The fourth version of Frieze Seoul (3-6 September) comes at a difficult time for each the worldwide artwork market and galleries working in South Korea. Nevertheless, a nascent new period of cautious optimism appears to be unfolding within the Korean artwork world, simply in time for Frieze Seoul.
The truthful will as soon as once more welcome round 120 galleries to the Coex conference centre in Gangnam, an upscale neighborhood in Seoul. As standard, mega-galleries like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Tempo, David Zwirner and White Dice could have a presence. The truthful can be welcoming round 20 brand-new exhibitors this yr, together with 10 Chancery Lane Gallery and de Sarthe from Hong Kong, The Breeder from Athens, Carvalho Park from New York, Make Room from Los Angeles, and Ota Superb Arts from Tokyo. Nonetheless, greater than 40 galleries should not returning, together with Karma, Mariane Ibrahim, Michael Werner and Neugerriemschneider, all of which took half final yr.
South Korea has undergone a roller-coaster of occasions for the reason that final version of the truthful, even by the dramatic world requirements of 2025. In December 2024 South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial regulation, a transfer that was instantly suspended by an emergency nationwide meeting session and adopted by months of widespread protests ending along with his impeachment and elimination from workplace. Rocky negotiations over new American tariffs had been additional sophisticated by a rotation of interim leaders earlier than the June elections of latest President Lee Jae Myung from the Democratic Occasion of Korea. All this got here amid an ongoing financial downturn in South Korea, with the upheaval solely sharpening social divisions alongside generational, regional, gender and sophistication traces all through society.
‘Local weather of uncertainty’
“The political turbulence since final December created a local weather of uncertainty,” says Emma Son, a Seoul-based accomplice of Lehmann Maupin, a gallery primarily based in New York that first opened within the South Korean capital in 2017. “For the reason that June election, nevertheless, circumstances have begun to stabilise, and following the newest tariff discussions with america, there’s a rising sense that we at the moment are on a steadier path towards a extra optimistic future.”
Seoul has not escaped the worldwide artwork market contraction that has been underway since 2023. The dynamic is hardly stunning “given the broader macroeconomic setting—together with slowed actual property exercise, world inflation considerations and regional uncertainty”, in response to Sunghoon Lee, the president of the Galleries Affiliation of Korea. Nevertheless, the downturn has not erased the demand inbuilt South Korea’s artwork market over the previous couple of years, he provides.
Tokyo-based Kosaku Kanechika gallery can be displaying the work of principally Japanese artists on the truthful
Courtesy of Frieze and Lets Studio
“Seoul has constructed an excessive amount of momentum to reverse fully,” Lee says. “There’s a sense that the market is coming into a holding sample; the inspiration constructed in recent times is powerful sufficient to stop collapse, however there’s nonetheless an unease that lingers over each political stability and broader financial circumstances.”
South Korean collectors are additionally longing for publicity to new work. Lengthy centered on Korean and Western artists, they’re now turning to artists from Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, in response to Son, who attributes the shift largely to Millennials and Gen Z coming into their very own as collectors.
Looking for genuine cultural narratives
Lehmann Maupin’s stand at Frieze Seoul will function a spread of numerous works to replicate these altering tastes. The gallery will supply new and important work by Korean artists like Kim Yun Shin, Anna Park, Do Ho Suh and Sung Neung Kyung, in addition to worldwide artists like Teresita Fernández, David Salle, Lari Pittman, Tammy Nguyen, Cecilia Vicuña and Tom Friedman.
“Their tastes are likely to favour artists with robust conceptual grounding and genuine cultural narratives—slightly than purely market-driven enchantment,” Lee says of youthful South Korean collectors. “We’re coming into a extra mature section—one which prioritises sustainable progress over short-term hypothesis. And that’s finally a more healthy path for the market.”
• Further reporting by Carlie Porterfield
