Roha Gallery, ‘Bubble Up’ Exhibition by Dasol Credit: Kim Tran
By Kim Tran
A five minute walk from Caledonia Road Station is Roha Gallery, a new art space that has just opened and is dedicated to showcasing artworks from upcoming Korean artists to the local community.
Describing themselves as ‘The Next Wave of Korean Artistry’, they strive to feature contemporary art cultures in a range of multimedia from painting, textiles, sculptures, printmaking and graffiti.
Roha Gallery is owned by Jinmo Ahn, a lover of arts with a cultural background from Korea, who wanted to promote more Korean artists to London, after seeing the lack of variety in artists and wanting to highlight talented rising artists.
“I want more people to appreciate Korean artists and feature them in London specifically as I live here now,” he explained.
Unique graffiti work on multi media featuring one on Timberland boots. Credit: Kim Tran
Last year Ahn was participating in London’s Design Festival with Korean textiles artists where he saw the positive reactions to the artwork, and thought about opening his own space to display more artists like them.
Currently Roha Gallery is featuring Dasol who specializes in graffiti work on multiple forms of media to create audience interaction and uses it to freely express himself.
The “Bubble Up” exhibition encapsulates the ephemeral moments of life, likening them to bubbles that rapidly form and dissipate.
Through the spontaneous depiction of unpredictable movements on canvas using graffiti, Dasol aims to convey transitory emotions and capture the fleeting essence of a moment.
Dasol’s main art piece called ‘Daeun’. Credit: Roha Gallery
This is Dasol’s fifth solo exhibition and his first ever London showcase, after his main artwork, ‘Daeun’, finally arrived in the UK capital after many incidents with customs clearing. It is now displayed in the gallery.
He draws inspiration for his graffiti work from his childhood, drawing his favourite cartoon characters, and said he was introduced to graffiti through his love for hip-hop and comics. Naturally, graffiti has become part of his life and his main choice of artistic expression.
His works has previously been featured in 2024 F/W Seoul Fashion Week, Timberland and Puma, just to name a few.
Dasol’s ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Lovely Mistake’ artworks on display. Credit: Kim Tran
Roha Gallery is looking to hold more exhibitions in the future with different kinds of artists. Ahn hopes to turn the space into a residency for artists to hire and use the space for their own comfort.
Look out for an upcoming exhibition with tattoo artist Polyc, who’s popular for his fun and colourful tattoos. He’s has his works featured in Saatchi Gallery and London Outernet but famously known for being BTS’s tattoo artist.
Roha Gallery is located at Islington 4-10 North Road London N7 9EY, inside the Tradestars Islington building. The exhibition finishes on the 2nd of March and free tickets can be booked on Eventbrite here.
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