Presenting the Osulloc Tea House at Our Seoul Arts Complex

Pace is pleased to announce details of the Osulloc Tea House at its arts complex in Seoul, opening to the public on September 2, during the inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul. This new tea house, established in collaboration with Osulloc, will offer locally produced teas and Korean-tea infused cocktails conceptualized and executed specially for Pace by Korea’s largest tea brand. The tea house features a rotating display of prints, editions, and multiples, as well as titles from Pace Publishing, the gallery’s imprint. This rotating display will launch with a presentation of works by Kohei Nawa and Lee Kun-Yong.

Visitors to Pace’s Seoul arts complex are invited to immerse in tea culture. Osulloc tea masters and national bartenders will collaborate to present a variety of both alcohol and non-alcoholic cocktails, along with cocktails infused with Osulloc tea. Featuring sleek, contemporary design forged from locally sourced materials, the Osulloc Tea House will have large wooden tables, an expansive bar made of broken concrete, a stone floor, roping on the ceiling, and built-in shelves. A wall of windows and glass doors facing the outdoor sculpture courtyard will cultivate a cohesive indoor- outdoor environment. Established in 1979, Osulloc, an affiliate of AmorePacific, operates an 800-acre farm to produce and manufacture its premium organic tea.

Limited Editions at Osulloc Tea House

Varied works by artists across the gallery’s program will be exhibited in this new, communal space. The first exhibition in the Osulloc Tea House will showcase Nawa’s Particle editions—small-scale mixed media sculptures—and intricate abstractions on paper from his Parameter series. Lambda c-type prints from the artist’s semi-abstract Moment photographs, which feature obscured, almost indiscernible scenes simulating the effect of viewing a fast-moving target from a fixed point, will be featured. Nawa will also create a large-scale, site-specific painting for the wall of the tea house on the occasion of its opening. Together, these works by Nawa, who will present a solo exhibition at Pace’s 540 West 25th Street gallery in New York this fall, reflect his long-standing interest in perception as it relates to scientific and digital phenomena.

A selection of never-before-seen prints by Lee, a pioneer of performance art in Korea who joined the gallery in 2022, will also be presented in the Osulloc Tea House upon its opening. These abstract works are part of Lee’s iconic Bodyscape series, which the artist began in 1976 as part of his experimentations in creating records of his physical relationships to his canvases.

Pace Publishing

Among the titles from Pace Publishing that will be available upon the opening of the Osulloc Tea House is a Korean translation of The Hooligans, a recent book by Pace Publishing focused on Adrian Ghenie, who will present a solo exhibition of new works on paper in the main gallery space of Pace’s Seoul arts complex from September 2 to October 22. Heralding a new chapter in the imprint’s 60-year history as one of the foremost producers of art books and art historical texts, this new gathering space will see existing and future Pace Publishing titles translated into Korean, bringing original scholarship, boundary-pushing essays, illuminating interviews, and inspired design to new audiences.

The unveiling of the Osulloc Tea House will also coincide with the opening of a new outdoor sculpture courtyard, where the interdisciplinary art collective teamLab will present an interactive digital installation, at Pace’s Seoul arts complex. teamLab’s installation in the courtyard is part of its upcoming solo exhibition with Pace in Seoul, on view from September 2 to October 29 in the gallery’s recently opened ground floor exhibition space that is specially equipped for immersive, experiential artworks. In addition to the outdoor installation, teamLab’s solo show in Seoul will include a selection of monitor-based works and a never-before-seen interactive digital installation titled Massless Suns and Dark Spheres (2022).

Learn more about our expanded gallery in Seoul here.