An accomplished printmaker, Lader has been at the helm of Chicago Printmakers Collaborative since founding it in 1989. But now it’s time to delve into her own work entirely.
A Studio of Her Own: Deborah Maris Lader On “How Birds Fly…”
Celebrate National Native American Heritage Month!
“As we celebrate National Native American Heritage Month this November, we recognize Native cultures as innovative, nuanced, and essential elements of our historic and contemporary cultural landscape.
The works of playwright Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation), composer Raven Chacon (Diné/Navajo), visual artist Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke (Crow), to name just a few Native artists and culture bearers, help us understand our world from different perspectives.
They offer us windows into diverse ways of thinking, feeling and being–helping us recognize our commonalities and meaningful differences, lifting up our humanity.
We encourage you to seek out and learn more about Native artists this month on NEA social media channels and other resources.” — NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson
Davidsmeyer Announces Second Photography Contest Winner
State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer has announced the second winner to his 100th District photo contest.
A photograph of wheat soaking up the sun, ready for harvest taken by Brenda Reif-Ranger of Eldred was the winner. The photograph will be displayed in Davidsmeyer’s Capitol office in Springfield. The second-round runner-up winner, Julie Sellers of Winchester will also have her photo displayed in Rep. Davidsmeyer’s Capitol office. The photo contest is running through 2023 with winners chosen at three different times throughout the year. The first round of pictures was selected on July 15and the second round was selected October 1st. The third deadline will be December 15th.
If you have questions or would like to submit a photo for the contest, call Davidsmeyer’s Jacksonville office at 217-243-6221 or email RepCDDavidsmeyer@gmail.com.
November 2023 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists
Mural by Adele Renault
Every month, Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. If you’d like to list an opportunity here, please get in touch at hello@colossal.art. You can also join our monthly Opportunities Newsletter.
$3,500 Artist Grants | The Hopper PrizeFeatured
The Hopper Prize offers two awards of $3,500 and four of $1,000. Submissions will be juried by Laura Phipps, Assistant Curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Rachel Winter, Assistant Curator of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. Thirty artists will be selected for a shortlist. This is an international open call, and all visual media is eligible.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PST on November 14, 2023.
On::View Artist ResidencyFeatured
Located in the heart of Savannah’s Starland District, this one-month residency provides a free, high-visibility studio for an artist to complete a new or existing project or to research conceptual, material, performative, and social practices. The program is open to artists from around the world working in any medium and includes an exhibition opportunity.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on December 1, 2023.
2024 NOT REAL ART Grant for ArtistsFeatured
Six visual artists based in the U.S. and working in any 2D or 3D medium will win a no-strings-attached cash award of $2,000, plus PR and marketing support. There’s no application fee.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PT on January 1, 2024.
Open Calls
Beam Center NYC Open Call (International)
The center seeks proposals for public artworks that will be realized by a community of more than 100 young people in NYC. Artists receive a $5,000 award and a $15,000 fabrication budget.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on November 6, 2023.
The 10th International Landscape Photographer of the Year (International)
This contest awards winners $10,000 in cash prizes, inclusion in a photo book, and NiSi filter outfits and tripods. Entry is free until November 8.
Deadline: November 15, 2023.
Third Annual Festival Dei Lumi Open Call (International)
Video artists working on pieces that explore the intersection of art, nature, and ecological thinking are encouraged to submit to this annual festival. There is a €10 submission fee.
Deadline: November 22, 2023.
Arte Laguna Prize (International)
The 18th annual Arte Laguna Prize is open to artists working across disciplines who want to exhibit their work in Venice. There is a €149 application fee.
Deadline: November 22, 2023.
Locust Projects Project Room Open Call (International)
Artists are invited to submit proposals for installations that haven’t been previously exhibited to be shown at the new Locust space in Miami. Successful applicants will receive a $5,000 project budget, a $3,100 artist fee, and aid for travel and accommodations.
Deadline: November 30, 2023.
BLINK Cincinnati Call for Artists (International)
BLINK, Illuminated by ArtsWave, is calling for artists working in light-based experiential installation, murals, projection mapping, digital art, or animation to submit proposals. BLINK plans to commission 12 to 15 new murals, 30 to 40 temporary lighted installations, and 30 to 35 projection/digital animation installations.
Deadline: December 15, 2023.
Prisma Art Prize (International)
Open to emerging painters and artists, this quarterly competition awards €2,000 in cash and €3,000 in services annually, plus exhibition opportunities. There is a €29 submission fee.
Deadline: January 11, 2024.
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2025 (United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands)
This portrait competition is open to all media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, printmaking, textiles, video, performance art, and digital or time-based art. One winner will receive $25,000 and a commission to portray a remarkable living American for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Other prizes range from $1,000 to $10,000, and all finalists will be included in an exhibition. There is a $50 entry fee.
Deadline: Midnight MT on January 26, 2024.
Sony Future Filmmaker Awards (International)
The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards elevates voices that bring a fresh perspective to storytelling. The shortlisted filmmakers are flown to Los Angeles for an exclusive four-day event to gain unparalleled insight into all aspects of the filmmaking process to advance their careers.
Deadline: February 15, 2024.
Grants
California Documentary Project Grants (California)
This grant supports documentary film, audio, and digital media projects about California. Funding is available for research and development (up to $15,000), production (up to $50,000), and in DP NextGen Grants (up to $15,000).
Deadline: November 1, 2023.
National Sculpture Society Stanley Bleifeld Memorial Grant (U.S.)
This annual $5,000 prize is awarded to one sculptor working in the round and in bas-relief who has been inspired by nature.
Deadline: November 6, 2023.
Rathaus Film Grant (Detroit)
This $10,000 grant supports the development, production, or installation of a film or video art project. Artists should plan to complete the proposed project within one year of receiving the award.
Deadline: 12 p.m. ET on November 10, 2023.
Eugenie Designer Grant (Detroit)
This $10,000 grant supports Detroit-based fashion designers prioritizing sustainable practices. Applications should include a proposed project to be completed within one year of receiving the award.
Deadline: November 10, 2023.
The David Prize (New York)
Five New Yorkers will receive $200,000 awards for projects that help their home city. Projects can vary in topic and field and include art and culture, workforce and economic development, civic engagement, environment and sustainability, immigrant rights, food and nutrition, and more.
Deadline: November 13, 2023.
Women’s Studio Workshop Grants (U.S.)
Women’s Studio Workshop has several funding opportunities open to artists working in bookmaking, printmaking, and other paper-based mediums.
Deadline: November 15, 2023.
Nordic PhotoBook Award (Norway)
Photographers with a cohesive body of work interested in publishing a book are invited to apply for this Kr 200,000 award to support the production, distribution, and promotion of the work.
Deadline: January 1, 2024.
The Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant (International)
The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant program provides one-time interim financial assistance to qualified painters, printmakers, and sculptors whose needs are the result of an unforeseen catastrophic incident and who lack the resources to meet that situation. Awardees typically receive $5,000, up to $15,000.
Deadline: Rolling.
Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund (Ukraine)
Adobe’s Creative Residency Community Fund commissions visual artists to create company projects on a rolling basis. Awardees will receive between $500 and $5,000.
Deadline: Rolling.
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (International)
The foundation welcomes applications from actively exhibiting visual artists who are painters, sculptors, and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. Grants are intended for one year and range up to $50,000. The individual circumstances of the artist determine the size of the grant, and professional exhibition history is taken into consideration.
Deadline: Rolling.
Residencies, Fellowships, & More
A.I.R. Fellowship Program (New York)
Six underrepresented and emerging women and non-binary artists will be awarded a year-long fellowship to develop and exhibit a project at A.I.R. Gallery. Selected applicants receive a stipend, access to gallery space, and support.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on November 1, 2023.
Squeaky Wheel Workspace Residency (U.S.)
This residency supports filmmakers, writers, critics, curators, artists, and other practitioners working in media arts. Residents receive a $1,200 stipend, $400 in travel, accommodations, studio space, and an optional $900 financial assistance for disability or childcare.
Deadline: November 3, 2023.
MASS MoCA’s Artist Residency Program (International)
Applications are open for MASS MoCA’s residencies for artists, writers, and performers in the second half of 2024. Fully funded scholarships are available, and residents receive studio space and housing.
Deadline: 11 p.m. on November 8, 2023.
Artspace Pathways: A Native Space Initiative (Select U.S. states)
This program supports Native American arts and cultural organizations through a one-year virtual cohort. The goal is to assist organizations in professional development and finding physical spaces to work.
Deadline: November 10, 2023.
The Goethe-Institut Boston Studio 170 Residencies (New England)
This two-week residency program is open to projects of all types, including installations/exhibitions, performances/actions, artist talks, panel discussions, author readings, film screenings, digital projects, and more. Successful applicants are given access to several indoor and outdoor spaces, along with a $1,000 stipend and a $1,000 project budget.
Deadline: November 17, 2023.
Quinn Emanuel London Artist in Residence (London)
Emerging and mid-career artists working in all disciplines are eligible for this residency from January to May 2024. One chosen applicant will receive a £12,000 stipend, £1,000 material budget, and studio space.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. GMT on November 19, 2023.
SmackMellon Artist Studio Program (New York City)
Six emerging or early career artists working in all visual arts mediums will be awarded private studio space.
Deadline: November 20, 2023.
2024 Bernheim Artist in Residence (International)
This program focuses on multi-disciplinary explorations of our relationship with nature. Two residencies are available: the regional program for local artists and another for artists working with the climate crisis. Both offer a $2,500 stipend, living and studio spaces, and research opportunities.
Deadline: Midnight ET on November 27, 2023.
Foundation House Artist Residency Program (International)
Six residents receive a $500 stipend, a private bedroom and bathroom, meals, and studio space. The residency will run from January 26 to February 4, 2024.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on December 3, 2023.
Arts/Industry at John Michael Kohler Arts Center (International)
Open to all disciplines, this program selects twelve artists each year for three-month pottery and foundry residencies. No experience with clay or cast metal is required, just an interest in pursuing a new body of work and being open to new ideas. Residents receive a $160 weekly stipend, studio space, housing, transportation, industrial materials, equipment, and more.
Deadline: February 1, 2024.
Hunter Moon Homestead Artist Residency (International)
Artists and arts educators working across disciplines are invited to apply to this program in Palouse. Residents receive one- to three-week stays, with lodging and studio space included.
Deadline: Rolling.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article November 2023 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists appeared first on Colossal.
Margaret Jacobs Creates Metalworks Inspired by Indigenous Culture
click to enlarge 
- Pamela Polston
- “Partner Pieces: Mint I, Bolo Tie”
Humans have been coaxing metal into utilitarian, nefarious and artistic objects for millennia. Yet somehow, people still find inventive ways to craft it. For contemporary sculptor and jewelry maker Margaret Jacobs, the malleability and solidity of metals suits her aim to make permanent the ephemeral expressions of the natural world, as well as to carry cultural narratives.
In her artist’s statement, Jacobs puts it like this: “I find metal is an incredibly versatile material that lends strength and visual weight to the work, but can also be worked so that it is organic and delicate.”
Though larger, weightier sculptures are cataloged on Jacobs’ website, her current exhibition at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson presents small forged-steel sculptures and adornments in powder-coated brass. Titled “Shape of a Memory,” the show is modest in size but rich in symbolism.
A member of the Akwesasne Mohawk tribe, the upstate New York artist writes that her culture inspires her “to create pieces charged with power, strength and beauty.” Her ability to do just that has earned coverage in art journals and fashion magazines alike. A Harper’s Bazaar spotlight featuring one of Jacobs’ bolo ties, for example, observed that her work “speaks to the connection between community, self, and nature.”
Jacobs’ jewelry — which is really wearable sculpture — includes necklaces, bolos, earrings, brooches and collar pins, all with finely crafted botanical elements: strawberry, blueberry, mint, garlic, mushrooms. The works that she calls “Partner Pieces” attach to both sides of a shirt or jacket collar. One of these, “Blueberry I, Collar Pin,” features tiny clusters of the fruit with two fine brass chains swooping, necklace-like, between them. Another similar set replaces the berries with miniature antlers; in matching earrings, antlers dangle beneath purplish pieces of wampum.
click to enlarge 
- Pamela Polston
- “Plantain I”
Most of the wall-hung or tabletop sculptures in the exhibit merge elements from botany — Jacobs calls them “plant relatives” — with referents to Mohawk ironworkers. Renowned for helping to construct bridges and buildings — including numerous New York City skyscrapers — members of the Mohawk and Kahnawake tribes (from upstate New York, Ontario and Québec) proudly passed down their “walking iron” tradition over generations.
Jacobs honors this history in steel sculptures such as “Plantain I,” a wall-hung piece in which a cluster of leaves and stem anchors a diminutive ladder. In a tabletop version, “Plantain With Nail,” an outsize screw nail lays on a pedestal and intersects the plant, whose stems shoot upward.
Jacobs graduated from Dartmouth College, where she has subsequently been a guest lecturer, and is currently adjunct faculty at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, N.Y. The long list of exhibitions, awards and residencies on her CV indicates an active presence, and a welcomed Indigenous voice, in the art world. With “Shape of a Memory,” Jacobs quietly but eloquently resolves cultural and material dichotomies with expressions of harmony.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith affirms Native American heritage at the Fort Worth Modern
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is what author and journalist Gail Sheehy called “a triumphant personality,” someone who has seen off circumstances that would have extinguished lesser lights. Born to a 14-year-old mother and a much older father in a Jesuit mission on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, she was destined to scoop up the learning of the ages, reduce it to its elemental inspiration drawn from deep inside the earth, then apply the panache of 20th-century painting to produce work as original as it is wise, as universal as it is anchored in the visual language of someone with plenty to say.
On view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” is an exhibition of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures first assembled by curator Laura Phipps at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
The point, Smith says while leading a group through the Modern show, is to declare, “We’re still here. … We live everywhere in the U.S., if not on a reservation then in a community.” Operating from an overflowing well of extraverted energy, her tiny frame dressed in black, from a Western hat with beaded band to sleek pants and boots, she makes a strenuous yet easy effort for the people around her. Indeed, to get Smith on the phone, as I did for an interview, is to hear a voice of such animated warmth that it seems suddenly the sun has appeared, promising a lovely encounter.
One might think a disposition as radiant as hers would come from an enchanted life. Not so. “As a kid, life was so tough,” she says. “I knew right away how white people were treated differently from Indigenous people. … Life is pretty scary.” After her mother left the family when Jaune and her sister were young, the girls lived with their father, moving from reservation to reservation as he traded horses for a living.
In time, Jaune was working, too, at any job available, including alongside migrant farm laborers in California. “They are related to me,” she says. “They are Indigenous, too.”
She hasn’t forgotten how the federal government “stole land, took land … millions of acres” owned in several Western states by her tribe, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, and gave in return a fraction of those holdings in the form of a reservation. The tribe had property in Canada, too, and there, “It was like a lobotomy,” she says. “You take away food, you take away clothing, you take away culture.
It’s happening in Ukraine. … It could happen here. We must be wise, [live] carefully, stay alert.”
Smith has always been alert and determined. After zig-zagging across the country from a community college in Washington state to a teachers’ college in Massachusetts (she was told she could teach art but not practice it, not as a woman and, especially, not as a Native American woman) to the University of New Mexico, which did not admit her until after three tries. By then, she already was gaining recognition for her work in New York.
Neal Ambrose-Smith, Jaune’s son, also an artist, is with her in Fort Worth. His mother, he observes, “keeps going to the next door to find one that opens. She is not held back by closed doors.” Nor is she held back by previous, successful styles of making art. From a 1974 self-portrait of breathtaking power and beauty, she moved to abstraction over the next five years, arriving at pictures that only hint at her inner convictions with an occasional horse or canoe dropped in as a reference to her background. But in time the canvases grew larger, their authority more assured, till finally Jaune took a look and pronounced them “not political enough, not saying enough.”
Then began collages not only with fabric as before, but also newspapers, lightbulbs, baseball caps, and some with the sayings of Chief Seattle from 1854 (“The air is precious — for all things share the same breath, the animals, the plants and the humans”), others with her own commentary on capitalism and the corruption of modern culture (“Clear Cut Choice,” “Fusion Illusion?,” “Bedeviled by Ethnicity.”)
Jaune is a master printmaker, and during a week at the University of North Texas in 2002 she produced War Is Heck, dramatized by a horse, unremarkable enough, but surrounded by unlikely ironic images such as what appears to be a male Native American dancer winged like an angel; several buffalo, going from benign to aggressive, lined up like postage stamps; a quartet of American flags, small, discreet, nothing like the flag paintings Smith borrowed from Jasper Johns and put to devastating service illustrating the lands and petroglyphs of the earliest Native Americans, the products and slogans of modern Americans and more.
Before that piece came a satirical series of prints featuring Gen. George Armstrong Custer. With one of him lying down, another upside down, another still with a Magritte pipe, they echo a screen-print by Andy Warhol, but Smith’s interpretations are so murderously witty that they bring to mind Gloria Steinem’s masterful uses of ridicule.
Then there’s the trade canoe made by Jaune and Neal. It’s suspended from the ceiling and loaded with Styrofoam objects like Starbucks coffee cups and takeout containers, hypodermic needles and wooden crosses, all coated in red ocher. For me, it’s the centerpiece of the show.
It could be said that with this retrospective, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is coming into her own. But she has been coming into her own for most of her 83 years, just more forcefully with each iteration.
Details
“Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” continues through Jan. 21 , 2024, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth. Open Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults; $12 for seniors 60 and over, active and retired military personnel and first responders with ID; $10 for students with ID; and free for those under 18. themodern.org
The Indigenous artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá will represent Brazil at 2024 Venice Biennale
The Brazilian Indigenous artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá will take over the Brazilian pavilion in the 2024 edition of the Venice Biennale. Three Brazilian Indigenous artists will curate the pavilion: Arissana Pataxó, Denilson Baniwa and Gustavo Caboco Wapichana.
Tupinambá (also known as Célia Tupinambá) was born in 1982 in the Serra do Padeiro, one of several villages that form the Tupinambá Indigenous Land of Olivença in southern Bahia. She considers the culture and plight of Brazilian Indigenous communities in her work, and has spearheaded several activist interventions and artworks related to Tupinambá heritage and the demarcation of Tupinambá lands.
The Tupinambá people are one of several Tupi cultures that inhabited the eastern Brazilian coast before Portuguese colonisation. The Tupinambá, in particular, were long considered extinct. The tribe was not federally recognised until 2002, and continues to battle legislation that legalises encroachment on their native territories.
Much of the artist’s past work has centred on the revitalisation of ancient Tupinambá knowledge. Recent works have focused on recovering the production of Tupinambá mantles, a shamanic ritualistic object that was traditionally made through a distinct process involving the weaving of natural fibers, scarlet ibis feathers, and feathers from other birds, some whose colours were modified through the featherwork technique known as tapirage, in which the melanin of captive birds’ feathers were suppressed so their feathers could regrow with yellow and reddish hues. As her works chronicle, these vibrant Tupinambá mantles were avidly collected as part of the burgeoning curio trade in Latin America that emerged after European contact, and are emblematic of the fraught entanglement of European and Indigenous cultures in Brazil and the subsequent ethnographic framing of religious Brazilian Indigenous objects.
The artist explores related themes in the film Quando o Manto Fala e o Que o Manto Diz (When the Cloak Speaks and What the Cloak Says) (2023), which premiered last month at the São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp). Made in collaboration with the director Alexandre Mortagua, the film is overlaid with poetic narration and follows Tupinambá women through the process of creating a mantle, from the construction of the netting to the application of the feathers.
Pertinent to Tupinambá’s work, a rare example of a Tupinambá mantle made in the colonial period was returned to Brazil over the summer after being held at the Nationalmuseet in Denmark since 1689. It is one of 11 known existing mantles from the era, the rest of which are still held in European collections. The mantle will join the collection of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which is working to rebuild and expand its national holdings after an electrical fire gutted the institution and most of its collection in 2018.
Tupinambá’s presentation in the next Venice Biennale is titled Ka’a Pûera: nós somos pássaros que andam (Ka’a Pûera: We are Walking Birds) and will investigate the sacred object through a film of the same title. The Brazilian pavilion, which has been symbolically renamed the “Hãhãwpuá Pavilion”, a term that references ancestral Indigenous lands, will also feature other works critiquing subjects related to Indigenous resurgence and resilience.
“Ka’a Puera are ancient forests that were cut down to make fields, (…) but is also known by the Tupinambá people as a small bird that lives in dense forests, its brown, orange and gray feathers camouflaging the bird on the forest floor,” the co-curators write in a joint statement. The double meaning of the exhibition’s title aims to honour communities “whose territorial rights have been violated, but who call us to resistance”.
Prior to her Venice Biennale representation, Tupinambá received the 2023 PIPA Prize, one of the most prestigious art awards in Brazil. Her past projects include the acclaimed 2015 film Voz Das Mulheres Indígenas (Voice of Indigenous Women).
Tupinambá was previously a professor at the Tupinambá da Serra do Padeiro Indigenous State College, and is pursuing a Master’s degree in social anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has held several leadership roles in Indigenous rights organisations and has been criminalised for her activism; in 2010, she and other activists were imprisoned after delivering an official message to then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (who is now serving a second presidential term) calling for the reinforcement of demarcation efforts.
In addition to aligning with the next Venice Biennale’s overarching theme Foreigners Everywhere, Tupinambá’s selection underscores the momentum within the Brazilian arts sector to champion Indigenous histories, from the latest edition of the Bienal de São Paulo’s predominant focus on Indigenous artists to Masp’s current annual curatorial programme, Indigenous Histories. The 60th edition of the Venice Biennale (20 April-24 November 2024) is being curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the artistic director of Masp and the first Latin American curator to ever lead the biennial.
Massive art storage center to address Korea’s growing market
A rendered image of Arshexa’s art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]
What do art fairs, fashion shows and motor shows all have in common? Their works need to be shipped and stored properly before and after the event, in a place that knows how to deal with invaluable goods.
Despite a fast-growing art market and the already proliferating manufacturing industry, Korea lacks a large-scale storage space designed specifically for artworks and luxury goods that need special facilities to ensure that they are preserved in the most optimum state.
Not only does the moisture level need to be kept to a minimum, the oxygen level must also be kept low so as to rule out any possibility of a fire, along with anti-earthquake infrastructure and security against theft.
There are currently only two major art storage houses in Korea — one owned by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and another by the National Museum of Korea — and auction houses’ spaces are very limited, making it difficult for private collectors or companies to store their large quantities of goods in the safest hands.
That’s where Arshexa comes in. The company was founded in July 2015 with one grand goal: to build Asia’s largest storage house within the grounds of the Incheon International Airport.
![A rendered image of Arshexa's art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/c6c59eb3-6130-439c-8d74-f6a0497c1c22.jpg)
A rendered image of Arshexa’s art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]
The Freeport project
Tentatively dubbed the AH Freeport, a consortium led by Arshexa signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Incheon International Airport Corporation in August 2022 in which the airport lends 43,669 square meters (470,049 square feet) of its land to Arshexa and the latter runs the storage house for 30 years after completing construction in 2026.
It will break ground in April next year. A total investment of 379.5 billion won ($283.3 million) will be poured in, and the goal is to start operations by the first half of 2026. It will be a five-story building with a total surface area of 96,347 square meters — the largest in the world.
Eight more companies have joined forces for the consortium: strategic investors Bisunjae Gallery, Sonid, Shinsung Safes, Tongyang and Shinwa Wise Holdings; asset management company Mastern Investment Management; financial investor Eugene Investment; and construction investor Dongbu Corporation. More companies may join later, according to Arshexa.
Arshexa has also signed a consulting deal with High Security Hub, a storage facility in Luxembourg Findel Airport, also known as Luxembourg Freeport. The term Freeport refers to a zone designated by the government that pays little or no tax with the aim of encouraging economic transactions.
Korea already has a relatively low tax rate when it comes to dealing with artworks, but a deduction never hurts.
The tariff on artworks is already 0 percent, and artworks made by living domestic artists or works priced less than 60 million won are not subject to any tax. A 22 percent transfer tax would need to be paid otherwise, but the 22 percent is not of the whole price because up to 90 percent can be deducted as the cost of acquisition.
![A rendered image of Arshexa's art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1cb8e699-55e8-4a59-813f-5ef96ea98753.jpg)
A rendered image of Arshexa’s art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]
![A rendered image of a viewing room within Arshexa's art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/50134d99-dd81-4e6e-b074-96cc1faebf92.jpg)
A rendered image of a viewing room within Arshexa’s art storage house, tentatively named AH Freeport, scheduled for completion by 2026 [ARSHEXA]
More than just storage
The idea of a large warehouse may not sound fancy to the average laymen, but its very existence may be just the ticket that the Korean art and manufacturing market needs to give it a major boost globally, says Arshexa CEO Song Moon-suk.
While working in Paris for his personal business seven years ago, Song came to the realization that the reason the Korean art market wasn’t on par with the country’s economic growth was due to a lack of infrastructure for global art dealers and collectors.
The Korean art market surpassed 1 trillion won in sales volume for the first time last year, but that’s still less than 1 percent of the global art market and only one-20th of the Korean game market.
“Time, experience and investments are crucial for our art market to match our economy, which may take tens of years,” Song told the Korea JoongAng Daily.
![Song Moon-suk, CEO of Arshexa at right, and Lee Mi-a, the president of Arshexa Europe branch, during the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair held in Paris, France [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/51951cfe-6941-43ab-b864-9d2046669f28.jpg)
Song Moon-suk, CEO of Arshexa at right, and Lee Mi-a, the president of Arshexa Europe branch, during the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair held in Paris, France [ARSHEXA]
“What we aim to do is give a place for global art industry players to use and come together and where domestic market players may also come and grow together. Art needs infrastructure, just as any real industry does, and I thought that a large-scale storage space for valuable artworks is essential. The Freeport model came to my attention, and I became certain that the Incheon International Airport was the place.”
Korea is already working toward trying to replace Hong Kong as Asia’s go-to art hub, in tandem with the geopolitical turbulence that surrounds the autonomous city. The Korean art market grew by 37.2 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, and that did not even include the sales that came from Frieze Seoul, which was held for the first time last year.
Adding to that is the fact that the Incheon International Airport became the world’s first airport to achieve the highest level of Airport Customer Experience accreditation by the Airports Council International (ACI) in September last year.
“It was evident during the Seoul Frieze events that there isn’t a place where collectors can feel absolutely safe in storing their goods when they’re in Korea,” Song said.
“If experts come for either exhibitions or auctions but continue to have trouble finding a proper storage place, then Korean art can only inevitably develop at a slower pace. Just as any industry starts with infrastructure and logistics, we started with the very basics for an art hub — storage.”
![A picture of the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair on Oct. 18, where Arshexa participated as a host partner of the event [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1a67aca2-6523-4602-8874-bbaef55e2d84.jpg)
A picture of the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair on Oct. 18, where Arshexa participated as a host partner of the event [ARSHEXA]
Asia’s new leader
The timing is more than right for Korea to aim to become Asia’s new art leader, the CEO stressed.
Currently the largest storage house in Singapore, the Le Freeport, situated next to the Changi International Airport, has reached up to 86 percent of its full capacity, according to Song, while the uncertainties facing Hong Kong will likely continue to linger for years to come. Unpredictable politics in China and the frequent earthquakes in Japan make investors weary, meaning Korea may be the perfect contender in the Asian race.
Arshexa recently seized the opportunity during the Paris+ par Art Basel held in the French capital city earlier this month to promote its project as the only Korean host partner of the art fair. The company met with officials from major groups in the country such as LVMH, LBG, BPCE, Groupe Dassault and Christie’s, according to the Arshexa CEO.
“The art fair was a chance for us to officially announce the art storage project to the European market, which we had only done with separate entities in the past,” Song said.
“Some people had questioned whether an art storage house would ever be built in Korea, but we were able to tackle such concerns one by one. The latest Art Basel was a chance for us to show that a Korean storage company can become a partner of such a major event, something that even European companies could not do before.”
![A promotional booth for Arshexa is set up within the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair on Oct. 18. The company participated as a host partner of the Parisian Art Basel. [ARSHEXA]](https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1954801f-5277-414e-8ae8-546a3bb0b295.jpg)
A promotional booth for Arshexa is set up within the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair on Oct. 18. The company participated as a host partner of the Parisian Art Basel. [ARSHEXA]
Over 50 percent of the AH Freeport storage space has been pre-booked by potential customers as of September, even before the construction has begun, according to Arshexa. The target is to reserve 80 percent of the space by the time the house is built.
The ultimate goal isn’t to suddenly become the No. 1 art market in the world, but to provide a place for people from the top countries to come and start their works, according to Song. Along with the Paradise City hotel and resort complex and the soon-to-open Inspire Entertainment Resort, Incheon strives to become a vibrant city of art and entertainment that includes cultural experiences in all genres.
“A Freeport art storage house is crucial in taking the Korean art market to the global stage,” Song said. “Storage and preservation is of utmost priority for foreign museums and galleries, so providing a facility that knows how to do that properly will make Korea a much more attractive stop for overseas businesses. That’s why we believe that this project is essential for the Korean market as a whole.”
A promotional booth was set up within Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport on Oct. 12 to be showcased for three months. The technologies that will be used within the storage house, ranging from volts and security to robotics and logistics, can be viewed inside the booth.
BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
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