After a high-profile debut in 2022 that even attracted K-pop stars, the Frieze Seoul art fair will be back at the Coex center in the South Korean capital for its second outing, which runs from Thursday to September 9 and includes 121 galleries.
“It was explosive,” said Seoul-based contemporary trader Jason Haam of the first edition, which came as pandemic restrictions and collectors’ travel habits loosened.
“It came at just the right time. We had a prestigious international fair,” added Mr. Haam, “and it gave us a lot of pride.”
A prestigious showcase is important to dealers, but given the expense of showing at trade shows (especially if you have to travel from far away) they expect results.
“Our presentation was sold out,” said Kurt Mueller, senior director of the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles and New York. “It couldn’t have gone better.”
Frieze, owned by the sports and entertainment conglomerate Endeavor, is in an expansion phase. Over the summer, the company announced that in addition to its four major shows — in London, New York, Los Angeles and Seoul — it had also purchased the Armory Show in New York, which runs Sept. 8-10 at the Javits Center. as well as Expo Chicago, a spring event.
The event in Seoul will be slightly larger in its second edition, with three dealers more than last year. (For comparison, the overall size is comparable to the Frieze stock exchange in Los Angeles and about twice the size of the one in New York.)
Like last year, Frieze Seoul overlaps with the art fair Kiaf, which focuses on Korean art and takes place on a different floor of Coex. The exchanges will once again collaborate on some of the programming and offer double entry tickets.
According to Frieze Seoul director Patrick Lee, more than half of the dealers are based in Asia or are international galleries with outposts on the continent, an increase from last year.
For its second year, the fair will feature a section called Focus Asia, featuring 10 galleries from Bangkok; Singapore; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and other cities.
Mr. Lee said such efforts gave the fair a distinct flavor that was part of its appeal. “It can’t be easy,” he said, pointing to competition from dozens of art fairs worldwide.
“We continue to tap into Asia’s potential,” added Mr. Lee. “It’s a big place. Frieze Seoul is a Pan-Asian fair; that’s how I see it. It is a support point for the entire continent.”
Mr. Lee emphasized that the exchange has features beyond dealer stands this round. Extensive programming includes an expanded edition of Frieze Film, which will showcase works by 14 Korea-based artists specializing in moving images, with screenings at several non-profit art spaces in Seoul.
There will also be an installation by the first winner of the Artist Award in Seoul Frieze, Hannah Woo. Her work ‘The Great Ballroom’, made of draped fabrics, will hang from the ceiling of Coex.
However, trade shows only flourish when the right buyers show up, and New York-based collector Miyoung Lee will be among the attendees again this year.
“I was amazed at how advanced the Korean market was,” Ms. Lee, a Korean-American, said of last year’s fair. “The western galleries also brought their A-game. People brought things they could have sold over the phone.”
She added: “Now I know the news is out, and I think more people will come.”
Ms. Lee, a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, said she bought a piece by multidisciplinary artist Candice Lin at last year’s fair from dealer François Ghebaly, who has galleries in New York and Los Angeles.
Returning galleries at the fair will feature a range of works chosen in part based on the 2022 experience. David Kordansky did well with a solo booth, so he’s presenting another, this time featuring Los Angeles artist Mary Weatherford. Her swirling, colorful paintings on linen include ‘Night of the Thumpasorus’ (2023). Some works contain neon lighting.
“We exhibited her at Art Basel Hong Kong, and there was great interest in her work, but we never had the chance to do a full presentation in Asia,” said Mr Mueller, David Kordansky’s senior director . from Mrs. Weatherford. “This is an opportunity to bring a new body of work to Asian collectors and institutions.”
In turn, Mr. Haam, the Seoul-based contemporary trader, showcases some of the younger artists, including 27-year-old Seoul-based figurative painter Moka Lee. The dealer shows her 2022 ‘Ego Function Error’ oil.
“We are trying to develop the next generation of Korean artists,” said Mr. Haam.
But he also represents some well-known international names, including British sculptor Sarah Lucas and Swiss-born installation maestro Urs Fischer. Mr. Fischer’s sculpture “UF” from 2015 – made of Aqua-Resin, steel, wax, pigment, nails and glue – will be displayed in Mr. Haam’s booth.
“There’s a gravity to his works,” the dealer said of Mr. Fischer, referring to a force that draws collectors to pieces by lesser-known makers. “It means people are taking the gallery more seriously.”
Frieze Masters, the fair’s specialist department for older art, will also return this year.
“Last year was our first Masters outside of London,” said Nathan Clements-Gillespie, Director of Masters. (In London, it has its own separate tent.)
“It was an incredible success,” said Mr Clements-Gillespie. “There were lines of people lined up to view medieval manuscripts. It is exciting and energizing to see these works alongside contemporary art.”
One of the dealers in the section is Gray from Chicago and New York.
“The collectors are independent and quirky,” Paul Gray, co-owner of the gallery, said of the audience in Seoul. “They don’t follow trends.”
mr. Gray will show work by well-known 20th-century artists, including Jean Arp and Pablo Picasso. One of the stand’s star attractions will be a large painting by Joan Mitchell, “Untitled (Canada)” (1975).
The gallery also focuses on contemporary works by living artists and will be displaying newer paintings on the stand, including Alex Katz’s ‘Saturday’ (2002) and Torkwase Dyson’s ‘Transverse-Black Lake_2 (Elevation)’ (2023).
Some galleries choose to have a roommate of sorts and choose to share a booth. Such is the case for Whistle of Seoul and ROH from Jakarta, Indonesia.
“It’s our first stand together,” says Kyungmin Lee, Whistle’s managing director. “It’s an experiment.” She said each gallery would show the work of four artists.
“It is our home fair and we have a solo exhibition at the gallery at the same time,” Ms. Lee said, referring to an exhibition by Seoul-based painter Eimei Kaneyama in the gallery space in Itaewon district. “This expands our platform in a different way.”
Whistle’s Frieze offerings include ‘Extructed Mountain (Single Peak)’ (2020), a resin, cement and polystyrene sculpture by Hyun Nahm, an artist based in Goyang, South Korea.
Last year, Whistle was present in the Focus Asia section, but this time the booth is on the main show, a move that puts the gallery in powerful company.
Kurimanzutto from Mexico City and New York will again be featured in the main section this year. Mónica Manzutto, co-founder of the gallery, said last year’s Seoul fair had been a hit.
“During the pandemic, we hadn’t met our Asian collectors, and it was a good time to catch up,” Ms Manzutto said.
The Kurimanzutto stand will feature, among other things, the oil painting ‘untitled (news)’ (2021-2022) by the Colombian-born painter Óscar Murillo, and an untitled work in gold leaf and newsprint by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Mr Tiravanija – a multimedia artist living and working in Berlin; New York; and Chiang Mai, Thailand – has its largest museum survey to date in October at MoMA PS1 in New York.
A beaded sound sculpture by Seoul- and Berlin-based artist Haegue Yang, essentially a curtain of stainless steel bells, will lead to a separate booth area featuring other pieces by Ms. Yang, including collage-like works on paper.
Ms. Manzutto said the pieces in her gallery booth were not selected solely with sales in mind. An art fair stand is also a kind of billboard that is intended to attract the attention of the curators, museum directors and other influential people from the art world.
“We want to post the works, but we also want to expand their careers,” she said. “To me, that’s the real power of an art fair, and why it’s worth the investment.”