The news in 2022 that Frieze, a globally prestigious art fair, would be held in Seoul for the first time was both a breath of fresh air and a cause for concern within the Korean art world. On the one hand, it was a positive sign that Korea was being recognized for its potential as a hub in the Asian art market. On the other hand, there were worries that Korea's relatively underdeveloped art market could be overshadowed by Western art fairs backed by massive capital.
2024.09.03September's hot topic revolves around the joint hosting of the Kiaf and Frieze art fairs, providing a perfect backdrop to discuss the recent art fair boom sweeping through South Korea's art scene, which we'll explore in a three-part series.
2024.08.27In contemporary art, galleries, art fairs, and auctions are no longer merely channels of distribution. They are the structures through which works enter the market, gain visibility, acquire prices, and determine the position of artists. Under the conditions of the post-contemporary, the importance of these structures becomes even more pronounced.
2026.04.21The museum is the most stable institution in contemporary art and one of its most powerful mechanisms of selection. In contemporary art, the museum has functioned not simply as a space for collecting and exhibiting works, but as a key institution that determines what is recognized as contemporary art, which forms and languages acquire public visibility, and which exhibitions are granted institutional legitimacy.
2026.04.07The discussion thus far converges on a single question. Where does the future of Korean contemporary art begin? Can that future be explained solely through more exhibitions, faster international expansion, larger market scales, and increasingly elaborate discursive rhetoric?
2026.03.24When discussing the conditions of the post-contemporary, the first thing to guard against is the misunderstanding that it refers to a new style or a fashionable label. As discussed in the previous essays, the issue at stake is not the declaration of a new
2026.03.10The current crisis of contemporary art cannot be explained by stagnation in production or exhaustion of imagination. Countless exhibitions and projects continue to be organized, and new formal strategies and critical concerns consistently emerge.
2026.02.24Contemporary art is frequently discussed today through the language of crisis. This crisis is often framed as a loss of meaning: the claim that contemporary art has nothing new to say, that critique has become repetitive
2026.02.10