Frieze Art Fair officially announced last month that it would launch a new international art fair in 2022, through a unique partnership with the Galleries Association of Korea. The exhibition will be held from September 2 to 5, 2022 at the COEX in Gangnam District (Downtown Seoul). This will be the Frieze’s fifth exhibition after Frieze LA, New York, and London, and Seoul will become the first Asian city to host the art fair.
Frieze Art Fair signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Korean Gallery Association last year. The memorandum mentioned that it will work with the association to expand the Korea International Art Fair (KIAF) and launch a new fair in Korea. In recent years, South Korea’s senior collectors have been keen to collect Western art and the amount of collections have increased year after year, most of them from overseas galleries or auctions. The steady growth also gives Frieze Seoul sales advantage. Chairman of Frieze, Victoria Siddall said: “The current layout of Asia’s art market has been evaluated. Seoul, a prosperous city with high-quality galleries and museums, has its own mature cultural scene.” The tax system there is also quite conducive to the business of international galleries. Hwang Dal-Seung, chairman of the Galleries Association of Korea declared: “The Korean art market is in a period of high attention. The cooperation between the two parties will also make Seoul a hub for the global art industry and South Korea will also be the main destination for Asia’s art market.”
Among the art fairs in Korea, KIAF is the most representative of Korea’s art fairs which are held every fall at COEX Convention Center in Seoul every fall, attracting more than 150 gallery exhibitors. This time, Frieze Seoul and KIAF are working together to bring galleries from Asia and around the world to Seoul. With their international experience in capital scale, distribution and sales, and scale, they can further expand the international status of Korea’s art fair.
In the past, Hong Kong was recognized as the preferred city for international art fairs such as Art Basel, and for many years, Hong Kong, an important economic city, has also become an international bridge to the Chinese market. However, the same amount of space in an expensive city like Hong Kong costs relatively low in Seoul. As far as the art market is concerned, Seoul has a higher market appeal in the art market; there is no import tax for artworks worth 60 million won (about $55,000) in South Korea, and the same applies to artist works. In terms of transportation location, Seoul has access to the Chinese market and also has nearby Japanese collectors. Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Group, a major South Korean company, had a large collection of art, and after his death, the Lee family donated most of their collection to local museums, including many of the country’s national treasures, a major development for the country’s art scene. Because of the company’s love of art, they are willing to invest more money to promote the arts. A combination of factors has put Seoul on track to become Asia’s new market hub.
The arrival of the Frieze Art Fair in Seoul has led foreign art galleries entering South Korea to set up branches, including König, Lehmann Maupin, and Perrotin, all choosing to set up locations in Seoul, as well as Pace Gallery, which opened in Hannam-dong in May. Thaddaeus Ropac also announced that in addition to its galleries in London, Paris, and Salzburg, Austria, the group is also about to land in Seoul. The Korean art market will enter their next milestone, and the Asian art market will also have more diverse perspectives in the future. At the same time, Asia’s international art fairs in Asia have entered a more competitive stage of competition.
Figure 1: Coex Convention Center in Seoul, South Korea
Figure 2 upper left: Simon Lee Gallery, Frieze London 2019. Photo by Linda Nylind. Courtesy Linda Nylind/Frieze
Figure 2 upper right: Perrotin, Frieze New York 2021. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh/Frieze.
Figure 2: bottom left: Frieze New York 2016 © Frieze
Figure 2: bottom right: The Shed New York © The Shed
