FRESCO Welcomes New Advisor Ho Jae Kim
Today, we are welcoming Ho Jae Kim, the NY-based artist and collector who recently stirred up the art world, to FRESCO’s advisory team.
Ho Jae Kim’s identity as both artist and art collector is a combination unorthodox to some people. He believes that the art world is divided into two sectors: one of the artists and the other of the art market. As he started pursuing changes as an artist after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, he shortly saw a limit of how an artist can change the world by oneself. Artists are able to bring awareness and progression to each other and the public, but it is difficult to affect the rules of the market. The mega galleries and auction houses control the mic and speak for their represented artists, promoting their market prices and even institutional appearances.
Kim partnered with an art collector and started to acquire blue-chip artworks, a Rauschenberg being one of them. His current art project “The Erased Rauschenberg” appeared in various news media, including some of the most watched ones such as artnet. It fired up a debate over the legitimacy of who should write the history — which side of the art industry, the mega galleries and auctions houses or the artists, overrides the other regarding the pricing power.
Kim wishes to create a platform where artists can independently exhibit and promote their works digitally through simple clicks of search; with perfect timing Kim and FRESCO are lucky enough to meet each other. FRES trust will be where the story starts.
“The Erased Rauschenberg” is currently open to bidding through the sponsorship of the New Museum. Kim’s work poses a fresh gesture towards Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing in 1953, criticizing the noticeable phenomenon that market prices shadow cultural values in the current art world.
In the original work of Erased de Kooning, Rauschenberg explored the definitions of art through his readymades. The traditional cumulation gave its way to an erasure process.
“The Erased Rauschenberg” project continues this exploration, infuses into the work the modern frenzy of the banal mass culture of advertising, and aims to alter the undue weight on the artist side.
Kim agreed to sell this signed Rauschenberg’s print to Nikolas Bentel, the artist of “The Erased Rauschenberg” project who currently works at the New Museum’s art and design Incubator, New Inc. Then, this piece of Rauschenberg was sold by advertising spaces and covered by bold brand tags or images, or whatever else the buyers supply.
At the intersection of fine art and market promotion lies the key concepts of FRESCO. Kim believes that he will further bring audacious and innovative moves to FRESCO.
The final piece of “The Erased Rauschenberg” was newly completed and put on an online auction. In the current secondary market, the appreciation of an artwork’s price predominately benefits the collectors instead of artists. Artists are shared with no gains and usually left struggling to pay their studio rent or even buy necessary art supplies. “The Erased Rauschenberg” puts an uncompromising question mark to this historical chapter.
Kim’s challenge to the current power structure and his successful try will make an inspiring case for all the talented emerging artists. By joining FRESCO and broadcasting their voices through the platform, more artists will gain a seat.
Quoting Bentel, Kim’s partner in “The Erased Rauschenberg,” from his interview,
“Sotheby’s and Christie’s and the other rich giants of the art world will be more humble about what they’re doing. They’re very clear that the whole goal of having an art collection is a way to generate money.”
