The 10 Best Booths at Frieze Seoul 2023

It might be in its second edition, but this year, Frieze Seoul already feels like it’s well at home in the Korean capital. A trendy crowd descended in droves on a crowded (and very warm) VIP day this Wednesday at the COEX Center in Gangnam, where collectors and dealers of different ages and nationalities came together. Bolstered by the Korean International Art Fair (KIAF), which is also holding its 210-booth VIP day on the floor below, the expansive convention center—which is connected to an extensive shopping complex—has been turned into an entire art world town, with tote bags and dealers never too far from sight.

More than 120 galleries are taking part in this year’s edition of Frieze Seoul, which is split into three sections: the main section, which comprises 89, mostly fair-seasoned galleries; Frieze Masters, which focuses on significant masterpieces; and Focus Asia, which is dedicated to solo presentations from Asia-based galleries.

The mood of gallerists at the fair was positive throughout, and by the end of the first day, a number of significant six-figure sales had already been made. “Despite some wider economic concerns, we’ve experienced a successful start to the fair,” said Emma Son, a senior director at Lehmann Maupin.

The gallery, which sold more than 15 works priced between $20,000 and $190,000, was among several to report significant sales within the first hours of the fair’s VIP day.

Other highlights included Hauser & Wirth, which placed more than 13 works in institutional and private collections across East Asia, topped by a work by Rashid Johnson, which sold for $975,000. Pace Gallery sold a work by Joel Shapiro for $175,000, a work by Qiu Xiaofei for $160,000, and a Robert Nava painting for $150,000. David Zwirner sold a number of works by Katherine Bernhardt, including a new painting for $250,000; a Rose Wylie painting for $250,000; and a work by Mamma Andersson for $550,000. Cardi Gallery sold a work by Dan Flavin for $250,000, two works by Alberto Biasi for $150,000 apiece, and a work by Mimmo Paladino for $350,000.

Showcasing strength in diversity, this was a fair truly international in scope that has now evolved into a key moment on the art world calendar. Here are Artsy’s 10 standout booths from the fair.

Eric Firestone Gallery

Booth M22

With works by Jeanne Reynal, Elise Asher, and Pat Passlof

The works of three late women abstract artists were the subject of New York gallery Eric Firestone’s Frieze Masters display, a smartly curated booth that pays tribute to a group that has gained a long-overdue reappraisal in recent years. “The booth really evokes the mission of the gallery, which is to focus on reexamination and scholarship, primarily of American artists,” Firestone told Artsy. The artists on view—which the gallery represents the estates of—certainly belong in that category.

Mosaic artist Jeanne Reynal’s works are earthy and detailed, while Pat Passlof’s landscape-esque canvases appear to swarm with movement. Painter and poet Elise Asher, who died in 2004, made her debut in Asia, with a series of standout expressive and calligraphic works. “The Asian market has been very interested in New York School work,” said Firestone, referring to the mid-century art movement. “To bring artists that [collectors] haven’t seen in the typical roster of New York School artists is always good.”

Lawrie Shabibi

Booth F7

With works by Hamra Abbas

In the Focus section featuring Asian solo presentations, Dubai gallery Lawrie Shabibi dedicated its booth to a series of marble inlay works by Pakistani artist Hamra Abbas.

Her captivating series of intricate “Flower Studies” on one wall are inspired by photographs from the artist’s travels, exploring the geographic origins of lapis lazuli in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan. The metamorphic rock is used throughout these enchanting figurative wall works, which use varying hues and tones and are almost painterly in style. On the other wall of the booth, the rugged marble pentaptych Mountain 6 (2023) depicts Pakistan’s iconic K2 mountains in all their snow-covered majesty.

“A lot of her work was quite relatable throughout all of Asia, and everyone is recognizing the K2 mountains,” said Asmaa Al-Shabibi, a director at the gallery. “Korea also has a tradition of craft and they do inlay but with wood. So we [are having] a lot of interesting conversations.”

Thaddaeus Ropac

Booth C5

With works by Cory Arcangel, Alvaro Barrington, Georg Baselitz, Tony Cragg, Mandy El-Sayegh, Antony Gormley, Donald Judd, Martha Jungwirth, Alex Katz, Imi Knoebel, Lee Bul, Robert Longo, Liza Lou, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschenberg, Daniel Richter, Tom Sachs, David Salle, and Zadie Xa

Thaddaeus Ropac celebrates the 40th anniversary of its first space in Salzburg this year, and its booth at Frieze Seoul is a testament to the gallery’s evolution into a blue-chip powerhouse. A strong slate of new works from its leading lights, such as Anthony Gormley, Alex Katz, and Georg Baselitz, take up the prominent positions in the booth; but the gallery also made ample space for its younger talents to shine, with works by Mandy El-Sayegh and Zadie Xa among the highlights.

As the gallery continues to grow its presence in Korea, founder Ropac described the booth as a “balance” between the gallery’s European, American, and Asian artists, though it certainly highlights its artists’ connections with Korea. Korean Canadian artist Xa currently has an exhibition in the museum Space K in Seoul, while the first solo exhibition of Donald Judd in South Korea in almost a decade opened at the gallery this week. Anselm Kiefer and Lawrence Weiner are also featured in museum shows across the Korean capital.

Ropac was in cheery spirits on the VIP day. “It’s more international this year [and] you can really feel the difference,” the gallerist said of the fair. “With last year, it was still the end of COVID. This year, Asia is here in big strength.”

Tomio Koyama Gallery

Booth C12

With works by Katherine Bradford, Nana Funo, Makiko Kudo, Hideaki Kawashima, Shintaro Miyake, Tom Sachs, Kishio Suga, and Hiroshi Sugito

The contemplative geometric wood works by Kishio Suga, tricksy color on pencil works by Shintaro Miyake, and the dreamscapes of Makiko Kudo are among the highlights of this lively booth from Japanese gallery Tomio Koyama.

The gallery, which is based in the stylish Roppongi district of Tokyo, offered a display of its represented artists alongside works by American artists Tom Sachs and Katharine Bradford. Kudo’s imaginative, dreamlike paintings in particular were drawing crowds at the fair. The artist is part of a group show currently on view at a group show at the Dora Observatory in the DMZ area near the border of North Korea.

Another artist from the gallery’s roster, Hiroshi Sugito, is also the subject of much attention at the fair. A close friend of Yoshitomo Nara and a key figure in the Tokyo Pop movement, Sugito creates paintings that sit somewhere between abstract and figuration in a pastel color palette, with whimsical depictions of tables, farmhouses, and trees a part of this display here.

Gallery 1957

Booth A8

With works by Amoako Boafo, Gideon Appah, Kwesi Botchway, Joana Choumali, Tegene Kunbi, Kaloki Nyamai, and Nadia Waheed

Making its debut in Seoul, Accra- and London-based Gallery 1957 showcased a number of key names in its roster of West African artists. From a spritely Amoako Boafo painting of a man playing tennis to a colorful geometric composition by Tegene Kunbi, this is a booth that pops with life and brio.

“We wanted it to be bold, and to be a little bit different, and that’s the kind of response that we’re getting from people,” said Marwan Zakhem, the gallery’s founder.

From names that are newer to the gallery’s program such as Joana Choumali, to more established names such as Gideon Appah, Zakhem described the booth as a “cross-section” of the gallery’s program, which continues to highlight the breadth and variety of West African artists. Judging by the crowds forming around the booth on its VIP day, it was a strategy that was paying off.

Arario Gallery

Booth A22

With works by Geraldine Javier, Jung Kangja, Kim Inbai, Kohei Nawa, Lee Jinju, Nalini Malani, Soun-Gui Kim, and Subdoh Gupta

With a philosophy rooted in platforming Asian art, Seoul’s Arario Gallery brought a mix of artists from across the continent—from Korea, Japan, and China through to the Philippines and India—in a booth that spotlights a number of pioneering artists.

This includes Nalini Malani (one of the first Indian artists to experiment with video), whose single-channel stop-motion animation Life (2022) flickers on one side of the booth, and Jung Kangja, a leading figure in the first wave of performance art in Korea who faced government sanctions in the late 1960s and ’70s. A painting by Jung, Scenery of Hanbok and the Moon (1998), references the traditional Korean Hanbok clothing, turning it into an abstract form that appears to float through the sky. Jung, who is part of the Guggenheim’s current exhibition of Korean experimental art “Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s,” will also be featured in the gallery’s presentation at Frieze Masters in London next month.

The gallery is spotlighting a number of ultra-contemporary talents, too. Japanese artist Kohei Nawa’s monochromatic paintings investigate the relationship between the natural and artificial worlds, while a curious painting constructed from powdered pigment, animal skin glue, and water on unbleached cotton by Lee Jinju unpacks the structure of memory in an intriguing fashion.

Sojung Kang, a director at the gallery, was in strong spirits at the booth. “Compared to last year, I can say it’s a lot better,” she remarked to Artsy about the fair.

kurimanzutto

Booth B16

With works by Allora & Calzadilla, Haegue Yang, Nairy Bagrahmian, Leonor Antunes, Danh Vo, Gabriel Orozco, Oscar Murillo, Roberto Gil de Montes, Gabriel Kuri, and Rikrit Tiravanija

With a broad slate of materials and artists on view, Mexico City– and New York–based gallery kurimanzutto’s impressive booth is almost among the most diverse at the fair.

At the forefront hangs a vast canvas by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla composed of glued sandpaper sheets, while elsewhere the booth brings together spatial works of sculpture, installation, and performance, touching on themes such as technology and mythology along the way.

From Petrit Halilaj’s delicate, feather-adorned sculptures to Adrián Villar Rojas’s menacing, 3D-printed works (like those on view at the Helsinki Biennale this summer), the gallery’s booth offers plenty of works for intrigue and exploration. One highlight is a selection of pieces by Haegue Yang, behind the curtain-esque work Sonic Droplets – Water (2022), which uses hanging bells. “They’re used in a lot of traditional Korean shamanistic traditions,” explained Alexander Ferardo, a director at the gallery, who described the opening day atmosphere of the fair as “very good.”

Indeed, by the end of the VIP day, the gallery had sold works by Gabriel Orozco, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Yang in the range of $40,000–$550,000.

Kukje Gallery

Booth A29

With works by Anish Kapoor, Kyungah Ham, Haegue Yang, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Park Seo-Bo and Ha Chong-Hyun, Wook-Kyung Choi, Kim Yong-Ik, Lee Kwang-Ho, Yeondoo Jung, and Suki Seokyeong Kang

Firmly taking its position as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Korea, Kukje offers a comprehensive and broad survey of works at its high-traffic booth, which is split down the middle by Anish Kapoor’s Green and Brandy (2021), a circular, stainless-steel work whose reflection almost swallows the viewer whole. Broadly, Kukje’s display is a reminder of what makes the gallery such a trendsetter in Seoul: namely, its ability to coherently unite different strands of Korean art.

Highlights include Park Seo-bo’s large-scale canvas-based piece Écriture (描法) No. 080616 (2008), which uses Hanji paper and warm, sun-kissed yellow tones to conjure the forsythia blossoms of spring. Lee Kwang-Ho’s Untitled 6917 (2023) renders pond scenes in meticulous style, while Haegue Yang’s Terraced Torch Lily Vertical Garden (2023) employs Venetian blinds in vibrant hues. The striking Untitled (1968) by Wook-kyung Choi presents the bold experimentation of the late Korean Abstract Expressionist, who currently has a solo show at the gallery’s Busan outpost.

“We are thrilled to see immense interest in contemporary art that seems to have continued, or even increased, since last year’s inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul,” reported a staff member at the gallery. “The preview day of the fair was filled with collectors—an increase in Chinese and other Asian collectors is notable.”

Indeed, this interest translated into a strong preview day for the gallery, which sold the Park work for around $490,000 as well as six-figure works by Ha Chong-hyun and Kyungah Ham, among others.

Gallery Baton

Booth C1

With works by Kim Bohie, Song Burnsoo, Koh San Keum, Bae Yoon Hwan, Bin Woo Hyuk, Choi Soo Jung, Lee Jaeseok, Heeseung Chung, Doki Kim, Tatsuo Miyajima, Liam Gillick, Peter Stichbury, Rinus Van de Velde, Suzanne Song, Markus Amm, Jimok Choi, Yuichi Hirako, and Christian Hidaka

Painted in an intense purple-blue shade, the booth of Seoul’s Gallery Baton presents a broad spectrum of impressive works across disciplines that touch on a number of weighty themes.

Front and center is Doki Kim’s Blue Hour (2023), where an LED display forms a line from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “A Dream within a Dream,” the words disintegrating into a mess of black cables that appear to pour out of it. Behind it, Liam Gillick’s neon work Fall Down Get Up (2023) reads “fall down seven times get up eight,” while nature-focused paintings by Rinus Van de Velde and Kim Bohie also stand out. Dutch artist Van de Velde depicts a sailboat caught in swirling waters, while Bohie’s painting of a luminescent sun behind a rockface exudes a mellower mood.

Another highlight of the booth is Wooden Wood 40 (2023), an inventive wooden sculpture by Yuichi Hirako that resembles a stuffed shelf that appears to be almost overflowing with possessions.

Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Booth M20

With works by Zoran Music, Bosco Sodi, Sterling Ruby, Rachel Whiteread, Takis, Heinz Mack, Wolfgang Laib, Günther Uecker, Yun Hyong-keun, Raimund Girke, Lucio Fontana, George Rickey, Otto Piene, Jef Verheyen, and César