It had, without a doubt, been coming. Following one of the most hype-filled buildups to an auction in recent history, the evening sale of Freddie Mercury’s personal treasures at Sotheby’s London last night lived up—on the most part—to the sense of drama and surprise synonymous with the man himself. Cruising beyond its pre-sale estimate of £4.8m-£7.2m to total £12.2m, the white-glove auction was a testament to both the enduring allure of the Queen frontman and the power of personality in today’s art market.

The 59 lots on offer represented the crème de la crème of the collection drawn from Mercury’s Kensington home, Garden Lodge, which he had bequeathed to his lifelong friend Mary Austin. In the run up to yesterday’s sale, it had all been on view in an exhibition at Sotheby’s that drew in an astounding 140,000 visitors in just one month, with queues snaking around the block for much of that time. Wednesday’s evening sale alone—part of a series of live and online auctions that will conclude on 13 September—had attracted 2,000 registrations, a record at Sotheby’s and likely beyond.

The evening, fittingly then, began with a clamour just to get through the gates, as bidders fought it out for 25 minutes for the garden door from the singer’s South Kensington home. The object, covered from top to bottom in fan tributes, sold to a phone bidder for £350,000 (£412,750 after fees), far exceeding its £25,000 high estimate.

Several impressive results followed, including a Tiffany “Lily” table lamp that reflected Freddie’s love for Art Nouveau, and which sold for £48,000 (£60,960 after fees) against a high estimate of £12,000. A Fabergé vesta case, which reportedly resided in Freddie’s bedroom, performed even more impressively—going for £75,000 (£95,250 after fees) to an online bidder.

Notably, given the venue, it was fine art that brought an early lull. Italian artist Eugene von Blaas’s portrait of a woman theatrically posing with a rose only mustered £55,000 (£69,850 after fees) against a low estimate of £70,000, while a tender picture by James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot of his lover Kathleen Newton—the last work of art Freddie bought—came in below its £400,000 low estimate to sell to an online bidder for £380,000 (£482,600 after fees).

Auctioneer Oliver Barker, for his part, remained in a jovial mood throughout—“we’ll have to do a Freddie refrain while we wait,” he said after a specialist lost connection to their bidder—and this was matched by buoyant reactions from the crowd when things inevitably picked up. A contender for Joan Miro’s print Le Matador (Dupin 510) drew laughs as she asked if she could take a closer look at it from her seat, while loud applause echoed around the room as a collector on the floor acquired a Showa period screen—one of several objects conveying Mercury’s penchant for Japanese culture—for £150,000 (£190,500) against a £12,000 high estimate.

A striking woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige stole the show from an art historical standpoint. Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Edo period, 19th century) depicts rain lashing down on pedestrians crossing a bridge. It was a work highly coveted by Mercury and a fine example of Hiroshige’s output, which would inspire Vincent van Gogh among others. It sold for £230,000 (£292,100 after fees) against a high estimate of £50,000.

It is perhaps unsurprising, however, that the most thrilling battles were saved for those objects that Mercury would have touched, grasped and danced in. There were gasps of excitement when his silver snake bangle, worn in the music video for hit ballad Bohemian Rhapsody, soared past its high estimate of £9,000 to sell for £550,000 (£698,500 after fees). Barker was on form again as a series of outfits worn by Freddie came up for their turn. “It’s like a Friday night in Blackpool,” he remarked as bidding went wild for a wrap-around top and satin trousers worn by the frontman for the cover shoot of Queen’s second album, Queen II (it sold for £40,000, or £50,800 after fees). 

It was indeed an unusually carnivalesque atmosphere for Sotheby’s, and the biggest cheers of the night were saved for draft lyrics to hit Bohemian Rhapsody, which surpassed the six figure mark to sell for £1.1m (just short of its £1.2m high estimate). Earlier, a Wurlitzer jukebox, bought for Freddie’s kitchen, achieved more than 20 times its low estimate when it was acquired by a bidder in the room for £320,000 (£406,400).

Mercury’s baby grand Yamaha piano—on which he wrote world-famous songs including Don’t Stop Me Now, Somebody to Love and Rhapsody—was the highest-achieving lot, selling for £1.4million (£1,7m after fees), albeit against a £2m low estimate. But the crowning moment of the evening was, arguably, the arrival of the crown and cloak that Freddie had worn on Queen’s Magic tour in 1986. The crowd was raucous as the plush, velvety ensemble–with its imitation ermine, gold and jewels– sold for £500,000 (£635,000 after fees) to a buyer in the room.

There was still time for the remaining lots to send the auction out on a high—a particularly worn-looking pair of Adidas trainers selling online for £100,000 (£127,000) after fees, against a £5,000 low estimate, and intimate photographs of Freddie achieving a similar sum.

Proceedings ended with a rendition of “We Will Rock You”, specialists banging their hands against their desks. A victory for Sotheby’s, perhaps, and for a good number of Freddie Mercury’s most affluent fans. For the rest of us, a reminder of the pull of an icon, and a prompt to consider where such auction house spectacles might be going next.

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The Frieze art fair returned to South Korea for a second year on Wednesday, with dealers hoping the event would provide a boost for the burgeoning local art market, after economic woes triggered a slump in sales this year.

Art buyers flocked to Seoul’s COEX convention center to see cutting-edge works by emerging artists, antiquity art through the 20th century and offerings from established galleries, such as Gallery Hyundai, Kukje and Gana.

The fair, run by Endeavor Group-owned Frieze, made its Asia debut in South Korea last year, drawing over 70,000 visitors.

South Korea’s art market reached 1 trillion won ($750.85 million) in revenue for the first time in 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

However, the market shrank in the first half of this year, with the volume of art sales by major South Korean auction houses dropping 44.8% from a year ago, according to the Korea Arts Management Service.

Despite this backdrop, the South Korean and the Asian art market remain resilient, Patrick Lee, Director of Frieze Seoul, told Reuters.

“I think it is sort of a natural evolution as collectors get a little more sophisticated and discerning.”

With Covid travel restrictions gone, Lee is optimistic about hosting more international visitors during this year’s four-day fair.

Over 120 galleries from 30 countries are taking part, with more than half of them operating spaces in Asia, the organizers have said.

“We have a great contingent of visitors from China coming, Japan, all throughout the region. We’ve done a lot of outreach,” Lee said.

Seungjin Chung, founder and director of G Gallery, said South Korea’s art market has enjoyed growth in recent years led in part by Millennial and Gen Z collectors.

“From around three years ago, young collectors started to show interest in the market. Celebrities and influential people also began collecting (artwork), which I think has had an impact.”

Some South Korean celebrities, such as RM, a member of K-pop group BTS, have shown off their art collection and shared images of them visiting art galleries on social media, fueling an interest in art among young people.

Jungmin Cho who directs Seoul-based White Noise said taking part in Frieze Seoul has been a new experience as her gallery has been more of an “independent, project space” instead of actively pursuing buyers.

“It is a great opportunity to promote the artists we support internationally and build relationships,” she said.

The Pacific Art League is offering a wide range of classes this fall in traditional media like painting, photography, watercolor and pastels. But there is a medium you may have never heard of: encaustic monotype. A relatively new process that involves the use of heat and beeswax-infused pigments, encaustic monotype will be a major focus at the venerable art center with workshops, a class and a solo exhibition of work by Los Altos artist Lonnie Zarem.

The exhibition, entitled “Footprints of the Ephemeral,” is on view from Sept. 9 through. 26 throughout the PAL building, located on Ramona Street in Palo Alto. The show will feature 20 new prints by Zarem, many of them large-scale. During an interview with the artist at her home studio, it became apparent that both the technique and size of her work are pretty groundbreaking — and that she is passionate about sharing her love of the medium.

Although she always loved to draw and “make things with my hands,” Zarem became an artist fairly recently. She laughingly described how she would have a crafts table always on hand for her three sons and would wait until they were in bed to create herself. Her early career as owner of a technology marketing company in southern California made use of her undergraduate degree in Economics from UC Irvine. In 2002, she decided to pursue her love of art by getting another undergraduate degree from San Jose State University. Since then, she has been working steadily, participating in group shows and also teaching at the Pacific Art League.

She had used encaustic materials in her abstract paintings but was looking for something else to inspire her. When she heard of the encaustic monotype process, she knew it was something she had to try. “I liked it right away,” she said. “It has so many elements that I like: it is like painting in layers, there is a full range of magnificent colors and I like to draw.”

The process is, however, dependent upon having the right equipment, mainly the 16-by-32-inch hot box that is used to melt the pigment sticks. Zarem was happy to demonstrate exactly how the process works.

The hot boxes rely upon simple light bulbs to create the heat (around 175 degrees) under the anodized aluminum plate surface. Pigmented wax blocks are rubbed on the hot surface, melting and creating pools of color. Rice paper is then applied onto the surface, where, after gentle pressure from the hand, it absorbs the colors. The paper is pulled off and the result is a unique print. Zarem explained that, because she is so experienced in the process, she can plan an image in advance but, “The beauty is you always get a little surprise when you pull off the paper.”

Zarem soon began to experiment with different pigments and papers and decided she wanted to work on a larger scale. She found someone who could build a very large box (the size of six standard boxes put together) in order to pull prints that reflect her memories of a recent trip to Iceland.

Capturing the fleeting moments of beauty found in nature is a continuous theme in Zarem’s work, and Iceland provided nonstop inspiration. “People live their days by what the sky looks like,” she said. The vastness and variability are expressed in layers of cool pastel tones in “Iceland Sky.” In “Waterfall,” undulating vertical strokes of blue and yellow form the downward rush of water. “There are millions of waterfalls in Iceland,” she said, “I wanted to capture a sense of it being all over you, with colors underneath it.” And in “Low Tide,” she employed corpuscular daubs of translucent blue and bold shades of scarlet to portray the red seaweed that is particular to this region. “It was so beautiful and refreshing,” she recalled.

She also finds inspiration close to home. “Tomato Starts” reflects the emerging fruit found in her own backyard garden. “Blue Thistle” resulted after a hike in Hollister at dawn and makes the common weed appear gloriously blue against a golden background. In this print and in others, Zarem is able to express herself in a more representational way by using graphite wax or charcoal to draw clearly defined lines. In “Rare Bloom,” the leaves and stems of a potted plant are limned with realistic detail. The red flower, Zarem explained, appeared very unexpectedly one day after years of never blooming. “I had to capture the magenta blue in this flower.”

Zarem is most animated when she talks about sharing her love of encaustic monotype with others. “It’s a great medium for teaching because people get great satisfaction right away.” She has taught numerous classes and workshops both at PAL and in her home studio but has always wanted a dedicated place for instruction. Thanks to a grant from the International Encaustic Artists Project and funding from PAL, she will inaugurate the first encaustic center on the West Coast this fall. Ten hot boxes will be available for student use and the first six- week class at the art league, scheduled to begin Oct. 18, is already completely filled.

PAL Executive Director Aly Gould said, “Our decision to establish this center stems from the increasing popularity of this unique art form in various parts of the country. We noticed that many of our artists were traveling outside of the area to attend workshops focused on encaustic monotype printing, and we saw an opportunity to bring this center to PAL as a way to cater to their needs and to attract new artists to this exciting medium. It is a true honor to have Lonnie Zarem, a nationally esteemed encaustic monotype artist, help us launch this endeavor.”

Zarem predicts that students will find the process “quite addictive.” “It brings out the creativity in people without them knowing it.” Zarem said that her approach is to focus on the basic technique at first but then let students experiment with color, line and form. “I think the process in this medium can really work for so many people and add a lot of joy to their lives.”

The growing interest in encaustic monotypes clearly pleases Zarem. “I am having the time of my life in my studio,” she said. She frequently offers salons in her home and has a growing number of collectors of her work. And she continues to find inspiration in the quotidian. When asked to explain the title of her exhibition, she said, “I look for that one little moment when something is going on in the world that I might never see again. Beautiful things: that one sunset, the sky in Iceland. A moment there and gone. I find that in my fingertips and share it.”

“Footprints of the Ephemeral” is on view Sept. 9-26 at the Pacific Art League, 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto. For more information about the exhibition or classes, visit pacificartleague.org.

Enlarge this image

A portrait of Prince taken by Lynn Goldsmith (left) in 1981 and 16 silk-screened images Andy Warhol later created using the photo as a reference (right).

Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

In 1981, photographer Lynn Goldsmith took a portrait of the musician Prince. It’s a pretty standard headshot — it’s in black-and-white, and Prince is staring down the camera lens.

This was early in his career, when he was still building the pop icon reputation he would have today. And in 1984, shortly after Prince had released Purple Rain, he was chosen to grace the cover of Vanity Fair. The magazine commissioned pop culture icon Andy Warhol to make a portrait of Prince for the cover. He used Lynn Goldsmith’s photo, created a silkscreen from it, added some artistic touches, and instead of black-and-white, colored the face purple and set it against a red background. Warhol was paid, Goldsmith was paid, and both were given credit.

However, years later, after both Prince and Warhol had passed away, Goldsmith saw her portrait back out in the world again. But this time, the face was orange, and Goldsmith wasn’t given money or credit. And what began as a typical question of payment for work, led to a firestorm in the Supreme Court. At the center of it, dozens of questions of what makes art unique. And at what point does a derivative work become transformative? The answer, it seems, has to do less with what art critics think, and more with what the market thinks.

This episode was originally produced by ‘More Perfect’ from WNYC Studios. The original ‘More Perfect’ episode, Andy Warhol and the Art of Judging Art, was produced by Whitney Jones and Alyssa Edes, with help from Gabrielle Berbey. It was edited by Julia Longoria, and Jenny Lawton. It was fact-checked by Naomi Sharp. Sound design was by David Herman and it was mixed by Joe Plourde.

This ‘Planet Money’ episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Julia Longoria, produced by Emma Peaslee, and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Music: More Perfect and NPR Source Audio – “Lost in Yesterday”

Known for her signature embroidered photographs, Han Cao (previously) examines intersecting ideas of identity, memory, and nostalgia. In her new body of work, the artist begins with vintage images, replacing faces and garments with flowery landscapes and sweeping skies.

Comprising the exhibition Silhouettes at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, the portraits overflow with foliage, storm surf, and bucolic meadows. The show marks a new direction for Cao’s practice, expanding her interest in introspection and internalization, especially over time. She explores “how our sense of self can be affected by memory, social structures, and a connection to nature,” says a statement.

For the first time, Cao has produced double-portraits that incorporate the same photographs, scaled up and applied with the same embroidery patterns as the smaller original. She draws attention to the materiality of fiber, emphasizing how its detail and immediacy read differently depending on the size, inviting the viewer to consider similarities and differences between nearly identical representations.

Replacing faces with trees, fields, and surging waves, Cao visualizes the metaphorical emotional capacity of each figure, likening the depths of their memories, feelings, and thoughts to traversable terrain that is deep and lush with color. Cao says, “I am always trying to change the story of the photo, but this method allows me to transport the figure into a different world.”

Silhouettes is on view in Philadelphia through October 1. You can view and purchase pieces on the gallery’s website, and find more work from Cao on her site and Instagram.

“New Skies”

“A Self-Portrait Outside”

“Baret and the Bougainvillea”

“Jacaranda”

“Sweetheart”

“Surge”

“The Windswept Dreamers”

Detail of “The Windswept Dreamers”

Detail of “The Windswept Dreamers”

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 Florals and Landscapes Redefine Vintage Portraits in Han Cao’s Embroidered ‘Silhouettes’ appeared first on Colossal.

Want to buy a Van Gogh but don’t have the dough? Thwarted collectors have a new place to turn: Tech company Affirm has announced that it is launching a program to help people buy fine art in installments.

That’s because Arternal, a customer relationship management (CRM) and inventory management platform that works with galleries and related art businesses, has announced a partnership with Affirm. Arternal CEO Sean Green described the partnership as a “win-win,” adding that it will provide “the flexible payment options that collectors often require, while delivering a market accelerator for art galleries to reach new art buyers and increase sales.”

Interest rates for purchases through Arternal are zero percent for the first six months. Following that grace period, the rate charged will depend on a credit check that Affirm handles. Both galleries and artists are paid immediately.

Green explained to Artnet News that the invoice needs to be between $50 and $30,000 for Affirm to be used (invoices outside that range can be paid through credit card or ACH in Arternal Pay via Stripe). It remains to be seen whether so-called “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) structures will fly in the art world.

This is not the first time an art finance company has moved into the art-lending space. As Artnet News reported in 2016, Art Money, a lending business launched by entrepreneur and CEO Paul Becker, made its U.S. debut at the annual EXPO Chicago fair. In February 2023, Christie’s venture capital arm Christie’s Ventures announced a stake in that firm (though Becker specifically tried to distance himself from the “buy now, pay later” label).

According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, BNPL options have lifted sales for some companies in the recent past. That report notes that BNPL options gained popularity during the pandemic for everything from sweaters to treadmills, but adds that there are growing signs that consumers who tap the no- or low-fee loans are struggling, which suggests there could be trouble ahead for businesses making use of the model.

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In preparing for her newest body of work, Tiffanie Turner sowed three ideas: to expand the standard shapes of her sculptures, to draw underrecognized connections, and to unearth a long-held concern about American culture.

An architect by training, the artist (previously) is known for her incredibly lifelike paper flowers that explore beauty standards and aging through dramatic decay and flawed growths. Her interests in recent years have largely been universal, questioning the nature of imperfection and human vanity or the impending destruction caused by the climate crisis.

But in American Grown, Turner turns toward the personal. Two and a half years in the making, the series comprises ten massive sculptures made with the artist’s signature crepe-paper petals layered in dense masses. The flowers embody both an artistic challenge—one of the three principles behind the collection was to leave behind the circular, wall-mounted form in favor of more conical, gravity-defying constructions—and a deeply introspective look at Turner’s own life. “After spending over two years with this body of work, thinking almost every day about where this idea of the United States being ‘the greatest nation’ in the family I grew up in, I think I figured it out,” she tells Colossal, sharing that she’s circling around how American exceptionalism is deeply rooted in culture and often passed through generations.

The idea for this body of work came about during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic “when her shame about being an American was at an all-time high. A cartoon of an American was swirling in her head: a styleless, gun-loving, misogynistic, God-fearing racist,” a statement says. Like her earlier pieces, Turner returned to universality as she realized that these traits are not always unique to the U.S. Instead, she used that caricature as a starting point to explore this belief in superiority and to connect to “her childhood, comparing and contrasting the standards and safeguards around the raising of her two children with memories of her grandparents and parents, focusing on the past, present, and future, in the timeframe of 1950 to 2050.”

“Cockscomb Rose” (2023), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, spray paint, glue, wood rods, cardboard, and soft pastel, 45 x 36.5 x 20 inches

Ephemerality is inherent in Turner’s blossoms, as she preserves the fleeting state of freshness in paper. But where earlier works featured browning petals on the outer edges, those in American Grown are central. A dark rot emanates from the inside of “Excerpt from Still Life with flowers on a marble tabletop,” while the base of the towering “Croquembouche” is laced with decay, suggesting that there’s something insidious not on the fringe but directly at the heart.

The final tenet of the series is discovery and connection. Turner references the two-headed “Cocksome Rose,” which resembles a fasciated strawberry of the same name, and her desire to draw similarities between disparate objects. Even if viewers don’t connect the two misshapen forms, she hopes that “they will still wonder about the piece, and perhaps find something in it that [the artist] hasn’t yet seen.”

American Grown will be on view from September 9 to October 21 at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco. Head to Instagram to glimpse Turner’s process and follow updates on her work.

“Originalism (December 15, 1791 – present)” (2023), Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, floral wire, chalk, vintage flag pole holder, and ribbons, 15 x 23 x 14 inches

“580085” (2023), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, cardboard, wood rods, and rubber balls, 33 x 32.5 x 15 inches

“Byproduct/Burnt Offerings (Ranunculus)” (2022), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, and Quik-Tube, 29 3/4 x 27 inches

“Byproduct/Burnt Offerings (Ranunculus)” (2022), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, and Quik-Tube, 29 3/4 x 27 inches

“Croquembouche” (2022), Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, floral wire, chalk, chicken egg shells, hat stand, metal platter on pedestal, and epoxy adhesive, 26 1/2 x 15 inches

“The (Brown) Crown” (2023), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, wood rods, wood skewers, cardboard mailing tubes, basketball hoop frame, misc. hardware bits, bungee cords, and velcro, 38 x 32 x 38.5 inches

Detail of “The (Brown) Crown” (2023), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, wood rods, wood skewers, cardboard mailing tubes, basketball hoop frame, misc. hardware bits, bungee cords, and velcro, 38 x 32 x 38.5 inches

“Soup to Nuts” (2023), paper mâché, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, wood rods, cardboard, and ribbons, 36 x 46 x 17 inches

A work-in-progress image of “IIndurate (of a size that is remarkable)” (2023), paper mâché, Sonotube, Italian crepe paper, stain, glue, cardboard, basketball hoop, metal rods, metal bits, wood rods, and wood strips, 46 x 28.5 x 57 inches

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 In ‘American Grown,’ Tiffanie Turner Roots Out Personal Memories and U.S. Exceptionalism appeared first on Colossal.

Days before the sophomore edition of the Frieze Seoul kicked off on Wednesday, September 6, the international art crowd had already descended into the South Korean capital for pre-fair visits to a seemingly endless list of art openings and parties, where they rubbed shoulders with K-pop and K-drama celebrities.

“I’m already exhausted,” was a line frequently heard on the eve of the VIP day of Frieze Seoul and the stalwart Korea International Art Fair (Kiaf). The next morning, that fatigue seems to have dissipated as art crowds were seen lining up for both fairs, which take place on separate floors at Coex in the city’s Gangnam district (both run from September 6 through 9).

Despite a global market correction experienced since the beginning of the year, dealers sounded pleased with the turnout and some reported solid sales. Others felt it was a bit slow, but the overall atmosphere was vibrant. “Maybe some people feel that Seoul could be the next Hong Kong, so they come, do their homework, and prepare for the next year,” one Asian art world insider told Artnet News.

A very crowded VIP day of Frieze Seoul 2023. Photo: Vivienne Chow.

The Evolution of Seoul

It is clear that part of the appeal of the fair is the city beyond it: patrons from the Bass in Miami and Aspen Art Museum were spotted visiting artist studios, institutions, private collections, as well as both of the fairs on Wednesday’s VIP day.

Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, said the city has been upping its game to create a conducive environment for arts and culture. “Frieze and Kiaf art fairs are not government-initiated art events,” Oh told Artnet News at Frieze Seoul via an interpreter. “What we do as a city government is to create the environment so that citizens and visitors coming to the fairs can move around conveniently.”

The city listened to feedback from last year, including complaints about difficulty visitors had getting around the city. Oh noted that city officials have tried to offer more taxis (Uber also works this year). Google Maps shows more information, and drivers seem more comfortable with communicating with non-Korean speakers via translation apps. But some newcomers still find the city hard to navigate.

In the spacious aisles of Frieze Seoul, booths were filled with visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Europe, and the U.S. “It definitely feels bigger and more international this year,” art advisor and collector Lawrence Van Hagen told Artnet News ahead of the fairs’ opening. But whether Seoul can be Hong Kong’s equal in Asia will depend on whether the market can be geared towards the wider region. “It needs to open up to the entire Asia,” he noted.

Newcomer Enthusiasm

The positive feedback from the debut of Frieze Seoul in 2022 encouraged new galleries to sign up for this year’s show, which grew from 110 exhibitors to 121 this year. Jessica Silverman from San Francisco, was among the newcomers. The gallery brought a curated solo booth of American ceramicist and painter Woody De Othello, who was presenting work in Asia for the first time; the artist was seen surrounded by enthusiastic Asian and western visitors on the opening day.

Hours after the opening, the gallery sold four sculptures, each priced between $75,000 and $92,000, as well as a 2023 canvas work titled trees protect and shield, for $65,000. Buying clients, the gallery said, included those based in South Korea and Taiwan.

Jessica Silverman’s booth at Frieze Seoul 2023. Photo: Vivienne Chow.

“We always wanted to do a fair in Asia,” said founder and owner Jessica Silverman. “Originally we planned to do Art Basel Hong Kong, but the pandemic hit. And so, we try Frieze Seoul.” The gallery cited an interest in South Korea’s museum and institutional landscape as a motive. Silverman noted how engaged the audience is. “They ask intelligent questions,” she said.

Capsule Shanghai is also taking part for the first time, in the fair’s Focus on Asia section. “We want to open new doors for my artists. The institutions are also very engaging,” said Capsule Shanghai’s gallery’s director Enrico Polato. The gallery presented a solo booth of luminous canvases by Mevlana Lipp, a 1989-born German artist; by afternoon, it has already sold nearly half the booth priced between $8,000 and $23,000 to Asian collectors.

Locals were among the first-timers as well: Seoul-based Cylinder, a young gallery that opened two years ago, is presenting Korean artist Sinae Yoo’s paintings and sculptures, priced between $10,000 and $83,000. The gallery pre-sold two paintings.

Frieze Seoul 2023. Photo: Vivienne Chow.

Sales at the Top

Some dealers reported that sales were slower than last year’s fair, which is not surprising given that the Korean art market saw a substantial decline in the first half of 2023, showing itself to be more volatile than the global art market as a whole. But, on the whole, it did not seem to have too many adverse effects on the opening day.

Thaddaeus Ropac, which just announced its representation of Korean artist Heemin Chung on Wednesday, September 6, sold works by the artist to a Korean institution. The gallery also sold a work by Lee Bul ($190,000) to a Japanese collector, a work by Sylvie Fleury (€60.000) to an American collector, as well as a canvas work by Daniel Richter (€375,000) to a Chinese collector.

“It’s really gathering momentum and we’ve definitely seen more collectors traveling from across Asia to the fair this year, as well as there’s being development in Korean attendance. It’s been very fast paced today, we’ve certainly made more sales just a few hours into the fair this year than we did last year. It’s really a testament to the amazing art scene in Korea,” the gallerist said in a statement.

Despite clashing with the Armory Show in New York this week, dealer Tina Kim, a member of the fair’s selection committee of Frieze Seoul, did not think that there was any direct competition. For one thing: the fair consists of about 30 percent Asian galleries participating, and Frieze Seoul and the Armory have different audiences, she said (perhaps Frieze already knew this when it acquired the Armory Show earlier this summer).

“This means for western visitors, it is an opportunity to see galleries they would not otherwise have a chance to,” Kim commented. She noted that galleries are getting to know the regional market a bit better, and what works and what doesn’t. “There are strong works selected for the Asian market,” she noted of the offering at the fair. “They are inviting their artists to engage with the program and meet the audience,” she added.

Daniel Richter, Aber, Aber (2023). Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul © Daniel Richter / VG Bildkunst, Bonn 2023.

Despite fears of fallout effects of the downturn, dealers dared to bring pricy works , many of which seemed to be concentrated in the Frieze Masters section. Skarstedt presented a 1985 Willem de Kooning work on canvas priced in the region of $10 million; Gray Gallery opted for works by Alex Katz, Joan Mitchell, and Andy Warhol, priced between $1 million and $5 million. A $3.5 million Jeff Koons sculpture, Gazing Ball (Centaur and Lapith Maiden) (2013) is on view alongside a $2.2 million Renoir painting at Robilant + Voena.

By the end of opening day, Pace sold a 1954 Alexander Calder sculpture, which reportedly had an asking price of $2 million, as well as a 2023 painting by Yoshitomo Nara, whose ceramics and drawings are featured in a solo show at the gallery’s Seoul space. The gallery also sold works by Lee Kun-Yong, Joel Shapiro, and Robert Nava, ranged between $150,000 and $250,000. Stephen Friedman sold paintings by Yooyun Yang ($15,000) and Sarah Ball (£85,000).

Paris-based Jocelyn Wolff and Berlin-based Meyer Riegger collaborated on a shared booth, with a solo presentation of Miriam Cahn. Thomas Riegger told Artnet News that the two galleries hoped to join forces to promote Cahn’s art given that museum clients in Asia have shown strong interests in the Swiss artist’s work. Works on show included paintings and drawings priced between $10,000 and $200,000, and the galleries sold around five works to private collections in South Korea on VIP day.

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