The TemperatureofMemories
Art Dining Experience
9.1 — 9.23
Mukjung
17 Toegye-ro 48-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
Curated by
The Exhibition
Time makes flavour.
Time leaves its mark on things.
For Frieze Seoul week, Mukjung — where chef Austin Kang draws his cooking from the aesthetics of fermentation and ageing — joins Hyun-hee Kim, an artist who builds deep narrative into objects, to present a singular dining experience: The Temperature of Memories.
The food at Mukjung holds the time of waiting and ripening. Ingredients ferment and mature; only after time has passed do they arrive at a depth of their own. Kim's furniture likewise begins in time and in memory. She gathers the scenes of daily life and the feelings settled within them, crosses them with contemporary materials, and shapes furniture into a story made whole.
A taste that lingers on the tongue. A form that holds the eye. Experiences that begin in different senses converge in one room into a single duration, and, once time has passed, remain as each visitor's own memory.
The Temperature of Memories speaks, through the moments where taste and object, art and the everyday intersect, of how the time we live becomes sensation — and how sensation returns to us as memory.
Ham 6 & Ham 7
- Medium
- Acrylic
- Dimensions
- 43×24×26 cm / 27×16×16 cm
- Year
- 2024
Ham 6 & 7 : BAM
- Medium
- Acrylic, aluminium
- Dimensions
- 43×24×26 cm / 27×16×16 cm
- Year
- 2024
White Nostalgia Series: Dui-ju (Small, Large)
- Medium
- Acrylic
- Dimensions
- 45×45×42 cm / 65×61×58 cm
- Year
- 2020
Ancient Future Series : No. 4&5
- Medium
- Steel, stainless steel, acrylic
- Dimensions
- 115×142×46 cm
- Year
- 2024
White Nostalgia Series: Meori-jang
- Medium
- Acrylic, aluminium
- Dimensions
- 98×46×80 cm
- Year
- 2022
White Nostalgia Series: Bandaji 1
- Medium
- Acrylic
- Dimensions
- 98×46×65 cm
- Year
- 2023
Her furniture erases the boundary between inside and outside. From the artist's statement
The Studio
Every fitting is cut, filed and set by hand. The pieces arrive at Mukjung as assemblies of many small parts — brackets, pins, hinges — each one drawn, cut from sheet, and fitted to the next.
Studio photography — Jihoon Kang
The Artist
Hyun-hee Kim
b. 1991, Jeju — lives and works in Seoul
Hyun-hee Kim works with the slowness of furniture. A chair or a chest enters a life quietly and stays for decades, and she treats that patience as a medium: traditional Korean forms carry her stories, remade in materials that belong entirely to now.
Her attention falls on gyubang furniture — the pieces that furnished the inner rooms of Joseon women — and she rebuilds them in transparent and translucent acrylic. The walls come down; the boundary between inside and outside is erased. Her ornament is thick and strong and appears to float unsupported, standing on its own rather than leaning on an authority it did not choose.
Education
- 2017BFA Woodworking & Furniture Design, Hongik University, Seoul
Solo Exhibitions
- 2024After Image, YZHQ, Seoul — sponsored by Serge Mouille
- 2024Q : A Room of One's Own, Space Supernormal, Seoul
- 2020White Nostalgia, SOSHO, Seoul
Awards & Grants
- 2026Artist–Critic Workshop, MMCA Art Bank, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
- 2020Art Support Program, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
- 2019Cheongju International Craft Award, Cheongju
- 2016Iksan National Craft Award, Iksan
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2026Extraordinary, Seokparang Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
- 2026Collectible Fair with Regarding Relations, Brussels
- 2025Design Miami: Korea, Now & Here, Miami
- 2025Emerge: Dialogue Through Design, Singapore Design Week
- 2025The Future Has Returned, MMCA Cheongju
- 2025Black Mountain: Honglim Association, Cheongju International Craft Biennale
- 2024Cartier, Le Voyage Recommencé in Seoul, Seokparang
- 2024Space Narrative, Korean Cultural Center, Warsaw
- 2023Changdeokgung Nakseonjae, Korean Heritage Art Exhibition
- 2022Rimowa, As Seen By — Seoul, Berlin, Tokyo
- 2021Louis Quatorze, Find Your Light, Platform-L, Seoul
- 2019Sulwhasoo Art Project, Seoul
Full exhibition history available on request.
Collections
- 2026Office of the President of the French Republic, Élysée Palace
- 2023Government Art Bank, Korea
- 2022Rimowa, LVMH, Paris
- 2021Louis Quatorze, Seoul
- 2020Seoul Museum Department, Seoul
Collaborations
- 2026The Balvenie, The Art of Dining, Seoul
- 2026Sundae School, New York
- 2025Ferrari, 12Cilindri Tailor-Made in Korea
- 2023GFFG, Hojokban New York
Dates
1 — 23 September 2026
Admission
Open to guests with a Mukjung reservation.
Venue
17 Toegye-ro 48-gil
Jung-gu, Seoul
Presented by
Getting here
Mukjung stands on a quiet lane off Toegye-ro in Jung-gu, at the centre of Seoul. Valet parking is available at the door.
Open in Naver Map →Available works All works are made to order. Production takes approximately four to eight weeks and may vary with the studio's schedule. Gallery I am can share the full price list, condition notes and shipping options on request.