Upcoming Frieze Seoul to feature Asian galleries, Kiaf Seoul to show art at Incheon airport

The upcoming Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul will bring more than 350 galleries from around the world to Seoul, with art patrons, museum officials and collectors coming to see the art and explore the city’s vibrant pop culture scene.

Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul will kick off in collaboration on Sept. 2 at Coex in southern Seoul. With the purchase of one ticket, visitors will be admitted to both Kiaf Seoul and Frieze Seoul. Early-bird tickets were sold out last week as soon as they went on sale, according to the Galleries Association of Korea.

Frieze Seoul, the first Frieze event to take place in Asia, will see participation by several Asian galleries such as the Drawing Room based in Manila, Anomaly and the Maho Kubota Gallery based in Tokyo, as well as Seoul-based galleries such as the Kukje Gallery, Gallery Hyundai and the Johyun Gallery.

“In the beginning, I was hoping that we could have representation of galleries from Asia. I am very happy to say that we are close to 30 percent Asian galleries, which is fantastic -- many of them are first-time participants,” said Patrick Lee, director of Frieze Seoul, at a joint press conference held in Seoul Monday.

Frieze Seoul will include exhibitions by some of the world’s most established galleries. Gagosian will show works by renowned contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Urs Fischer and Takashi Murakami, while Perrotin Gallery will present a solo exhibition of Bahamian-born conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, titled “The Encyclopedia of Invisibility.” The Zurich-based Hauser & Wirth will showcase works by Louise Bourgeois, George Condo and Mark Bradford.

Starting from Aug. 26, Frieze, in tandem with Vortic, a virtual reality platform specializing in art, will run a virtual viewing room, for the first time at the festival. The Frieze Viewing Room, viewable on Oculus VR headsets, will offer a look through participating galleries as well as programs at Frieze Seoul.

Kiaf Seoul, a 20-year-old art fair, will feature established Korean galleries along with international galleries from 17 countries. It will also collaborate with Incheon Airport for international visitors to South Korea to create a festive vibe, showing the special exhibition “We connect, Art & Future, Kiaf and Incheon Airport” at terminal 1. The exhibition will feature some 20 media artworks that will be played on 14 large-scale screens.

The newly launched Kiaf Plus, a satellite art fair that will take place at Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention (Setec), will showcase 73 relatively new galleries from 11 countries that have opened in the past five years.

NFT art will also have a presence, as Kiaf Plus will feature NFT art exhibitions.

“Kiaf Seoul will feature works by young and emerging artists this year. The NFT art exhibition will be another highlight,” said Do Hyung-teh, vice president of the Galleries Association of Korea.

Meanwhile, the Talk Program will be held from Sept. 3 to 5 on the second floor of Coex, inviting artists and art experts. Speakers at the nine sessions include Suhanya Raffel, museum director of the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, Aaron Seeto, director of Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Indonesia, Swiss art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and media artist and professor at KAIST Lee Jin-joon.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)