art galleries experience a disparity in sales at Frieze Seoul, with significant success observed at the upper and lower market tiers
Frieze Seoul, the fourth edition of the art fair, opened on Wednesday to a strong turnout of collectors and solid first-day sales. The event, featuring galleries and performance programs, attracted a quantitatively very strong audience, as stated by Patrick Lee, the director of Frieze Seoul.
One of the highlights of the fair was the sales made by White Cube. The gallery sold a Gormley sculpture for £250,000, while a Gormley work on paper was sold by Ropac for £25,000. Hauser & Wirth also reported significant sales, with George Condo's Purple Sunshine (2025) fetching $1.2 million, a Rashid Johnson for $750,000, an Avery Singer painting for $475,000, and an Angel Otero painting for $285,000.
Jessica Silverman, dealer at her eponymous gallery, shifted her strategy to a group presentation to test collectors' preferences and widen the chances of closing sales. This strategy seemed to pay off, as many galleries reported successful sales.
Lehmann Maupin placed Liza Lou's beaded canvas Allegory (2025) in the $240,000-260,000 range and Hernan Bas's 2025 painting The biased audience (watching the dog show) for $225,000. Linseed, a Shanghai-based first-time exhibitor, reported selling most of its solo booth of Liang Lu paintings on the fair's opening day.
Not all sales were as successful, however. Davina Semo's bronze bell installation received strong interest from collectors, but sales had not progressed satisfactorily by the end of the first day. Lucien Tso, founder of Gallery Vacancy, found sales in Korea consistently lukewarm.
The market isn't booming across the board, with collectors favoring traditional mediums like painting and sculpture and established, blue-chip names. This trend was evident in the sales made by the galleries, with many of the highest-priced works going to established artists like Gormley, Condo, and Rashid Johnson.
The fair also attracted a number of high-profile attendees, including K-pop stars such as Lisa (of BLACKPINK), RM (of BTS), and The8 and Vernon (of Seventeen). MoMA PS1 director Connie Butler, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, a cocurator of the Hawai'i Triennial 2025, Lonti Ebers, Yassmin Ghandehari, and Qiao Zhibing, all regulars on the Top 200 Collectors list, also attended the opening day.
Despite some galleries not returning to this year's edition of Frieze Seoul, with some 40 galleries not participating, the fair seems to have been a success. Sojung Kang, director of Arario Gallery, stated that while the economy is slowing, Korean collectors are still buying art, especially if the work on offer is strong.
Toward the end of the first day, Frieze Seoul's director Patrick Lee remained optimistic about the fair's role in the local market, citing the country's long history of collecting and strong governmental support for the arts. Wendy Xu, the managing director of White Cube's Asia operations, stated that the anticipation from local audiences this year was unlike previous editions, with this year's Seoul Art Week seeming more international than past years.
Overall, Frieze Seoul 2025 was a successful art fair, with strong sales and a diverse range of artworks on display. The fair continues to play an important role in the international art market, particularly in Korea, where the government and local collectors continue to support the arts.
