Frieze is to launch its first fair in Asia. The events company has entered a partnership with the Galleries Association of Korea to stage Frieze Seoul in September 2022.
Occurring simultaneously with the Kiaf Art Seoul fair, which Frieze will be working collaboratively with, the event will take place at COEX, an exhibition hall located in the Gangnam district, and will feature in its first year approximately a hundred exhibitors.
The pandemic has hit the art fair model hard with, in figures compiled by Art Basel and UBS, 61 percent of events cancelled last year. Of the galleries surveyed, 40 percent thought that sales via fairs would continue to decrease in the year going forward. Dealers in Asia however were the most optimistic about whether it was worth their participation, most notably in China, where 54 percent of gallerists said they expected an increase in sales. Outside China and India, Asia is home to 7 percent of the world’s billionaires.
Dal-Seung Hwang, the chairman of Galleries Association of Korea added: ‘We are proud to announce the partnership with Frieze and we are excited to invite art enthusiasts around the world to Seoul. In a period of high public interest in the Korean art market, the collaboration between South Korea’s largest art fair and Frieze will confirm Seoul as a hub of the global art market, and South Korea a major destination for the art market in Asia.’
Frieze currently operates fairs in London, New York and Los Angeles.
