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| A view of KIAF Art Seoul 2019 / Courtesy of KIAF Art Seoul |
By Park Han-sol
KIAF Art Seoul, the largest international art fair here since 2002, will be held at COEX in southern Seoul and also online this fall before launching a partnership with the prominent global fair Frieze starting next year.
The event will be held from Oct. 13 to 17, following the success of other local art fairs, including Galleries Art Fair, Busan Annual Market of Art (BAMA), Art Busan and Plastic Art Seoul (PLAS), which saw record turnouts and sales in the first half of this year amid surging public interest in the art market and a subsequent influx of new collectors.
The organizer, the Galleries Association of Korea, said it saw more than a 30 percent increase in the number of applications submitted by galleries to this year's event compared to previous years. Among nearly 300 applicants, more than 170 selected galleries from 12 countries will showcase paintings, sculptures and media works this fall.
Major participating players from the domestic art scene include Kukje Gallery, Johyun Gallery, Hakgojae Gallery and PKM Gallery. And with Seoul seen as a rising Asian hub in the contemporary global art market, a number of notable international galleries ― New York's Gladstone Gallery, Berlin-based Esther Schipper and Peres Projects ― will join the fair for the first time.
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| A view of Frieze London 2019 / Courtesy of Linda Nylind and Frieze |
The Galleries Association of Korea made headlines last month when it announced its partnership with Frieze art fair. Starting from September 2022, KIAF Art Seoul and Frieze Seoul will be held concurrently at COEX for the next five years.
"In a period of high public interest in the Korean art market, the collaboration between South Korea's most influential art fair and Frieze will confirm Seoul as a hub of the global art market, and South Korea a major destination for the art market in Asia," Hwang Dal-seung, chairman of the association, stated in a press release.
This makes Seoul the first Asian host of Frieze, a leading global platform for modern and contemporary art along with Art Basel that has run in international fairs ― Frieze London, Frieze Masters, Frieze New York and Frieze Los Angeles.
More than 250 galleries here and abroad ― Frieze Seoul hosting around 100 and KIAF Art Seoul with 160 ― are expected to participate in the two art fairs next year.
