3rd Edition of Prize Seoul…Works With ‘Sellable Price Range’ Instead of Masterpieces
Prize Seoul attracted 82,000 visitors… Praise for “Enhanced Gallery Screening”
Increased Visits by Overseas Art Museum Officials in conjunction with Biennale
(Seoul=Yonhap News) By Hwang Hee-kyung – The major event of the Korean art world in early September, the international art fairs Prize and Kiaf Seoul, concluded on the 8th with the closure of Kiaf.
As Prize Seoul marked its 3rd edition, the fervent interest seen in 2022, the first year, has waned, and now there is a trend of placing more significance on off-site exhibitions and related events rather than the art fair itself. This year, many overseas art world figures visited to view the Biennales in Gwangju and Busan, which opened before and after the art fairs, along with the art fairs.
Gallery participants who disclosed their results pointed out that this year at Prize Seoul, there were many works in the range of thousands to tens of millions of won, excluding high-priced masterpieces in the hundreds of billions of won like Pablo Picasso’s painting showcased in the first edition. According to the disclosed performances of the galleries, House & Worth sold Nicholas Party’s work for $2.5 million (about 33.5 billion won), and the German gallery Spruth Magers sold George Condo’s ‘Self-portrait’ for $1.95 million (about 26 billion won) to individual collectors in Asia. At the Pace Gallery, Yi Woo-hwan’s painting found a new owner for $1.2 million (about 16 billion won), and the Tadeusz Ropac Gallery sold a painting by Georg Baselitz for €1 million (about 14.8 billion won) on the first day. Anicka Yi’s sculpture works were sold in multiples at Gladstone Gallery for $200,000 (about 2.6 billion won).
Among Korean galleries, PKM Gallery sold Yoo Young-kook’s painting for $1.5 million (about 20 billion won) on the first day, and Gallery Hyundai, which set up a booth in the form of a solo exhibition by Jeon Jun-ho, sold seven pieces of Jeon Jun-ho’s works. International galleries sold several works by Yang Hye-gyu, Moon Sung-sik, and Lee Hee-joon. At Johyun Gallery, ten pieces of Lee Bae’s works were sold for $56,000 (about 75 million won) each, and works by Park Seo-bo, Kwon Dae-sub, and Lee Kwang-ho found new owners.
Some participating galleries reported better sales performance than last year.
Turkish-American artist Hayal Pozanti’s solo exhibition at Jessica Silverman Gallery’s booth was a great success as all works were sold to collectors around the world who revisited Prize Seoul. Japanese Nanjuka Gallery, participating in Prize Seoul for the second time this year, also reported selling more works than last year. The Brazilian gallery Mendes Wood DM also achieved a “very good outcome,” selling works by various artists to private collectors and institutions in Korea.
Patrick Lee, director of Prize Seoul, commented, “This year, Prize Seoul solidified its position as a significant event in the global art calendar, showing the depth and diversity of Korean art with the hosting of the Gwangju and Busan Biennales.”
82,000 Visitors to Kiaf Seoul…”Praise for Enhanced Gallery Screening”
Kiaf Seoul, which concluded on the 8th, attracted a total of 82,000 visitors over five days. Kiaf reported an increase in VIP visitors, and especially on the last day when only visitors from Prize could enter Kiaf on the day after Prize ended, the number of visitors increased significantly to 12,000, surpassing last year’s 6,000 visitors.
Kiaf did not disclose the sales performance of individual galleries but explained that despite the global economic slowdown, it achieved positive outcomes beyond expectations, saying that although the sales may not have been as lucrative as during the boom, they had overcome the feared situation.
This year, Kiaf Seoul received praise. Although Kiaf Seoul, which is Korea’s largest art fair but relatively less known globally than Prize Seoul, has attracted less interest since its joint hosting with Prize Seoul, this year it was noted that “Kiaf has changed.”
An art gallery official who participated in both Kiaf and Prize mentioned, “Walking around the exhibition halls, I felt that many changes had taken place,” adding, “The strengthening of gallery screening seems to have had an impact.”
Kiaf explained that this year it reduced the number of participating galleries while expanding the exhibition space to allow for a comfortable viewing experience, focusing on exhibiting new works rather than existing ones, and requiring a detailed gallery booth interior plan before submission, stating that meticulous screening was the main factor for success.
For the ‘Kiaf Highlight Awards’ for discovering emerging artists, Kang Cheol-gyu, Kim Eun-jin, and Choi Ji-won were selected as the final awardees, each receiving a grant of 10 million won for creative support.
Kiaf evaluated itself, saying, “As the largest art fair in Korea playing a central role in unifying the Korean art world and exploring new faces, revitalizing the art market, and expanding the boundaries of art.”