Gallerist Ro Doo-yong poses in his space, CYLINDER ONE, nestled in Seoul’s Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak District, July 16, where it recently hosted a solo exhibition of emerging artist Yang Byeo-ri titled “Sedimentary Basin.” Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
33-year-old gallerist Ro Doo-yong to highlight fast-rising artist Lee Jong-hwan at Frieze Seoul
By Park Han-sol
Nestled between a home decor shop and a photo studio, a sleek, glass-faced white cube stands out as an unusual sight in Seoul’s Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak District. This commuter town is not typically known for its art galleries, unlike the city’s more culturally vibrant neighborhoods such as Samcheong-dong, Hannam-dong, and Cheongdam-dong.
Yet, this unassuming spot, far from the commercial glitz and glamor, is where the meteoric rise of 33-year-old self-made gallerist Ro Doo-yong began.
It was in 2020, after a four-year stay in Europe where he earned a master’s in sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London and completed a residency in Athens, that Ro returned to his hometown. Initially, he expected his homecoming to be a brief one — a preparatory phase before settling permanently as an artist in Britain.
However, the COVID-19 lockdowns upended his plans. Forced to stay indefinitely longer than anticipated, Ro searched for a space to use as a temporary artist studio and stumbled upon the unfrequented spot in Bongcheon-dong.
“This was around the time I began reflecting on what it meant to be a young artist in Korea. I was disillusioned with the constant cycle of open calls and competitions that defined the art world here. I also felt a significant disconnect between the context of my work and that in Korea,” he told The Korea Times in an interview.
Struggling to find a venue willing to display his video work, he decided to stage his own solo exhibition at his studio. But fate threw him another curveball when unexpected building defects made it impossible to open the show on time.
Faced with this setback, Ro was at a crossroads.
That’s when artist Lee Won-woo and technician Kim Min-seo approached him out of the blue with a request to rent his space for an experimental exhibition. Upon hearing their proposal, he decided to offer it free of charge.
Installation view of “AI VS AI” by Lee Won-woo and Kim Min-seo at CYLINDER ONE in 2020 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
“AI VS AI,” opened in November 2020, intriguingly juxtaposed Kim’s data-driven “artificial intelligence” with Lee’s “artistic intelligence” robot, the latter of which created portraits of gallery visitors on the spot.
And this show was what marked the humble beginning of CYLINDER and Ro’s newfound life as a gallerist.
Fast forward four years and CYLINDER has become one of the most distinctive and rapidly rising tastemakers in Seoul’s gallery scene.
Many of the artists spotlighted in its program are around the same age as Ro or younger.
“From the start, my goal was to support early-career creatives with potential who hadn’t yet had a chance to exhibit their pieces and find gallery representation so they wouldn’t have to face the same struggles that I did,” he explained.
“Major exhibitors in Korea still aren’t taking on the role of nurturing and incubating emerging creatives. I see CYLINDER and its artists as ‘shadowboxing’ from the periphery of the art world’s hierarchy. Our primary motto and mindset — and ultimately our greatest weapon — is to strike the art industry from the margins, when least expected.”
Installation view of “TORQUE 4 / MANETTINO DIAL” featuring Kim Seo-hyun, Kang Min-seo and Cho Hye-yun at CYLINDER ONE in 2024 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
Installation view of “TORQUE 2 / NEUTRAL STEER” by Rim Park, Wang Ho-yeong and Kwon Hoe-chan at CYLINDER ONE in 2022 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
This curatorial mission led him to establish CYLINDER’s annual signature “TORQUE” series. Since 2021, the gallery has kicked off each year with a group exhibition of creatives who have just completed their undergraduate studies.
When he first launched the initiative, just a few months after opening the gallery, he was met with a series of questions that essentially boiled down to, “Who are you to be selecting and displaying the works of recent graduates?”
“I had no answer for them,” Ro admitted. “But in this space where I pay the rent, I wanted to showcase the nascent artists whose works genuinely grabbed my interest. So, I went ahead and did it. I mean, what was stopping me besides my own time and resources?”
Installation view of artist Lee Jong-hwan’s solo exhibition, “HYPERCUBE,” at CYLINDER TWO in 2023 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
One budding painter whose career has flourished alongside Ro’s gallery is 30-year-old Lee Jong-hwan.
In February 2021, he was featured in the inaugural “TORQUE” exhibition series titled “GEAR SHIFT.” His dynamically textured abstractions then made appearances at major domestic art fairs in the following years, including The Preview Seongsu 2022 and Art Busan 2023.
This September, Lee is set to have a solo presentation in the Focus Asia sector at Frieze Seoul — the same section where CYLINDER made a splash last year by winning the Focus Asia Stand Prize for its compelling presentation of Yoo Si-nae. Yoo’s installation featured an altarpiece and smaller futuristic mythological paintings, which were revealed only intermittently from behind gray curtains.
“To give a brief hint about our experimental booth setup this year, we’ll be incorporating mathematical elements, focusing primarily on the idea of pinpoint accuracy. The theme will also explore sensory perception that can be summed up as the ‘painting’s eye,'” Ro said.
CYLINDER made a splash last year at Frieze Seoul by winning the Focus Asia Stand Prize for its solo presentation of Yoo Si-nae. Courtesy of Lets Studio, Frieze
Another artist Rim Park, who participated in the second iteration of “TORQUE” with “NEUTRAL STEER,” was introduced to the international art market by the gallery at this year’s Liste Art Fair Basel, the pioneering satellite event held alongside the prestigious Art Basel. Her swirling pieces, which seem to hover between painting and sculpture, sold out, including a notable acquisition made by a mega-gallery based in the U.S. and Mexico. It is also worth noting that CYLINDER and P21 were the first Korean exhibitors ever invited to partake in the Liste Art Fair.
Reflecting on these successes, he added, “I can now tell the skeptics that this so-called ‘risky’ approach to carve out a niche for the art world’s newcomers can work if one really tries with a clear vision.”
Installation view of CYLINDER’s booth at this year’s Liste Art Fair Basel, featuring the works of Jang Jong-wan and Rim Park / Courtesy of CYLINDER
Installation view of artist Rim Park’s solo exhibition, “Last Mors,” at CYLINDER ONE in 2023 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
As a self-made gallerist without generational wealth or financial backing, Ro has been — and remains — a one-man operation at CYLINDER.
In addition to discovering artists both here and abroad, curating exhibitions and organizing fair booths, he is in charge of basic space maintenance, invoicing, shipping arrangements, public relations and promotion.
It’s a grueling work schedule, but the gallery’s visible upward trajectory is what pushes him to keep going. And as CYLINDER began making strides in Korea’s exclusionary gallery ecosystem with its boldly unorthodox approach, Ro was able to open a second space, CYLINDER TWO, in the more bustling Yongsan District in 2023.
Installation view of “Swelled Sun: How to Sense the Invisible” by Kyungmin Sophia Son at CYLINDER ONE in 2023 / Courtesy of CYLINDER
Moving forward, he plans to maintain the original CYLINDER ONE as a launchpad for younger artists’ careers while turning CYLINDER TWO into a space for more established, mid-tier counterparts.
“For the audience, I hope CYLINDER can be a place where they don’t feel intimidated to approach an artwork. CYLINDER ONE, for instance, is already frequented by local children aged 10 or younger,” he noted. “We’ve also hosted projects that transformed the gallery into a techno club (‘Detox.Bar’) or a free tattoo shop (‘Crystal Scratch’) that explored the exhibition’s theme of imprinting in both metaphorical and physical senses.”
The art world is now watching closely to see where this young dealer’s journey will take his artists and gallery next.
Installation view of “Silent Approach” by dajuro studio at CYLINDER ONE in 2022 / Courtesy of CYLINDER