What Sold at Frieze Seoul 2022

The inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul, which ran at the Korean capital’s mega convention complex COEX from September 2nd through 5th, was not unlike other iterations of the global art fair. Lines extended outside the event starting on September 2nd’s VIP day, and selfies were captured at scene-stealing booths—including the presentation of Urs Fischer’s eerie animatronic sculpture of two elderly men tugging an adult-faced baby at Sadie Coles HQ’s booth, and Lehmann Maupin’s walk-in polyester sculpture by Korean art star Do Ho Suh. Pleats Please Issey Miyake–clad dealers swiped through iPads alongside intrigued collectors, and whispers of impressive sales and the evening’s parties floated across the aisles.

What was particular to Frieze’s first foray into the Asian market, however, was a mutual sense of welcome shared between the fair and the local scene, cementing Seoul as a global art capital. Frieze Seoul’s location in the same building as Korea’s only international art fair, Kiaf, which ran its 21st and most internationally diverse edition concurrently, furthered this convivial sentiment. “Why not walk hand-in-hand and join our audiences instead of parachuting here?” said Frieze Seoul director Patrick Lee during the fair’s vernissage, which attracted massive crowds through the late afternoon.

The following day, the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, expressed the city’s commitment to its art market at a dinner he hosted to celebrate both Frieze and Kiaf by the scenic Ran River. “After K-pop and K-cinema, we are ready to launch to the world K-art,” he said. International galleries could perhaps not agree more with the mayor, as for the past several years they’ve been opening new outposts across Seoul’s established art districts, where local galleries, such as Kukje Gallery and Gallery Hyundai, have long held their headquarters. From early comers like Pace Gallery, Perrotin, Lehmann Maupin, and Various Small Fires to new additions, such as Gladstone Gallery and Thaddaeus Ropac, the city now brims with Western galleries.

It’s not so surprising, then, that Frieze Seoul was met with over 70,000 visitors and substantial sales throughout more than 120 booths (including 18 focused on historic work in Frieze Masters). Expectedly, the majority of exhibitors relied on the safety of group presentations to introduce their programs to a new market in a fresh context.

“The local art scene welcomed Frieze in with tons of enthusiasm, and we made strong sales from across our contemporary program,” said Marc Glimcher, president of Pace Gallery, which recently expanded its Seoul programming with a new black box gallery for digital and immersive art and a tea house with a space designated for limited editions. Glimcher was especially content with the institutional engagement and placements with museums and art foundations in Korea and broadly in Asia. Notable sales by Pace include:

• Matthew Day Jackson’s Tree (after CDF) (2022) for $175,000 (₩238 million) and WHJ Waterfall (2022) for $150,000 (₩204 million). The former mixed-media painting was acquired by a museum in Korea.
• Adam Pendleton’s eight-foot-tall silkscreen painting, Untitled (WE ARE NOT) (2022), which sold for $475,000 (₩646 million) to a museum in Asia.
• A museum in Korea also collected an untitled painting by Marina Perez Simão for $125,000 (₩170 million).

Lehmann Maupin co-founder David Maupin said his gallery also “saw strong Asian engagement with over 65% of works placed with collections in Korea, and over 83% sold to collectors based in Asia.” Among the gallery’s sales are:

• DNA: Study/(Visual: Ear) (2022), an ink, oil paint stick, and paper painting by McArthur Binion—who also has a solo show at the gallery’s Seoul space—to a U.S.-based collector for $225,000.
• Leading Korean artist Lee Bul’s mother-of-pearl-encrusted painting Perdu CXLIII (2022), which sold to a Korean collector for $260,000.
• A mixed-media Nari Ward painting titled Breathing Mosaic Dream-Air (2022), which sold to another Korean collector for $275,000.
• A 2020 Marilyn Minter print, Melodious, which sold to a Hong Kong–based collector for $25,000.

“All eyes are on Seoul as the first art fair in the region able to welcome international visitors since the pandemic,” said Hauser & Wirth’s managing partner in Asia, Elaine Kwok, in a statement. “Frieze Seoul takes the energy of South Korea’s vibrant art scene to another level.”

At its booth, the Swiss mega-gallery sold 14 works in the first hours of the fair, also placing many works with Korean collections. Standout sales include:

• A new George Condo painting, Red Portrait Composition (2022), for a lofty $2.8 million.
• Mark Bradford’s new mixed-media painting Overpass for $1.8 million.
• A new Surrender Painting by Rashid Johnson for $550,000 to a private museum in Japan.
• A private collection based between Korea, Europe, and the U.S. paid €380,000 for a Günther Förg painting.
• Meanwhile, an Avery Singer painting, JUUL (2021), found a collector for $150,000.

Gallerist Timothy Taylor had not visited Seoul in years, and upon his return for the fair, he was “impressed by the depth of the cultural community and the new galleries defining the scene, and a vibrant ecosystem of artists, old and young,” he said. Taylor noted that while U.S. was approaching Labor Day and the rest of the world, particularly Europe, was on summer holiday, “the international art world was really buzzing.” The British dealer’s booth sold major works by Alex Katz, Sean Scully, Ding Yi, Chris Martin, Annie Morris, Sahara Longe, and Daniel Crews-Chubb.

Other major sales from Frieze Seoul include:

• Korea’s own blue-chip Kukje Gallery sold works by numerous prominent local artists, such as painters Park Seo-bo and Ha Chong-hyun, respectively, in the price ranges of $490,000–$550,000 and $350,000–$400,000; as well as a Haegue Yang sculpture priced from €28,000–€33,000. Additionally, sculptures by Alexander Calder and Jean-Michel Othoniel sold in the ranges of $250,000–$300,000 and €110,000–€130,000, respectively.
• Belgian powerhouse Xavier Hufkens’s solo presentation of new paintings by Sterling Ruby sold out during the VIP day. Prices ranged from $375,000–$475,000 per piece.
• Thaddaeus Ropac sold 11 works, including two 2021 pieces by London-based American painter Alvaro Barrington in the range of $55,000–$90,000 each; a work by Lee Bul for $190,000; and four works by Tom Sachs in the range of $50,000–$300,000. Sales were mainly to collectors from Korea, China, and Singapore.

• Paula Cooper Gallery sold works by Joel Shapiro, Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, and Dan Walsh. The veteran Chelsea gallery also noted its ongoing conversations regarding works by Paul Pfeiffer, Donald Judd, Sophie Calle, and Veronica Ryan, including with private and public collections in the region.
• Jason Haam, based in Seoul’s gallery district Seongbuk-dong, sold works to both new and returning clients, in addition to institutional collections. These include Urs Fischer’s Problem Painting, which went to a Seoul-based private collector for $1.2 million; new works by Mike Lee for $35,000; and works by Amanda Baldwin and Moka Lee, both for $30,000 each.
• The top sale by international powerhouse Lisson Gallery was an Anish Kapoor sculpture for £775,000, while other sales included a work by Hugh Hayden for $120,000; two Julian Opie works for £45,000; a Ryan Gander for £70,000; and a Van Hanos for $45,000.

• Korean-founded, New York–based Tina Kim Gallery sold works by Pacita Abad, Davide Balliano, Ha Chong-hyun, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Minouk Lim, and Kim Tschang-Yeul in the range of $20,000–$500,000 per piece.
• Chicago- and Paris-based gallery Mariane Ibrahim sold three paintings by market darling Amoako Boafo for $90,000 per piece, in addition to a Peter Uka painting for $90,000.
• Los Angeles–based David Kordansky Gallery not only participated at the fair but also expanded its imprint with a pop-up space that held a group show with works by Huma Bhabha, Aaron Curry, Derek Fordjour, Guan Xiao, and Adam Pendleton. At its booth, the gallery sold out seven new Calvin Marcus paintings from his “Untitled Grass Painting” series on the fair’s first day.

• LGDR sold 12 works by Joel Mesler at prices ranging from $25,000–$450,000 apiece.
• David Zwirner had a lucrative booth as well, selling multiple paintings by Oscar Murillo for $280,000 each during the fair’s first hours, in addition to a sculpture by Carol Bove for $400,000, a sculpture by Donald Judd for $850,000, and a new painting by Katherine Bernhardt for $250,000.
• Tehran-based Dastan Gallery, from the fair’s Focus Asia section, sold multiple works from its solo booth with Iranian artist Ali Beheshti for a range of $1,200–$3,500.
• Also from the same section, hip local gallery Whistle placed two works from its solo booth of 2022 paintings by young Korean painter Hejum Bä—one with a local collector and the other with an international collector—while the rest of the works were placed on reserve at the end of the vernissage. All 15 works sold by the fair’s conclusion.

Frieze Masters director Nathan Clements-Gillespie told a group of journalists at the rooftop of a bar that they are “definitely coming back next year.” That comes as no surprise given the robust figures at the special, historically focused section.

• Perhaps most notable was Gallery Hyundai’s total ₩1.1 billion ($798,100) sale of works by Park Hyunki and Seung-taek Lee to private collectors and both local and international institutions.
• Additionally, Seoul-based Hakgojae Gallery sold Ree Bong-sang’s Sky, Mountain, Forest (1963) to an important local institution, along with two works by Haindoo, ranging from $90,000–$200,000. The gallery also placed works by Rhee Sang-wooc with a prominent Seoul-based collector.