“For overseas galleries wanting to come back to Seoul, our essential strengths are the buying energy of our artwork lovers and our infrastructure,” says Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul.
Talking on the opening day of the second version of Frieze Seoul earlier this week, Oh was fast to level out South Korea’s financial clout because the tenth largest financial system on this planet, additionally nodding to the nation’s vibrant cultural historical past and established community of collectors and personal museums.
Oh, a member of the nation’s conservative Folks Energy Celebration, cites the largest distinction between the artwork market in Seoul and others world wide “is that younger persons are very considering shopping for artwork”. He provides: “Younger folks of their 20s, 30s and 40s are really considering—and invested in—having fun with artwork in Seoul. That’s the actual vitality behind this development.”
Hong Kong’s crown
Ten years in the past, there was one other development: all eyes had been on Hong Kong as the worldwide artwork market’s “subsequent large factor”. The Swiss franchise Artwork Basel launched a good within the metropolis, taking up from the native honest ART Hong Kong, and mega sellers started to eye up the prospect of accessing billionaires based mostly on Mainland China. Since then, the Chinese language market (together with Hong Kong) has dramatically expanded, not solely when it comes to worth but additionally its infrastructure of galleries and personal museums.
Nevertheless, dogged in recent times by rising censorship from Beijing and tight Covid restrictions, Hong Kong’s pre-eminent place is alleged to be slipping. As Gained Jae Park, the director of Seoul’s ONE and J Gallery, places it: “Hong Kong shouldn’t be what it was once, however everyone is aware of that Asia is occurring. We have to have an anchor someplace and it looks as if folks have discovered Seoul to be the very best place for that—no less than in the meanwhile.”
Frieze Seoul gross sales
Regardless of Seoul’s clear ascendancy, nevertheless, the Korean market remains to be in its nascent levels, no less than when it comes to financial worth. Gross sales at Frieze Seoul this week have largely been made across the $100,000-$200,000 mark. Only a few seven-figure sums had been reported; these to breach that stage embody a brand new Georg Baselitz portray which offered to an Asian collector for €1.2m at Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. The Austrian seller, who says Frieze Seoul “has moved up a gear since final yr”, additionally offered a 1988 Donald Judd “stack” exhibited at his Seoul gallery to a Korean collector for $3m. A Calder cellular at Tempo, valued “within the thousands and thousands”, and an imposing Jeff Koons Gazing Ball sculpture from 2004 at Robilant + Voena for $3.6m had but to seek out properties by the top of the second day.
Many lower- and mid-tier galleries are taking part in an extended sport. By the top of the second day, Taipei’s TKG+ gallery had offered 5 work by the Thai artist Mit Jai Inn, two installations by Joyce Ho and 5 work by Chiu Chen-Hung (each from Taiwan) for a complete of $150,000.
Director Shelly Wu says the gallery will “positively not” recoup the price of doing the honest—her experimental programme focuses on video and images by rising and mid-career artists. She provides: “Our intention in doing worldwide gala’s is to current abilities from the area to worldwide audiences, so we not solely have a look at the gross sales outcomes, but additionally publicity of the artists to museums and establishments, which we now have been doing fairly effectively. That is the case for a lot of mid-scale galleries.”
An attendee of Frieze Seoul 2023
Picture by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze
There’s a distinctly extra Asian really feel to the make-up of the honest this yr; round 40% of galleries are from the area and 58% of galleries have a presence in Asia within the form of a gallery or workplace. A number of sellers and advisers noticed fewer American patrons on the bottom and even fewer Europeans than final yr, although collectors from Southeast Asia and China are making up for these shortfalls, having been prevented from travelling in 2022 attributable to Covid restrictions. As Matt Carey-Williams, the director of MCW Wonderful Arts, places it: “The honest felt buzzy and animated on the opening day, although there weren’t as many worldwide guests as final yr. I seen an adjustment in materials: far more main market than secondary market. The honest has energised the first market aspect of issues in Korea in an enormous approach.”
Patrick Lee, the director of Frieze Seoul, confirms there are 93 worldwide museum representatives on the town this week, together with particular person curators and administrators, although bigger patron teams are thinner on the bottom in contrast with final yr. US establishments in attendance embody the Aspen Artwork Museum, The Bass, the Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork; whereas these from China and Hong Kong embody M+, Ullens Heart for Up to date Artwork and the Pingshan Artwork Museum, in Shenzhen.
Lee is aware of the necessity to preserve attracting such people and teams to South Korea. “Frieze Seoul is far smaller than Artwork Basel Hong Kong, however there’s overlap when it comes to the viewers, we’re focusing on comparable folks,” he says. “For this honest to succeed, it’s obtained to be larger than Seoul. It’s obtained to be international.” As with the opposite Frieze artwork honest franchises, the organisation has efficiently collaborated with different occasions happening throughout in Seoul this week together with Kiaf artwork honest, Seoul Style Week and the Seoul Mediacity Biennale.
One of many perennial issues for the worldwide honest circuit is overcrowding. Lee acknowledges the conflict with The Armory Present in New York, which runs concurrently to Frieze Seoul, is “lower than splendid”. Now that Frieze has acquired the US honest, the director hopes there’s a probability of separating the 2 occasions by a couple of weeks.
White Dice opened a Seoul location this month
Courtesy of White Dice
Within the meantime, Western galleries and public sale homes are making their presence felt in Seoul. This month alone sees the arrival of Sotheby’s and White Dice, who be part of heavyweights reminiscent of Lehmann Maupin, one of many first Western galleries to arrange store within the South Korean capital; Thaddaeus Ropac, which this yr has expanded its footprint to allow the gallery to indicate two artists directly; and Tempo, which enlarged its area a yr in the past.
Tempo’s president Samantha Rubell declined to touch upon rumours that the gallery is trying to depart its H Queens constructing in Hong Kong, saying: “Regardless of setbacks, the Hong Kong market remains to be extraordinarily vibrant. Hong Kong stays probably the most worldwide metropolis in Asia attracting collectors and curators from all around the world. We’re completely dedicated to persevering with to function our gallery in Hong Kong.” In line with a spokeswoman, the gallery has a year-long lease on its H Queens area, the place “programming continues”.
Gagosian, too, is dipping is toe within the water. Final month, the gallery appointed Jiyoung Lee to steer the gallery’s operations in South Korea. Nick Simunovic, Gagosian’s senior director in Asia, says “all choices are being evaluated” in terms of opening a everlasting gallery in Seoul.
On the honest, Gagosian had offered a lot of its sales space prematurely, primarily to Asian shoppers—although not solely Korean collectors, in accordance with Simunovic. With a give attention to the gallery’s main market, costs vary from $100,000 to “a couple of million {dollars}” for a Jonas Wooden portray. He describes the market in Korea as “refined and opinionated” and believes pitting Seoul in opposition to Hong Kong is a “false dichotomy”. Although he notes there are apparent benefits of doing enterprise in Hong Kong, particularly it being a commerce free zone and its central location at a cross roads in Asia.
South Korean market slowdown
After a increase yr in 2022, throughout which the South Korean market reached a document 1 trillion gained ($782m), in accordance with Korea Arts Administration Service, the public sale market within the first half of 2023 is reportedly down by 9.9%, with gross sales of high-end works significantly affected, most likely attributable to elevated rates of interest.
Sellers say a correction was wanted. As Jason Haam of the eponymous Seoul gallery places it: “2022 was lava, it was approach too sizzling.” He says the start of this yr was “quiet”, however that “companies is slowly choosing up”. At Frieze Seoul, “there’s been a considerable enhance in demand out there”, with “shoppers deciding on purchases on the spot”. Through the opening day he offered a portray by the 26-year-old Seoul-based artist Moka Lee, which she completed the morning the honest opened, to a Korean collector for $55,000.
Gained Jae Park thinks South Korea’s market slowdown will be attributed to the poor well being of the worldwide financial system. “The whole lot is slowing down,” he says. “It was an identical state of affairs in 2008, proper earlier than Lehman Brothers collapsed. The whole lot was occurring, after which unexpectedly, every thing was gone. What I discover totally different this time is persons are actually considering studying what modern artwork is. There are a lot of smaller collector teams organising artwork talks and academic programmes, they’re actually making an attempt to be taught the Western narrative of how we’re the place we at the moment are, and in addition making an attempt to determine what we must always do as Koreans—to both adapt or take part on this international occasion.”
As Mayor Oh Se-hoon notes, youthful patrons are actually fuelling the joy within the modern artwork scene. In line with Jane Yoon, Sotheby’s managing director in Korea, collectors underneath the age of fifty now account for round 80% of gross sales on the Seoul outpost of the public sale home. Whether or not they may keep the course is one other query. As Park places it: “Issues are altering quick. I’m certain a few of them will fall away and lose curiosity. It’s a protracted course of turning into a collector, however the rising curiosity is an efficient step.”
Carey-Williams additionally factors out that South Korea’s market nonetheless stays largely home and within the palms of some. “It’s an area market that has change into very large and assured. However that handful of huge collectors who can spend $10m on a portray remains to be a handful.”
