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Soryun Ahn, The Melancholy of the Beast II, 2024. Oil on linen, 140 × 120 cm.

Currently up on display as part of group show ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ curated by Yi Ting Lee.

This larger-than-life portrait resulted from the artist’s introspection on her sense of self after she migrated to London. Set against a surreal, undefined background representing an internal landscape, the figure exists in flux—morphing between man and beast, and between states of being and disintegration. The painting does not refer to a specific myth; rather, its motifs draw from the artist’s cultural repertoire of Korean folklore, where animals, and often female characters, serve as metonyms for human qualities woven into cautionary tales.

Soryun Ahn’s (b.1986, South Korea) paintings and drawings are grounded in inner fiction and fantasy. Her canvases are sites of mediation where her external environment and reality intersect with reimaginings of ancient narratives, folklore and mythology. Her works have a strong narrative strand and often feature ambiguous figures that hover between beings – human, animal and spirit. These recurring characters, stemming from her personal experiences and observations, seem to wander or exist aimlessly in their states of liminality, reflecting Soryun Ahn’s nuanced sense of identity and multi-dimensional cultural attachments. Soryun Ahn graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, 2024, with an MA in Painting. She also holds an MA in Painting from the Korea National University of Arts and a BA from Hongik University in Seoul. She has exhibited in Seoul and London, and had solo exhibitions in Seoul at Sahng-up Gallery (2023), where she completed a residency in 2021, and Hapjungjigu (2021). She was awarded an artist grant from the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture in 2020.

So hyped to bring together amazing works by
@duonguyen.thuy
@eunjo.lee
@ikukoikik
@soryun_ahn
@yh_luo_artspace

thank you for being part of ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ 🔮
@bolding__

🫶thanks @razzmatezz for trusting me with your prime spot by the 🦈

1. Duong Thuy Ngyuen, ‘Đông Hồ Dreams No.1’, 2025.

2. Detail of still from Eunjo Lee, ‘The First End, The Blind Noon and the Last Origin’, 2026.
Commissioned by HERVISIONS, music by Juliet Merchant, sound design by Harry Charlton. (Courtesy the artist and @niruratnamgallery).

3. Ikuko Iwamoto, ‘Egg basket’, 2023

4. Soryun Ahn, ‘The Melancholy of the Beast I’, 2024

5. Yuhe Luo, Ten Li Red Dowry, 2024

So hyped to bring together amazing works by
@duonguyen.thuy
@eunjo.lee
@ikukoikik
@soryun_ahn
@yh_luo_artspace

thank you for being part of ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ 🔮
@bolding__

🫶thanks @razzmatezz for trusting me with your prime spot by the 🦈

1. Duong Thuy Ngyuen, ‘Đông Hồ Dreams No.1’, 2025.

2. Detail of still from Eunjo Lee, ‘The First End, The Blind Noon and the Last Origin’, 2026.
Commissioned by HERVISIONS, music by Juliet Merchant, sound design by Harry Charlton. (Courtesy the artist and @niruratnamgallery).

3. Ikuko Iwamoto, ‘Egg basket’, 2023

4. Soryun Ahn, ‘The Melancholy of the Beast I’, 2024

5. Yuhe Luo, Ten Li Red Dowry, 2024

So hyped to bring together amazing works by
@duonguyen.thuy
@eunjo.lee
@ikukoikik
@soryun_ahn
@yh_luo_artspace

thank you for being part of ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ 🔮
@bolding__

🫶thanks @razzmatezz for trusting me with your prime spot by the 🦈

1. Duong Thuy Ngyuen, ‘Đông Hồ Dreams No.1’, 2025.

2. Detail of still from Eunjo Lee, ‘The First End, The Blind Noon and the Last Origin’, 2026.
Commissioned by HERVISIONS, music by Juliet Merchant, sound design by Harry Charlton. (Courtesy the artist and @niruratnamgallery).

3. Ikuko Iwamoto, ‘Egg basket’, 2023

4. Soryun Ahn, ‘The Melancholy of the Beast I’, 2024

5. Yuhe Luo, Ten Li Red Dowry, 2024

So hyped to bring together amazing works by
@duonguyen.thuy
@eunjo.lee
@ikukoikik
@soryun_ahn
@yh_luo_artspace

thank you for being part of ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ 🔮
@bolding__

🫶thanks @razzmatezz for trusting me with your prime spot by the 🦈

1. Duong Thuy Ngyuen, ‘Đông Hồ Dreams No.1’, 2025.

2. Detail of still from Eunjo Lee, ‘The First End, The Blind Noon and the Last Origin’, 2026.
Commissioned by HERVISIONS, music by Juliet Merchant, sound design by Harry Charlton. (Courtesy the artist and @niruratnamgallery).

3. Ikuko Iwamoto, ‘Egg basket’, 2023

4. Soryun Ahn, ‘The Melancholy of the Beast I’, 2024

5. Yuhe Luo, Ten Li Red Dowry, 2024

So hyped to bring together amazing works by
@duonguyen.thuy
@eunjo.lee
@ikukoikik
@soryun_ahn
@yh_luo_artspace

thank you for being part of ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ 🔮
@bolding__

🫶thanks @razzmatezz for trusting me with your prime spot by the 🦈

1. Duong Thuy Ngyuen, ‘Đông Hồ Dreams No.1’, 2025.

2. Detail of still from Eunjo Lee, ‘The First End, The Blind Noon and the Last Origin’, 2026.
Commissioned by HERVISIONS, music by Juliet Merchant, sound design by Harry Charlton. (Courtesy the artist and @niruratnamgallery).

3. Ikuko Iwamoto, ‘Egg basket’, 2023

4. Soryun Ahn, ‘The Melancholy of the Beast I’, 2024

5. Yuhe Luo, Ten Li Red Dowry, 2024

Thrilled to announce an upcoming group show 'Old Wives' Tales' with our first guest curator Yi Ting Lee at Bolding Marylebone. 
Featuring Soryun Ahn, Ikuko Iwamoto, Eunjo Lee, Yuhe Luo and Duong Thuy Nguyen. 
Join us for the opening from 16:00-18:00 on the 21st of March. 

This exhibition foregrounds unwritten stories, folklores and mythologies, as an alternative to dominant institutionalised structures of knowledge. After all, ‘old wives’ are often mothers whose stories shape who we are. Featuring five female artists based in London, Old Wives’ Tales centres on stories that have been dismissed and dispersed, yet live on to underpin domesticity, cosmic understanding and a sense of identity. Narratives woven into their cultural fabrics are synthesised in works navigating Asian sensibilities and diasporic experiences as they unfold in a contemporary London context.

Yi Ting Lee (b.1998, Hong Kong) is an art writer, researcher and curator based in London. She is interested in investigating cultural structures, alternative modes of knowledge construction and systems, diasporic experiences, and the weight of histories and memories on identity formation. She graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2022, with an MA (History of Art) specialising in Qing Chinese art, and has a BA (Marketing and Art History) from the University of Hong Kong (2020). Her writing has appeared in Burlington Contemporary, ArtAsiaPacific and Huakan.

Poster featuring work by Ikuko Iwamoto from her series 'Ghosts from the Sea'.
@ikukoikik

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

My review of @yanagiyukinori at @pirelli_hangarbicocca free to read online at @burlingtoncontemporary 💣 💨

Also much better pics available in the review 👀

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

18-19•04•2024

Late to the party as per usual. Now that everyone’s over Venice, here’s my recap…

• explosions by Yuan Goang-Ming at the Taiwan collateral event 💯

• ran through and missed probably half of @labiennale

• migrant journeys in the mapping project by #BouchraKhalili

• genealogy in name-filled room of the Australia pavilion

• Lenka the giraffe at the Czech pavilion. 💔

• post-boat dizziness from staying at an Airbnb from the 50’s on the Lido with the coolest bosses @k_lloyd @sarah_bolwell 💁‍♀️ and local Italian bread quality assurance guide @_la_bin

• Kang Seung Lee’s aid-related installation

• sounds of war recalled by Ukrainian refugees at the
@polishpavilionvenice

• works that draw on miniature painting practice by Shazia Sikander 🌟

• fallen angels by #BerlindeDeBruyckere

perfect 5 secs 👌