If a mix of high-quality design and refined art is your thing, a new exhibition at Gallery Golmok could be right up your street.

“Tactophilia,” a joint exhibition by Sven Schelwach, Yang Ju-im, Craig MackIntosh and Jason Mehl, will feature mainly sculpture, wall pieces and high-end furniture design.

Schelwach organized the show through his company Taomina, which he revived after he came to Korea with his fiance, who works full-time at a university here.

The work on show is varied in genre ― Mehl makes abstract sculpture, while Schelwach’s main interest is furniture with a classic look ― but the overall aesthetic of the pieces go well together.

Perhaps linking them is MackIntosh’s sculpture-like furniture ― one of a kind pieces that look like mysterious machines.

Yang makes three-dimensional artwork with a painting-like feel.

He met the others by chance, through a shared interest in rock climbing. The first being MackIntosh, who he met in May last year. After discovering that he also studied design, Schelwach looked at his portfolio.

“I was amazed by the work he had done, both during his studies and after his studies and I was seriously wondering why he would work in Korea as an English Teacher because I saw that there was a massive talent.”

They met the others, also climbers with a creative side, and the five of them ― one has since left to take a design job in France ― decided to try for an exhibition.

The group put together a flyer introducing their work and giving details of previous exhibitions. They took it to Hyeri Art village near Paju and went from gallery to gallery, scouting for interest.

One of the interested galleries was Gallery SoSo.

“The gallery’s owner’s husband, he was an architect working mainly with stainless steel and wood constructions,” said Schelwach.

“He was interested in the fact that I do similar constructions in furniture and they invited me to have a solo exhibition.”

He said that all the work for that exhibition was new, but that he stuck to the same concept of mixing modern design with traditional touches.

“I made a bistro table with eight corners because I saw tons of little side tables with eight corners. And the finishing, for example I used a traditional finishing technique with wood oils.”

“The exhibition was called ‘Contemporary Traditions’ because it was still contemporary furniture but with a little bit of traditional techniques.”

Schelwach had registered the company in Germany in 2006 but remained largely dormant because he was busy in other work. When he came to Korea two years ago, he began to pursue things again and has since filed to register a branch in Korea.

“It started out as a purely furniture business and now it’s a platform. We make furniture, we make accessories, sculpture, and wall pieces, paintings so it’s kind of on the edge between art,” said Schelwach, adding that he would like the company to continue in the same direction.

“The aim is to produce not only artwork but also functional pieces with an extremely high quality to it and a unique and timeless design.”

After the exhibition Schelwach says the next step is to make a catalog for distributors, some of whom he says have already shown some interest.

“And we want to do more gallery shows, because not all of our stuff is actually design. It is actually proper fine art and that’ll work really nicely in gallery shows.”

The exhibition runs until Sept. 4 at Gallery Golmok in Itaewon. Opening times are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. To get there leave Exit 3 of Noksapyeong Station and walk past the entrance of Itaewon’s main strip and past Suji’s, turning left at the sign saying Saville Row. The gallery is a short way along the alley on the right.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)