The famed Korean artist Nam June Paik was known to compare his multifarious multimedia works to bibimbap, the Korean favorite made by mixing a medley of ingredients into rice.
To extend the metaphor just a bit further: In September, South Korea’s art world is as diverse and bountiful as bibimbap. For the second year in a row, the nation’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is marketing a Korea Art Festival that lasts the entire month, aiming to draw crowds to scores of events and exhibitions around the country, like a design biennial in Gwangju, a craft biennial in Cheongju and a calligraphy biennial in Jeonbuk State.
The festival, one of many initiatives devised to boost Korean culture at home and abroad, arrives after a tumultuous period in the country’s politics, and amid questions about the strength of the Korean art market as the international industry weathers a prolonged downturn. It also comes as the overall Asian art market changes, from Seoul to Hong Kong to Singapore.
The action kicks off with two high-profile contemporary art fairs that anchor the capital’s fall art scene: Frieze Seoul and Kiaf. Frieze Seoul, now in its fourth edition, will convene more than 120 exhibitors from almost 30 countries (Sept. 4-6), while the homegrown Kiaf will host some 175 galleries from 20 countries (Sept. 4-7) for its 24th outing. Both run at the Coex convention center in the Gangnam district; one ticket provides access to both.
“Korea went through huge political uncertainty with the new presidential election,” Tina Kim, a Korean-born, New York-based art dealer said, “so there was a moment of halt, but I think things are being normalized in terms of the overall market.”
Kim’s Frieze stand will include work by Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929-2021), a painter of beguiling water droplets who has a retrospective at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the fabric artist Lee ShinJa, 94, who just opened a survey at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in California.
—Andrew Russeth
