When it comes to art fairs, size is everything. How many people attend? How many collectors fly in? How many galleries haul works across continents? How expensive are the booths to rent? How much carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere? These muscular, corporate displays of global commerce, at the largest end, occupy major trade-industry halls, with their utilitarian decor and generic, overpriced food. And yet people come on mass, in the tens-of-thousands. Gargantuan, however, is not the only model in town, as there are fairs for every price-point, and much more room to maneuver and compete among the regional start-ups as companies continue to tap each segment of the market.
Godzilla vs King Kong
Since Frieze arrived in, the two major Western art-fair franchises have extended their worldwide competition into the Asian art market. The second edition of in 2023 (September 6–9), running concurrently with the more domestically focused (September 7–10), maintained its hype and popularity, but sales were spotty compared to its debut, despite the return of Chinese and other Asian buyers. Yet, demand for five- to six-figure works, especially by Korean artists, remained a sweet spot at Frieze Seoul, as Lehmann Maupin experienced, selling two Lee Bul wall works from 2019 and 2023 for USD 200,000 and 190,000, respectively, while local stalwart Kukje Gallery parted with a blue-chip Park Seo-Bo abstraction in the range of USD 490,000–590,000. Several international heavyweights like Thaddeus Ropac and Hauser & Wirth reported million-dollar-plus transactions. The scale of Frieze Seoul still remains smaller than ABHK with 121 galleries, but was complemented by the massive KIAF (210 galleries), a partnership brings heavyweight synergy to Seoul.
