Frieze Seoul 2024 Receipts: Stretch Out and Wait

Even fair director Patrick Lee noted less urgency among collectors, but the buy-in from galleries and institutions was better than ever.

Mercedes-Maybachs and BMW i7s lined up gangnam-style outside COEX, the exhibition centre south of Seoul's Han River, as art fairs Frieze Seoul and Kiaf opened yesterday.

Several galleries noted that collectors were slower to make purchases here than at fairs in other cities, an observation that only partly explained modest opening day sales. But even in a lethargic art market, support for the fair was unabated.

'So far it's somewhat slower on opening day in terms of sales compared to last year, but we're not in any way worried about how things will go by the end of the fair,' said Austrian gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac, who has spaces in London, Paris, Salzburg, and Seoul.

Ropac reported sales including the Georg Baselitz painting Ein Pilgerort, die Hütte gibt es noch (2023) for €1,000,000 and an acrylic-presenting-as-ink painting by 80-year-old Korean artist Lee Kang-So, who just joined the gallery's roster, for U.S. $180,000.

Other international galleries with sales by Korean artists included New York's Lehmann Maupin—which sold works from Lee Bul's 'Perdu' series for $210,000 and $190,000 and a sculpture and five paintings by Argentina-based artist Kim Yun Shin—and Gladstone Gallery, which sold several sculptures by Korean-American artist Anicka Yi, whose exhibition at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art opened this week, for $200,000.

Among Korean galleries, PKM sold a Yoo Youngkuk painting for $1.5 million, Kukje Gallery sold a Haegue Yang work for around €45,000, Johyun Gallery sold 10 Lee Bae works for $56,000 each, and Gallery Hyundai sold seven artworks by Jeon Joonho for prices ranging from $38,000 to $230,000.

Two of the world's biggest galleries, David Zwirner and Gagosian, declined to give sales figures. Zwirner said they placed works by artists including Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, while Gagosian sold new paintings by Sabine Moritz, Cy Gavin, Hao Liang, and others, 'including acquisitions by Korean museums'.

Other sales include Avery Singer's Free Fall (2024) at Hauser & Wirth's booth for $575,000, a small bronze sculpture by Robert Indiana for $550,000 at Pace Gallery, a corten steel sculpture by Antony Gormley for £550,000 at White Cube, a Hiroshi Sugimoto for a remarkably specific $406,800 at Lisson Gallery, and a Takashi Murakami painting for $600,000 at Perrotin.

Frieze Seoul's director, Patrick Lee, said there wasn't the same urgency to buy as in previous years, but that 'good works are selling.'

He commended the buy-in from galleries and institutions in Seoul, who launched major exhibitions to coincide with the fair and stayed open late for Neighbourhood Nights. Outside Kukje Gallery in Samcheong yesterday, crowds gathered for free beer, frozen yoghurt, and corn dogs the size of travel umbrellas late into the night.

Lee also noted the presence of collector groups brought in from abroad by the New Museum, LACMA, Mori, MoMA, and Tate Modern.

This year was the third in a five-year contract between Frieze Seoul, which shows on the third floor of COEX, and local fair Kiaf, which is held on the ground floor. Lee said he fully intended to continue the partnership, which he said had worked well thanks to the fairs' distinct identities.

'We've benefited from their work over the years, and I think they've benefited from us being here and bringing our audience,' he said.

Professor Chung Yeon Shim, who teaches contemporary art theory, criticism, and curatorial studies at Hongik University, said Kiaf had improved its offering since Frieze arrived in 2022, increasing booth sizes, for instance, and creating taller walls.

'They're learning from Frieze,' she said.

Frieze Seoul and Kiaf continue through Saturday 7 September.

As the fairs wind down and visitors start planning their pilgrimages to Olive Young to pick up snail mucin for friends back home (it's rejuvenating!), there's little doubt galleries will be back, hopefully at a less sluggish moment in the economic cycle. —[O]