Human Connection Cuts Through Technology at Focus Art Fair

Focus Asian Contemporary Art Fair, held at Chelsea Industrial, presents contemporary Asian art with a theme of human-technology coexistence. Visitors encounter a lobby installation by South Korean artist Hwia Kim, featuring an interactive work titled “What if two eyes don't work together?” with digital elements and a recording of the viewer altered by a giant superimposed eyeball. The fair includes more than 40 galleries and presenters, with artists from Asia and its diaspora. Ukrainian-born twin artists F-Twins create warm, collaborative works and founded Primarealism in response to a growing cultural desire to outsource critical thinking to AI. The fair’s programming blends topical technology concerns with tender subversions.

"The interactive installation, “What if two eyes don't work together?” by South Korean artist Hwia Kim, is the first taste visitors get of the fair's fourth edition theme, “human-technology coexistence.” This thematic anchor felt topical, and even corporate, given that one of the fair's leading sponsors was the technology conglomerate LG Electronics. The lobby’s digital presence frames the experience before any gallery viewing begins, turning the body into a site where technology can intervene."

"When I arrived at the Thursday press preview for Focus Art Fair, dedicated to Asian art and held at Chelsea Industrial through Sunday, May 24, it seemed fitting that I would walk into a lobby filled with digital elements. I immediately met a recording of myself on a computer screen, but this version of me had a giant eyeball superimposed on her. The work’s premise makes perception feel unstable, as if the body and its technological doubles cannot fully align."

"Right after watching my torso turn into a glitching eyeball, I was surprised to encounter the disarmingly warm Ukrainian-born F-Twins (Anna and Valeriia Lyshchenko). The identical twin sisters create together, speak together, and are the founders of the Primarealism art movement together in response to a perceived growing cultural desire to outsource critical thinking to AI. Their presence shifts the mood from unsettling tech imagery to a more human, collaborative warmth."

"Focus features more than 40 galleries and presenters highlighting artists from Asia and its diaspora, though not all participants fit that description. The fair’s fourth edition theme ties together varied practices under the idea of coexistence between people and technology. Across installations and gallery works, the emphasis remains on how technological systems reshape bodies, perception, and decision-making."

Read at Hyperallergic