2023-07-15 12:20:18
The art market knows no summer break. In the hot months, boutique fairs take place, which have settled in holiday destinations to entertain the solvent clientele: The Salon d’Art in Monte-Carlo was held again on the first weekend in July 2023, and the new art fair CAN will take place in Ibiza on the second.
In early August, when the US collectors are in their homes in Aspen or the Hamptons, small fairs are held there as well. At the end of the holiday season, the Mediterranean Art-o-rama lures people to Marseille. And since last year, the lucrative autumn season has opened a young art fair at a location that the industry believes has great potential: the Frieze in Seoul.
Seoul has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Well-known galleries opened branches in the capital of South Korea. Lehmann Maupin from New York was among the first, followed by Pace and Gladstone. But galleries from Europe have long been running branches in Seoul to make their program of contemporary art palatable to affluent Korean clientele. Ropac from Salzburg, König from Berlin and Perrotin from Paris are now based in Seoul.
Anticipatory gesture of respect
However, Korean art has not yet become as conspicuous in the West as the Western galleries that are participating in South Korea’s boom locally. Esther Schipper, gallery owner from Berlin, now pays tribute to the Korean artists. She only expanded in 2022 and opened a branch in both Paris and Seoul.
In her Berlin headquarters she is showing the Group exhibition “Dui Jip Ki”, which she mirrors in the Seoul branch. It’s a glimpse into Korean art production worth seeing—and a thoroughly prescient gesture of respect.
This is also how the gallery owner Jaeho Jung understands it, who knows the scene like no other and helped Schipper with the organization. “The whole world is interested in Korean pop culture, but visual artists, especially the younger ones, are still underappreciated,” he told the newspaper. “The show offers the great opportunity to show its quality and diversity to the international audience in Berlin.”
Hyunsun Jeon, „When You Believe“, 2023
Quelle: Courtesy the artist, Gallery 2, Seoul, and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul Photo © baufoto
Jung studied in the USA in the 1990s. Back home, he founded the influential Gallery 2 in Seoul. He now runs the Johyun Gallery in Busan. A nationally known art biennale also takes place in the metropolis. Jung is pragmatic about the fact that Seoul is now experiencing such an upswing:
“Of course, that has to do with the political situation in Hong Kong.” However, he believes that several art metropolises can coexist in East Asia. “It would be ideal if Hong Kong could keep its status and Seoul could establish itself as a new spot. We have a good balance with Art Basel Hong Kong and Frieze Seoul.”
Young fair in Asia: Frieze Seoul
Among the more than 120 participants at Frieze Seoul (from September 6 to 9, 2023) are heavyweights such as Sadie Coles HQ, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Max Hetzler, Mennour, White Cube and David Zwirner, but also newcomers such as Peter Kilchmann ( Zurich), Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg) or Jessica Silverman (San Francisco). Esther Schipper and Joyhun Gallery are also represented again. And some of the artists featured in their Berlin show will also be featured there.
The phrase “Dui Jip Ki” can be heard, for example, when flipping a pancake at a street food stall in Gwangjang Market or when an opponent is forced into a supine position in a traditional wrestling match. But it also refers to the change of heart, the opening up to alternative ideas.
And that, according to Jaeho Jung, has a lot to do with attitude. “Koreans are fearless, want to explore new things. We’re not so attached to the old stuff. Looking forward instead of looking back, that is our way of thinking.”
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Jin Meyerson, who traveled to Berlin to set it up, also takes this perspective. For biographical reasons: He was born in 1972 in Incheon, South Korea, was put up for adoption and grew up with a Jewish-Swedish family in Minnesota before studying art.
This adoption practice has an inglorious tradition in Korea. It began after the Korean War to “get rid of mixed-race children” and continued for decades instead of building a welfare service for the orphans and poor. It is estimated that there have been more than 200,000 such adoptions in the West. Only a few are really documented. However, Meyerson did not become an artist to deal with questions of identity, but to assert existence in the present.
Meyerson, who returned to Seoul in 2008, found references in the “digital space”. He was among the first artists to use the virtual as a basis for their work. Recently, he has been adding irritating “AR overlays” to his already psychedelic paintings. If you look at “Stagedive” through your smartphone, then an augmented reality level is laid over the screen.
Jin Meyerson, „Stagedive“, 2015
Quelle: Courtesy the artist, Johyun Gallery, Busan, and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul Photo © Jin Meyerson Studio
It is important that the images cannot be deciphered. “But paintings do something to you within the first few seconds of looking at them. Painting is related to magic.” And he doesn’t mean that in a spiritual sense, but thinks of magicians, “who have to practice their seemingly easy gestures for a long time in order to create something completely amazing”.
Carbon black and ink baths
The glossy effects that Lee Bae brings out of the material that the 67-year-old has made his life’s work are also amazing: coal. In panel paintings he cut pieces of charcoal, laid them into mosaics and sanded them. Sometimes the surface is iridescent like metal, then the eye loses itself in the deepest carbon black.
A piece of calligraphy hangs next to it: “Brushstroke” is written on paper with carbon dust ink and has a minimalist presence. A bronze sculpture called “Brush Stroke” can also be imagined next to “Totems” by Angela Bulloch or “Monks” by Ugo Rondinone, which are otherwise found in the Schipper Gallery.
Exhibition view with works by Lee Bae
Quelle: Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin/ Paris/Seoul ©2023 Andrea Rossetti
There are also points of contact in a cabinet: there are pictures hanging whose spectrum is reminiscent of Matti Braun’s silk paintings. But Taek Sang Kim (b. 1958) leaves room for chance. He has paper and canvas bathed in pigment solutions in order to create works that are sometimes light, sometimes rich in colour.
37-year-old Suyeon Kim has brought a series of paintings to Berlin. She doesn’t want to be the only author of her work either. So she hung a paint-soaked brush on a rope above the canvas lying on the floor and let it swing out. For one hour, 24 hours a day, March 21, 2023.
The color of the background is also not her decision, but adapted to the sky hue of the hour. Her subjective wit is to give the abstract graffiti a shadow that gives them a real effect.
Suyeon Kim, „SE23032112“, 2023
Quelle: Courtesy the artist, Gallery 2, Seoul & Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul © ZERO STUDIO
The younger generation of artists from Korea and beyond will also find their place at Frieze Seoul in September, for example in the “Focus Asia” section. Ten positions from Asian galleries will be presented there in individual exhibitions to an audience whose favor is already being advertised at a number of trade fairs and locations. In Singapore and Japan, for example, the exhibition company Art Assembly, which is active in Southeast Asia, already launched Art SG and Tokyo Gendai as new sales platforms this year.
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And Frieze, which is based in London as a company (and with two trade fairs), is also continuing on its course of expansion. It now challenges its global competitor, the Swiss MCH Group and its flagship Art Basel, which takes place not only in Basel but also in Hong Kong, Paris and Miami Beach:
On July 13, 2023, it was announced that the British would take over the Armory Show in New York and Expo Chicago. Frieze, which already runs trade fairs in New York and Los Angeles, is thus expanding its dominance on the US market.
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