless crowds both construct and collapse the authority of art. The truth of art lingers in between purity and vanity, brilliance and futility — within that gray diffusion of ink. And from within it, Minsoo Bhan poses a question: Where does the true value of art reside? The faceless crowd that inhabits his gray canvas seems to offer the answer in silence.

– Excerpted from art critic Ban Ejung, “The Truth Hidden Behind the Ambivalence of the Art Scene.”

Gallery FM
2F, 57, Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea (03060)
+82 2 737 4984

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