What Sold at Frieze Seoul 2023?

Sales weren't as frenzied as they were in the fair's inaugural edition last year, but in a cooling art market, galleries seemed pleasantly surprised.

The success of this year's Frieze Seoul was up in the air prior to opening yesterday. The inaugural edition was strong, but the art market has significantly cooled since then. International travel is smoother than it was in 2022—Chinese collectors, for instance, no longer need to quarantine on their return home—but this year's event clashes with both New York's Armory Show, which Frieze now owns, and Sydney Contemporary, another major fair in the region.

Celebrity sightings, one of the lesser market indicators, included Korean rap god G-Dragon and Squid Games' Jung Ho-yeon at Sotheby's Banksy and Keith Haring exhibition at Paradise City, a hotel in Incheon owned by major collectors Elizabeth and Phillip Chun.

Canadian-born, Hong Kong-based rapper and fashion designer Edison Chen was spotted at a lunch event at the Intercontinental COEX, while Beeple, aka Mike Winkleman, was seen perusing works by Jonas Wood in the booth of New York's Karma gallery, and Past Lives dreamboat Teo Yoo stopped by the booth of Various Small Fires (Los Angeles and Seoul).

Crunching the numbers, sales appear to have dipped slightly from 2022, but less than you'd expect given the broader economic climate.

Hauser & Wirth sold 'more than 13' works by the end of the VIP preview, in line with the 14 works they sold in a similar period last year. They included Rashid Johnson's Seascape "Ship of Fools" (2023) for U.S. $975,000 and George Condo's Internal Combustion (2023) for $800,000 but nothing approaching Condo's Red Portrait Composition (2022), which they sold for $2.8 million or Mark Bradford's Overpass (2022), which they sold for $1.8 million in 2022.

'Following last year's successes, the energy around the fair and the city's art week this year is sustained and further matures,' said Elaine Kwok, Managing Partner Asia at Hauser & Wirth.

Pace sold a Joel Shapiro for $175,000, a Qiu Xiaofei for $160,000, and a Robert Nava for $150,000, among several other sales. They sold a 1965 sculpture by Alexander Calder for an undisclosed price (it has been put at around $2 million, but Pace said that was not accurate).

Thaddaeus Ropac's sales included works by Daniel Richter for €375,000 ($468,000) and a work by Tony Cragg for €300,000 ($375,000).

White Cube's sales highlights included an Antony Gormley for £375,000 ($468,000) and a work by Park Seo-Bo for $490,000, while David Zwirner sold multiple works by Katherine Bernhardt, including one painting for $250,000, and a work by Swedish painter Mamma Andersson, who featured in the 2023 Gwangju Biennale, for $550,000.

Lehmann Maupin reported sales of 'over 15' works including Lee Bul's Perdu CLXXXII (2023), which sold for $190,000.

'Within the first hours of the fair, we had placed all of Do Ho Suh's works with local collections, plus sold multiple works by Lee Bul and Sung Neung Kyung,' said Emma Son, Senior Director at Lehmann Maupin.

'This signals a strong interest in Korean artists—both locally in Seoul and in the global market at large,' she said.

Korean gallery Kukje echoed that sentiment, selling a Park Seo-bo for around $490,000 and a Ha Chong-Hyun in the range of $223,000–268,000, along with a number of other works.

Among smaller galleries, Melbourne gallery Station had sold half their booth at prices ranging from $5,500 to $18,500 by Thursday afternoon.

Seoul gallery P21 sold works by Jiyoung Keem, Haneyl Choi, TaeWon Ahn and Choi Jeong Hwa for prices ranging from $1,000 to $35,000.

Various Small Fires, which began in Los Angeles and expanded to Seoul in 2019, said it had been 'intimidating' competing with the global mega-galleries that had poured in with the arrival of Frieze Seoul.

Nevertheless, they said they ended day one with 'strong' sales, including various works in the $25,000–$75,000 range.