[SEOUL] Six Love: Marlon Wobst

CHOI&CHOI Gallery presents Six Love by Marlon Wobst, on view from 11 July through 6 August. This is the German artist's first solo exhibition in South Korea, presenting works on canvas alongside felt tapestries, a medium he has worked with for the past decade.

Ordinary scenes populate Wobst's compositions: afternoons spent by the pool, sharing a laugh over drinks, or gathering around a game of dominoes in the park. The exhibition takes its title from a phrase shouted to celebrate victory in dominoes, a game deeply rooted in Caribbean social life and one that the artist regularly plays with friends and neighbours in Berlin. Wobst does not present grand adventures or dramatic tableaux, but rather the mundane episodes that unfold between life's defining events. These are the fleeting encounters and everyday rituals that often pass us by in a haze, yet quietly shape who we are.

The figures in his work often appear as groups existing alongside one another within shared spaces. The intimate bonds formed between individuals take centre stage within the artist's dreamlike settings. Warmth and a quiet lyricism permeate his scenes, whose emotional tenor seems to oscillate between joy and melancholy. Figures blur and dissolve into their surroundings, floating in a weightless state between appearance and disappearance. These moments feel transient, yet they remain rooted in community, companionship, and the simple act of gathering together. His amorphous figures seem to suggest the fragility of memory and human connection. But like his compositions, the artist avoids clear messaging or moralisation. His work inhabits the liminal, capturing moments in transition without offering judgment.

The felt tapestries offer another perspective on Wobst's compositions. Formed from dyed sheep's wool and mounted directly onto the wall, they possess a distinct material presence that differs markedly from the paintings. Many begin as painted compositions before being translated into felt, a process through which familiar scenes acquire a new tactile quality. Their soft materiality both reinforces and dissolves the figures they depict, further blurring the boundaries between body and ground while foregrounding the physicality of the medium itself.