Kiaf 2024 Carves Out a Unique Voice for the Korean Art Scene

Years ago, the artist Lee In Seob replaced the traditional Korean paper door of his home. It was left alone for years and became a home for wasps, who made the cell-like wood structure their home. The artist filled its panels with layers of textured nest, which are accompanied by accumulations of the 72-year-old artist’s leftover paint. The installation greets visitors to Suppoment Gallery’s booth at the Korean International Art Fair (Kiaf), documenting the unseen development necessary for artistic labor and the creative process.

It’s an apt metaphor for Kiaf’s 22nd edition, in which the evidence of decades of cultural nurturing in the Korean capital is on view at the COEX in Gangnam. The fair arrives this year at a spotlight moment for South Korea, with both the Gwangju and Busan Biennales concurrently opening across the peninsula. And upstairs, Frieze Seoul (now in its third year) is taking place alongside Kiaf, on almost identical dates (September 5th–8th, with both VIP previews on the 4th). The two fairs are clearly in alignment over supporting one another, collaborating on several fair elements, such as a talks program.

Yet Kiaf is still seeking to carve out a unique voice beyond the blockbuster fair moment, said the fair’s director Eunice Jung. “While Kiaf shares the stage with other notable art fairs like Frieze Seoul, what sets us apart is our deep-rooted connection to the Korean art market and our commitment to nurturing both emerging and established local talent,” she said, noting that Kiaf is run by the Galleries Association of Korea, a nonprofit organization that was established in 1982. “We’re focused on fostering long-term growth for Korean galleries and artists while providing a platform for international exposure.”

While Frieze’s international clout is a big draw for all sorts of collectors (as well as some notable visitors from outside the art world altogether), South Korea’s domestic scene was also creating plenty of buzz on preview day. Of the 206 galleries taking part in Kiaf, 130 are Korean, a sign of the fair’s local focus, which acts as a slice of the country’s art scene for both local and visiting collectors. While not as busy as the rushed atmosphere upstairs at Frieze, Kiaf was seeing a steady flow of visitors, including plenty who seemed ready to transact.

Many of the Korean galleries taking part were making the most of Seoul’s spotlight moment to take part in both fairs (hats off to Wooson Gallery, which is attending The Armory Show in New York as well as the two Korean fairs). Arario Gallery, for instance, was presenting two sides of the gallery’s programming in its simultaneous booths. In Kiaf, the gallery chose to present local artists, many of whom it’s been working with for a long time, said gallery deputy director Park Miran, as opposed to the international artists on view in its booth upstairs at Frieze Seoul. The gallery, which has been participating in Kiaf since its inception in 2002, felt a “responsibility” to represent the local scene, she said.

Other galleries are staging double presentations across both fairs to spotlight a single artist and a group presentation. At Kiaf, Kukje Gallery showed a phenomenal solo booth of works by the sculptor Kim Yun Shin, who has been on a meteoric rise recently, particularly in the West. Newly represented by Kukje and Lehmann Maupin (which had several of her works on show at Frieze), Kim was recently included in this year’s Venice Biennale main show. After the VIP day, many of her new paintings (bright, eye-catching oil-and-acrylic abstractions on aluminum) had already sold—larger paintings for around $75,000–$90,000, and smaller ones for $15,000–$18,000. Upstairs at Frieze, meanwhile, Kukje is spotlighting its wider roster, including Daniel Boyd and Kyungah Ham, the latter of whom currently has a solo show at the gallery’s Seoul space.

On the preview day, it appeared that many Korean galleries were some of the most visited at Kiaf, while international galleries were taking longer to get noticed. Seoul Forest space The Page Gallery had found buyers for several of its cute, Pop-inspired works (a major trend at the fair), including the neon work You Create What You Will (2023) by Nathan Coley, for £10,000 ($13,150), and a small, red-and-black shark sculpture by Philip Colbert, at £35,000 ($46,025). Having brought larger works last year, this time it found that “people at Kiaf want to buy smaller pieces for their house, with the market as it is now,” said Dakyeong Chung, curator at the gallery.

Similarly, buzzy Hannam space ThisWeekendRoom, which presented works by ultra-contemporary Korean artists Seoul Kim, Jihee Kim, and Jiwon Choi, had nearly sold out its booth by the end of preview day, said curator Jihyung Park. She shared, however, that many collectors were commenting on the “safeness” of the fair. “In terms of the market, it’s been really slow. Paintings, small sculptures—it’s common sense I think,” she added.

Now in its third year at Kiaf, the gallery has benefited from the growing interest in Seoul’s art scene since Frieze’s arrival, and is now in a position to participate in more international art fairs such as POSITIONS Berlin. “Seoul is really spot on these days, we can feel it,” she said. “It’s really different, we have collectors contacting us from many different cities, via email or Instagram, who already know our program.” A major boon for collectors, she explained, is the 0% art tax on unique works sold in Korea, significantly reducing costs for buyers. Added to the country’s openness to international visitors, it’s creating a scene in which smaller galleries like this can thrive.

Meanwhile, some international galleries were seeing a slower pace of sales and visitors—not necessarily a bad sign for the fair as a whole, many galleries noted, as Korean collectors tend to take longer to consider purchases. Second-time attendees Newchild Gallery from Antwerp noted the interest in the abstract works in its booth, particularly a large green-hued painting by James Owens, along with two smaller works by London-based painter Ella McVeigh. Nonetheless, it was the miniature Renaissance-style portrait by rising artist Chris Oh, delicately painted into the interior of a shell, that had sold (for around $5,000–$8,000) by the end of the VIP day.

Another second-time attendee, LA BIBI Gallery, which traveled from Mallorca, was also building on connections (and “three or four sales”) made in Korea its first time around. In fact, it was “Americans or international collectors” the gallery hoped to see in the COEX hall this year. Gallerist Marc Bibiloni noticed collector interest in “classic” themes, avoiding edgy or shock-value content and aesthetics.

Also amid the sales of Kiaf’s VIP day, Brooklyn gallery Carvalho Park was seeing marked success. Founder Se Yoon Park was manning the booth, as his partner had stayed behind in New York to take care of The Armory Show (a reminder of how thinly spread many galleries can be during this manic international art fair period). Park, who was born in Korea, noted that the domestic collecting culture was developing rapidly. Today’s Korean collectors are avid researchers, he said, sometimes turning up at the fair with more in-depth knowledge about an artist than the gallerist himself. On the first day, the gallery’s sales included a shimmering mica on silk works by Rosalind Tallmadge for $23,000, a framed textile work by Kristian Touborg for $15,500, and several paintings by Yulia Iosilzon for $25,500–$29,000.

Established international galleries were taking their time to slowly find buyers for big-ticket works on the first day of the fair. International gallery Sundaram Tagore Gallery had already sold one of its booth’s “Waterfall” works by Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju, for $420,000, to an American collector. Tagore also noted the strong interest in the booth’s blue-chip works (from Yoshitomo Nara, Anish Kapoor, and Yayoi Kusama), as well as the prevalence of Korean collectors visiting accompanied by art advisors.

In the Grand Ballroom, where some of the priciest works are on view, visitors crowded around Art of the World Gallery’s booth, where a four-panel work from Fernando Botero, The Street (1960), covered the outside wall. Priced at $16 million and direct from the artist’s studio, it hadn’t found a buyer by the end of preview day—nor had the attention-grabbing Cream Beetle Sphere (2024) by Ichwan Noor, a large, ball-shaped squish made out of the iconic Volkswagen car, priced at $150,000. Nonetheless, gallery advisor Josue Salazar-Acosta was confident that there were buyers to be found for these big-ticket works in Seoul. “People are eating it up,” he said.