An Observation of the K-Art Boom

Having now resumed my global travels to major art fairs, I still felt a rush of excitement when my flight landed Incheon Airport, as if I were abroad for the first time – probably due to the difficulties I experienced getting to Korea from the UK in the first place, which took me four weeks.

A week before my flight, I went to the visa centre at 10am and 3pm every day to join a queue of people also applying for visas and were there in person to plead with the staff to submit their applications. Eventually, after having to change my flight twice, travelling to and from the visa centre 12 times, and being dragged into a WeChat group with 80 other people, titled ‘Korea visa – GO FOR IT’, by my ‘comrades’ who also had no choice but to wait for their visas, I was able to get my visa the day before the VIP preview day of the first Frieze Art Fair in Seoul. I hopped on the earliest flight to the fair, but unfortunately, I still missed out on a series of important events before the fair’s opening.

As it turned out, the ten hours or so I devoted to the visa centre were not in vain. Several of the art world people I know who had submitted their visas earlier than me, couldn’t wait any longer and cancelled their applications. However, several collectors living in London ‘saved money’ on Frieze Seoul because of visa problems.

In a climate where the government is promoting cultural projects, South Korea has fallen short on the most basic visa service. My colleagues could not help but question: will the Korean art market replace Hong Kong and the Mainland as the most important in Asia, as we all expect?

The only way to understand such a question is to be at ground level. As I learned when I arrived in Seoul, just an hour before the VIP preview, playing hard to get in all situations in life always works and getting to Seoul that week was certainly hard.

“Playing hard to get” also sums up the norm in the art world. You can never get the good stuff, instead, you’re put on a waiting list and become a cog in the system of placing artworks. The harder it is to get it, the more you want it. Whilst it’s not a game the gallery is playing subjectively and privately, it still works! But is persistence still needed in this systematically set up game? If the wallet is deep enough, it’s still necessary, and one day you’ll eventually be in the right line for getting what you want!

Experienced collectors and art lovers are well aware of the galleries’ sales strategies, but this time, as a sign of their commitment to the Korean market, many of the galleries’ best offerings were reserved for Korean institutions. New collectors had no choice but to be placed on the waiting list once again. This was entirely tactical, Korean institutions wield a lot of power, especially those founded by those big corporations.

In a 2015 Larry’s List report on private art museums, it was stated that Korea had surpassed the US and Germany as the owner of the world’s leading private art museums. This proliferation of private institutions is due to the Korean government’s tax policies. Notably, the ‘cultural nation’ strategy launched after Kim Dae-jung became president in 1998, has contributed to the development of the cultural industry.

It is also said that the K-Art boom, which followed the K-Pop trend with the arrival of blue-chip Western galleries and the Frieze Art Fair, is because the wife of the current President of Korea was an art curator for a while. However, news sources revealed that this experience was faked, and she confessed that she had exaggerated her work experience to get a better job while working part-time.

The idea that the First Lady’s association with the arts has made the country more interested in artistic development is therefore, somewhat exaggerated. Her influence is perhaps not as great as that of Korean celebrity collectors such as RM of BTS, G-Dragon and T.O.P.

The most interesting event I missed on the first two days of the Frieze was the star-studded party hosted by media and entertainment giant CJ Group at the Leeum Samsung Art Museum – it was said that even the ‘old money’ crowd, who used to despise posing for photos with celebrities or even attending exhibitions, put aside their ‘old world etiquette’ for the evening. Even the Western art world was there, in their element, posting photos on Instagram, much to the delight of the normally aloof.

Samsung, Hyundai, cosmetic group Amore Pacific and Lotte, one of the top five groups in the world, have not only used their wealth to buy big brands and select the best pieces to create a sense of style, but also to infiltrate ‘highbrow’ art into the public and work hard to make it more accessible. In addition to their financial resources to buy big brands and select the best works to create a tasteful collection, the penetration of ‘highbrow’ art into the general public and their efforts to create a lifestyle and advanced intelligent viewing experience are also impressive enough.

For example, Lotte Department Store has targeted the impact of art in creating a shopping experience. They launched an art and craft fair in May this year at the upmarket landmark in Hauendae, Busan, with a special kitchenware collaboration between Korean artist Park Seo-Bo and Alessi, and a limited edition stereo collaboration between artist Chang-Yeol Kim and Bang & Olufsen (Olufsen, a limited edition sound product).

The Amore Pacific Art Museum is housed in the headquarters building and aims to create a space that connects art and the public. They have been quite successful in this regard – the Andreas Gursky exhibition was launched during Frieze to industry acclaim, with people praising the experience at Amore Pacific. Part of this is also due to the cosmetics shop upstairs, which houses not only all of the group’s cosmetics brands, but also an experience station where you can test out the right shade of skin primer, an APLAP library and several sophisticated coffee and dessert shops.

I was most impressed by the Samsung Museum of Art (Leeum). What impressed me most about the Leeum was its progressive, advanced technology viewing experience. Its collection may not be as good as the Forbidden City or the British Museum’s in terms of traditional art and antiques, or as good as the contemporary collections of major artists found elsewhere. But while Western museums are still scanning codes or manually clicking on works on the Audio Guide and listening to the slow and narrative guide; the Samsung Museum’s audio guide is intelligent in every way, automatically playing a rhythmic narration with hip and relaxing music in the background when you walk past a work.

The exhibition also introduces Acute Art’s AR technology, which allows you to scan a code to see virtual works by contemporary artists, making it a treasure hunt and adding to the interactivity and fun of the exhibition.

The tax advantages of Korea have not only encouraged the expansion of corporate collections by the big tycoons, but also the emergence of a new generation of collectors. One such is Teo Yang, a Korean collector who is well known on the international stage and is an interior designer, having designed the home of Korean star Jun Ji-hyun, as well as leading local galleries such as Kukje Gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul. He also designed the Kukje Gallery, the Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Space, the Korean Cultural Institute in China and the National Museum in Gyeongju.

Teo told me that the emergence of new collectors in Korea had been a recent phenomenon – the rise of the tech ‘nouveau riches’, national tax policies and a depressed property market, coupled with the sharing economy favoured by young Koreans, have led to the ‘nouveau riches’ becoming more willing to buy art. In addition, the popularity and auction records of Korean artists such as Park Seo-Bo, Lee Ufan, Heague Yang and Lee Bul in the global art market in recent years have increased the confidence of Korean collectors, who are equally interested in local artists as they are in Western contemporary.

Like piano lessons, which are extremely popular in the country, Koreans take art lessons from kindergarten onwards (no wonder Korean design is so well detailed). Art education is well permeated among the people, and the local art museums are all over town when it comes to presenting exhibitions.

The enthusiasm and curiosity for art shown by the Korean public during the Frieze Art Fair have also been a source of admiration for Western gallerists. Wendy Xu, who works at the Hong Kong branch of White Cube Gallery, which participates in the mainland China art fairs every year, said she observed that the habits of local Korean visitors to the fair were slightly different from those of the mainland art fair audience. The collector community knew the artists by heart, whereas the general public generally came to learn, view and interact with the fair. Most Korean visitors at Frieze Seoul have more or less knowledge of Western artists. A local friend told her that most Korean visitors would study on the Frieze Seoul website before coming to the fair, doing homework before seeing the exhibition on site.

Timothy Taylor, the gallery owner from London, also said that he could sense that the local Korean collectors and public were a culturally sophisticated group of people, as also evident in their dress and taste. In both Hong Kong and mainland China, his impression is that in the local market, anything is possible except for works that are pre-sold before the previews begin and that transactions are almost always completed on the VIP preview day and the first day of the fair. Whereas local collectors in Korea take time to think carefully before deciding to buy two days later. Collectors are cautious, to some extent, because they want to make educated decisions.

Teo Yang, who has travelled the world and is familiar with exhibitions and the art scene, revealed to me a phenomenon that is quite ‘Korean’ within a strong community of local collectors and art lovers.

Unlike art museum patrons and some ‘formal’ art clubs, the Korean collectors’ community is spontaneous and organic, and there are no clear ‘selection criteria for being part of this community. Even people who have never started collecting can become part of the community. They even meet on Instagram to exchange art and share their discoveries of emerging artists on KAKAO TALK, the Korean version of WeChat.

Teo said that he had recently acquired an artist, Hejum Ba, from the local gallery Whistle at Frieze, Seoul, from the community. In the community, when one of the friends wants to buy a piece, the members help each other out, check the artist’s past auction records, or ‘endorse’ a friend waiting in line at the gallery for a piece. Because of this interest-based community among collectors, Teo feels that there is no sense of ‘unreachability’ for new collectors or enthusiasts, especially compared to Europe and the US. The enthusiasm for art in Seoul was evident in the typhoon, the rain, the traffic and the fact that the exhibition hall was packed on the last day of the public day on Monday, and there was even a long queue outside Richard Nagy’s booth for his Egon Schiele solo exhibition.

Some of the negative feedback from Frieze was that Western galleries brought in unsold stock from other shows, such as Basel, Switzerland. Such as the Basquiat duck brought in by Acquavella Gallery, which was jokingly described by industry friends as the worst Basquiat work. I saw it stand pride of place on the fair stand from Los Angeles to Basel. Only, the next show it flew to would not be any more popular than Seoul.

Apart from a few local Korean artists, I didn’t find any interesting new artists at the fair, and it’s true that the Western galleries brought in relatively ‘safe’ work. However, Teo Yang commented on the first edition of Frieze Art Week Seoul, saying that the fair challenged the previous aesthetic tastes and perceptions of local collectors and art lovers in Korea. In the past, local fairs were curated and selected according to the preferences and needs of local collectors, who brought in mostly locally accepted works. While Frieze brings works that are not normally accessible to the local community.

At a time when blue-chip Western galleries are taking up residence in Korea, there is plenty of room for the art business to expand in Seoul. A local friend in Seoul, Jiuhn Kim, who founded DauLang Gallery, across the street from Pace Gallery, is exhibiting Samara Scott’s work during Art Week, which has been featured at both the Hayward Gallery in London and the New Museum in New York. She said that the Korean art market has been on the rise in the past two years, and many blue-chip Western galleries are coming to Korea, as well as galleries focusing on emerging artists in the thousands of dollars range. However, there is still plenty of room for mid-sized galleries in the tens of thousands of dollars range.

I came to Seoul late this time because of visa issues. After watching my friends in the art world start their pre-show activities early and enjoying the Korean barbecue in London, I couldn’t help but wonder why it was necessary to ‘follow the trend’ of the exhibitions and fairs while being stifled by the long and exhausting process of applying for a Korean visa. To compensate, I decided to stay a few more days after the show to get some inspiration and to communicate with the locals.

The first Seoul Frieze Art Week was such a hit, precisely because it heralded the rise of a new market. What I saw and heard in Seoul made me realise that it is the unknown that brings excitement. There are trends that will be followed, and the only solution is to follow along in suit.

Having just checked, the WeChat group I had joined for moral support when I first applied for a Korean visa, had grown to over a hundred people. With such strong support for cultural projects in Korea, if we can also improve the basic infrastructure in terms of visas and transportation, the future is really not to be underestimated.

Maybe next year or the year after, when getting a visa for Korea overseas becomes less of a hassle and the excitement of Seoul in the art world has faded, I will still remember this time when I felt a sense of opportunity, the excitement in the air and the energy of Asia, and this barbecue and kimchi scented early autumn.

 

-the end-

Text: Luning Wang

Edit: Rosie Fitter

• contemporary art