The world’s two most important art fairs, Frieze and Art Basel, have expanded from their original birthplaces in London and Basel for a long time. Now, Frieze is expanding into Asia. Frieze Seoul will feature more than 110 galleries from 20 countries and special sections for emerging talent and art throughout the ages. We had the unique opportunity to attend the fair as VIP guests and experience its unique pieces of art at COEX, in the Gangnam district in the heart of Seoul. Among the other notable VIP guests were Squid game star Lee Jung-jae, Samsung heiress Lee Boo-jin and SK group chairman Chey Tae-won.
Frieze Seoul primarily focuses on contemporary art, and is supplemented with a Frieze Masters section dedicated to art from antiquity through to the 20th century. In addition, Focus Asia, a section dedicated to galleries aged 12 years or younger, showcases solo exhibitions by ground-breaking emerging talent. David Zwirner gallery had a particularly strong first day of sales. Among our favorite pieces was “Tree” by Katherine Bernhardt. She is based in St. Louis, Missouri and her paintings are bright and expressive and usually feature pop culture characters, food and consumer goods. One of her most referenced characters is the Pink Panther cartoon, whom she began painting after a trip to Hawaii. “Tree” depicts Pink Panther standing in front of a tree trunk, on one foot with its hands in a praying position. The painting is based on acrylic and spray paint on canvas and sold for $250,000.
Image courtesy of Artnet.com
We have long been fans of Bahamian-born New York artist Tavares Strachan whose art investigates science, technology, mythology, history, and exploration and were glad to see his work featured at Frieze Seoul. His painting “United States of Africa”, is based on oil, enamel, and pigment on acrylic and was showcased by Perrotin – it also sold for a $250,000 price tag. Strachan is known for his intensive research – he has done expeditions to the North Pole and was training as a cosmonaut in Russia. He has also shown a keen interest in unpacking and deconstructing systems and structures of knowledge and history. We think his work shown at Frieze Seoul is the synthesis of these efforts inspired by his research and expedition background.
Image courtesy of Perrotin
Of course, our list wouldn’t be complete without George Condo. The New York City-based artist set the record on the opening day. Hauser & Wirth sold his Picasso-inspired painting (oil on linen) for $2.8 million to a private museum in South Korea. The painting is titled “Red Painting Composition” and features a lot of Condo-typical elements: bulging eyes, fractured faces, among others. It is the kind of surrealistic style that Condo himself referred to as “psychological cubism.”
Image courtesy of Ocula.com
In connection with Frieze Seoul, we also attended Frieze Film – a special program showcasing local and diasporic Korean artists screened in one of Seoul’s most historic neighborhoods, near Gyeongbokgung Palace. Featuring 10 films by some of today’s most critically acclaimed contemporary artists working in time-based media, Frieze Film is co-curated by two international art non-profits, GYOPO (Los Angeles) and WESS (Seoul).
Featured image courtesy of Coex
