CITY REPORTS
CHANG UCCHIN, Jacks, 1938, oil on canvas, 65 × 80.5 cm. Courtesy the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.
Koreans of all ages and backgrounds had art on their mind in 2021, when the entire country became fixated on the prodigious art collection amassed by late Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, who passed away in late 2020. As Korea’s wealthiest man, Lee left behind a reported net worth of USD 21 billion, and with it an inheritance tax bill of more than USD 10 billion. In a bid to avoid losing control of Samsung (which in 2020 accounted for some 20 percent of the country’s GDP) and to partially offset their onerous tax burden, Lee’s heirs donated more than 23,000 artworks, artifacts, and rare books from his collection—at an appraised value of USD 2.2 billion—to the state. Highlights from the Lee Kun-hee collection went on view in a special exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in July (7/21–3/13/22), and tickets promptly sold out for months ahead of time as audiences flocked to see masterworks by Kim Whanki, Yoo Youngkuk, Lee Jung-seop, and Chang Ucchin. Generating global interest in Korea’s art scene was the announcement that the
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London-based art-fair company Frieze will launch a Seoul edition in 2022. Although insiders had long anticipated the move, it was a surprise to learn that Frieze is set to partner with the Galleries Association of Korea and present Frieze Seoul side-by-side with Korea International Art Fair (KIAF), the country’s preeminent art fair, in September 2022 at the city’s Coex Convention & Exhibition Center. Regardless of this unconventional partnership, Frieze’s choice of Seoul for its base in Asia reflects growing confidence in the city as a sustainable contemporary art hub from which to cater to the region’s rapidly expanding collector base. Under the direction of veteran art dealer Patrick Lee, Frieze Seoul will feature around 100 galleries, primarily focusing on contemporary art with a small Frieze Masters section offering artworks from antiquity to the 20th century. When combined with the roughly 170 galleries that participate annually in KIAF, there is real potential for Seoul to elevate its artworld influence to rival that of Hong Kong, which has enjoyed far greater international exposure since the arrival of foreign galleries in the early 2010s and the launch of Art Basel Hong Kong in 2013. The disparity between these cities has begun to shrink within the past five years, as major Western galleries have increasingly turned their attention toward Seoul: Perrotin opened a small showroom here in 2016, followed shortly thereafter by Pace and Lehmann Maupin, which
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both recently expanded into larger, more luxurious locations in the trendy Hannam neighborhood. A second wave of arrivals began in 2019, when Los Angeles gallery Various Small Fires also opened in Hannam. In 2021 Thaddaeus Ropac and König Galerie joined the fray, with Gladstone Gallery set to open in early 2022 and other major Western galleries exploring the possibility of launching spaces here in the future. A major factor propelling Seoul’s growing appeal as a regional art hub is its businessfriendly environment. South Korea does not impose VAT or import tax on artworks, nor does it levy sales tax on artworks sold for less than USD 51,000—or for artworks by living Korean artists. Korea also has a well-established domestic art market led by local heavyweights such as Kukje Gallery, Gallery Hyundai, and Arario Gallery, as well as a robust museum infrastructure, substantial federal arts funding, and a vibrant artist community. Add to this a burgeoning class of art collectors entering the market in response to Korea’s tightening regulations on real estate, and all indications point to a potential boom in the domestic contemporary art market. Such optimism was reflected at KIAF in 2021, where sales reached an unprecedented total of USD 55 million, and at domestic auction houses like Seoul Auction, which set a new record for a living Korean artist at its August sale when it fetched USD 2.66 million for a 1984 canvas by Lee Ufan. Other headline-worthy art events in South Korea included the 13th Gwangju Biennale (4/1–5/9), co-directed by Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala under the theme “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning,” which opened after two Covid-related postponements that shortened the exhibition’s run to just 39 days. Controversy rocked the Gwangju Biennale Foundation later in May, when the organization’s labor union leveled accusations of workplace bullying against its president, Sunjung Kim. While defending her actions as necessary measures to reform the biennial’s outdated management structure, Kim stepped down upon the completion of her contract in June. Official audits by local and federal governments later upheld the labor union’s allegations. Kim was replaced by Park Yang-woo, a career public servant who previously helmed the Gwangju Biennale Foundation from 2015 to 2017. Another pandemic-delayed event was the 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale (9/8– 11/21), organized by artistic director Yung Ma with the theme “One Escape at a Time.” The exhibition remained open without interruption for the entirety of its scheduled duration, thanks to a timely lull in local Covid-19 cases; however, most participating international artists were unable
to travel to Korea because of the country’s mandatory two-week quarantine requirement for foreigners. Only time will tell whether the Busan Biennale, on tap for 2022, will suffer from similar circumstances, although it will help that Haeju Kim, previously deputy director of Art Sonje Center in Seoul, has been selected as artistic director, mitigating the need for remote curating that hindered Korea’s biennials during the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. By any measure, South Korea’s art scene will certainly be one to watch in 2022, with all eyes on Seoul as an emerging market poised to stake its claim as a bona fide contemporary art capital. A N DY S T. LO U I S
Installation view of GEORG BASELITZ’s “Hotel Garni” at Thaddaeus Ropac, Seoul. Photo by Ahn Heesang. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, Seoul/London/Paris/Salzburg.
Detailed installation view of MINERVA CUEVAS’s Recipe for a little landscape, 2021, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, at the 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, 2021. Photo by Cheolki Hong, glimworkers. Courtesy the artist and Seoul Mediacity Biennale. 69