Fairs

Frieze Seoul
​2024
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Rūtė Merk
Crisp3r

Booth B22

Dates_ September 4–7, 2024
Venue_ Hall C, COEX

Frieze Viewing Room, Seoul Edition
Online, August 28–September 13, 2024
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Installation Views / Works / Press Release

Gallery Vacancy is pleased to present Crisp3r, a solo project by Berlin-based Lithuanian artist Rūtė Merk, at Frieze Seoul 2024, Booth B22. The presentation features a series of oil paintings exploring the impact of technology on identity in contemporary life, marked by the shifting boundaries between the natural and artificial, material and virtual, and personal and social. Drawing on classical painting techniques and genres, Merk meticulously layers her canvases in ways that echo digital aesthetics.

Referencing the scientific term "CRISPR," a DNA sequencing method co-developed by Lithuanian biochemist Virginijus Šikšnys, Merk reinterprets the concept by playfully mimicking the numeronyms of cyber slang and coding, while also alluding to the plastic and changeable nature of the physical world. The title—phonetically similar to “crisper"— also ties into the artist's style, characterized by sharp lines and vivid, crisp colors, mirroring the precise structure of a digital image.

Marion, Lyn (2024) nods to one of the earliest landscape paintings in Western art, the eerie Renaissance masterpiece The Tempest by Giorgione, known for its idyllic yet baffling portrayal of human figures and cultural ruins set against an impending storm. While referencing the history of painting, Merk’s portraits unmistakably reflect the era of hybrid apparel codes like Business Casual or Athleisure—attributes of contemporary life marked by constant addressability and instantaneity—while also capturing the feelings of disorientation and isolation brought on by pervasive hyperconnectivity.

The painting of a marbled Wagyu steak, suspended in a surreal, abstract space, echoes the hyper-real yet unidentifiable figures in Merk’s portraits, highlighting the tension between the fabricated physicality of culinary products and their artificial, almost alien design. These still life compositions not only reflect the changing nature of the body in our era of bio-engineering but also evoke a chilling sense of its uncanniness.
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