All the Fun of the [Art] Fair
VAULT looks to the proliferation of art fairs and major art events across Asia, a buzzing hub of art making and collector activity.
Image credit: White Cube Gallery, ART SG, 2024. Photo: Sam Chin. Courtesy ART SG
In 1980, Cohn had an idea – to provide equipment and accessible studio space that graduates and artisans could rent. This idea became Workshop 3000, which at any given time around the world, seasoned art collectors can immerse themselves in the flourishing, heady world of an international art fair. And the jostling for gems, the zhuzhing and the buzzing, have been no exception at the 2024 Korean International Art Fair (Kiaf), in its third collaboration with Frieze and it’s 22nd iteration overall. Kiaf attracted 82,000 people over five days, while Frieze Seoul attracted over 70,000 visitors. What was also remarkable this year was that these two fairs were held concurrently with the Gwangju Biennale and the Busan Biennale. Next in line is ART SG in Singapore, slated for January 2025. Featuring over one hundred galleries connecting Southeast Asia with the rest of the world, ART SG will highlight shifts in the political, social and economic spheres of this dynamic landscape through the art on show.
Brittany Piccuirro and Justin Callanan of Piermarq* did well with American artists at the recent Kiaf and, in 2025, plan to exhibit Australian artists. “Last year, Jeremy Shockley’s magical surrealist paintings, at 180 × 150 cm, were selling for US$12,000 and this year we sold four of the six for US$16,000 each, plus we sold all three of Cannon Dill’s naïve figurative paintings. Seoul’s role as a global hub for contemporary art is growing, and its atmosphere during Seoul Art Week demonstrates that sophisticated, knowledgeable collectors and appreciation of the arts are as vibrant as ever.”
The Chosun Daily reported an overall emphasis on “more accessible and popular pieces,” stating that “ultra high-priced works were absent from this year’s Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul.” That said, high profile sales included Pace Gallery’s Lee Ufan painting for US$1.2 million, Hauser & Wirth’s Portrait with Curtains by Nicolas Party for US$2.5 million, and a painting by George Baselitz, which sold through Thaddaeus Ropac for €1 million. In comparison, Seoul’s PKM Gallery sold a work by Yoo Youngkuk for US$1.5 million.
Brisbane-based Jan Murphy Gallery has successfully represented Australian artists for nigh on 30 years and, while not experiencing as many sales at Frieze Kiaf as some of her international counterparts, has been pleased with the “ripple on” effect, attracting significant interest from international collectors and curators. “This year we once again exhibited Ben Quilty alongside leading First Nations artist Betty Muffler. Betty was most recently included in the 2022 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, where her canvases, measuring 167 × 152 cm, sold for AU$26,000. In 2024, these same-sized canvases are selling for US$24,000.”
STATION, the only Australian gallery at Frieze Seoul this year, offered up a heady dialogue of works from Nadia Hernández, Nell, Tomislav Nikolic and Tom Polo, clearly welcomed by audiences with a majority of sales being made to Seoul-based collectors. The gallery recently did Art Basel Hong Kong as well as both Frieze Seoul and ART SG in 2023 and 2024. “There is an energy around the Frieze fairs,’ explains director Jane Hayman. “We’ve found the Korean collectors to be extremely engaged and diligent. STATION is a dynamic platform, committed to broadening international audiences for its artists, and participating in prestigious fairs enhances the visibility of our entire gallery stable and encourages placement of works in international collections. For example, the presentation of Polo’s work for two consecutive years has consolidated demand for his work with international audiences while our involvement in Art Basel Hong Kong resulted in securing a solo exhibition for Shireen Taweel with a US gallery in 2025.”
Australian artist Yvonne Boag, who first exhibited her work in Kiaf in 2005, today exhibits with UM Gallery in South Korea and Stella Downer in Sydney. She recalls attending the first Kiaf in 2002, “The landscape was so different … a small, mostly decorative show of commercial work. Back then, museums were run by Chaebol wives like Samsung, Hyundai and Sonjae, all competing with each other to see who could have the biggest and best international collections. Kukje, now one of the most influential contemporary galleries in Seoul, tried to convince Anselm Kiefer and Anish Kapoor to exhibit early on. A decade later, they did. In Frieze this year, Kukje was one of the few galleries to have a one-year-person show of an artist, the extraordinary paintings and sculpture of Kim Yun Shin, a 90-year-old Korean who recently returned from living in South America for 30 years.”
Today, South Korea has a proliferation of European galleries across international cities like Seoul and Busan and a huge presence in the United States, too, thanks to such worldwide successes as Squid Game, the South Korean dystopian survival thriller series, and Parasite, the Academy Award-winning black comedy thriller film.
Word among Koreans is that the Frieze Kiaf partnership has improved Kiaf’s standard, but that Kiaf has lost sales since combining with Frieze. The feeling is that wealthy Korean collectors were seduced by the glamour of Frieze.
Niagara Galleries’ Bill Nuttall, a seasoned fairgoer, says, “We did Seoul art fair and thoroughly enjoyed its people, art and strong bargaining culture. It’s great to see how certain Australian artists, such as Ken Whisson and Noel McKenna, sit in the world. If you can break into the market you have access to a world market, but it is very costly for Australian galleries to sustain without long term support.”
Art fairs evolve and change. Shuyin Yang, director of the forthcoming ART SG, is excited by its unique collaborations with key cultural partners, including Bangkok Kunsthalle, Delfina Foundation and M art Foundation. “Moving into its third edition as the international art fair for Southeast Asia, ART SG’s amplified curatorial program features an emphasis on emerging talent from Singapore and Southeast Asia, as well work in non-traditional mediums: installation, digital art, AI and more.” Singapore is a gateway for Southeast Asia where, historically, the strongest collectors have come from Indonesia and the Philippines. Recently though, there has been a surge in private museums and foundations across the region. “Thailand is seeing a boom in art and cultural development, with the opening of multi-disciplinary space Bangkok Kunsthalle and an additional four new private museums or foundations planned over the next couple of years,” notes Yang. “Singapore’s collecting ecosystem has grown from strength to strength and will soon debut its first major private museum in early 2026. This trajectory has, in turn, inspired new collectors to enter the landscape as it provides institutional stimulation and guidance for them to start building collections.”
Can Yavuz opened in Singapore in 2010, and later became one of the first Asian galleries to establish a permanent space in Australia, while Ursula Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf have operated dynamic galleries in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore amidst the growing presence of international galleries in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Sullivan + Strumpf Singapore director, Megan Arlin, says Singapore is energised by emerging pop-up exhibitions and innovative collaborations occurring, such as Art Jakarta Gardens and Art021, noting that “Art Basel HK continues to be the biggest event in the region. However art fairs like ART SG, S.E.A. Focus, Art Jakarta, Art Fair Philippines and Frieze Seoul are an exciting growing presence.”
Some fairgoers liken the international art fair to a kind of artistic speed dating, where one fast flirtation feeds the next, faster and faster, in the swoop for that bucket list … Whatever the motive, it’s an economical way of connecting and learning about art, a unique shared engagement between maker and viewer, and its pulse and energy are addictive.
ART SG, Singapore runs from January 17 to 19, 2025.
artsg.com
This article was originally published in VAULT Magazine Issue 48 (November 2024 – January 2025).
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