How Should We Read the Fourth Edition of Frieze Seoul?

MADE IN BED’s Interviews Editor, Alice Kim, offers her thoughts on the future of Frieze Seoul and what it shows about the estimation of the Korean art world.

Frieze Seoul 2025. Photo by Wecap Studio. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio.

The fourth edition of Frieze Seoul opened to VIPs on the heels of its city-wide “Neighbourhood Nights” programme (1–4 September). And today, it officially finished the VIP preview days of the fair. Layer on Frieze’s five-year contract with COEX coming to an end—performance-sensitive by all accounts—and the quiet tension with The Armory Show in New York (now under the Frieze umbrella), this week feels consequential. Would next year be the last year of Frieze Seoul, or would it extend beyond? 

The success of this year’s fair is hard to predict due to the mixed backdrop. After Basel’s deflating tone and a broadly sluggish market, Seoul has seen several Western galleries retrench.  The counterweights are real: Art Basel Hong Kong’s resilience and the coming Centre Pompidou Hanwha–Seoul officially slated for 2026.

The fair arrives with an interesting signal of intent: Frieze has planted Frieze House Seoul; a permanent exhibition base modelled on London’s No. 9 Cork Street—hopeful evidence that Seoul and Frieze’s relationship will preferably continue. 

Mazzoleni, Frieze Seoul 2025. Photo by Wecap Studio. Courtesy of Frieze.

On the floor, the Contemporary section returns with conviction while the Masters feels leaner. By principle, Frieze Masters presents work made before 2000—ranging from antiquity through the twentieth century—but this year many booths leaned closer to contemporary. Only a handful really embodied the “European Masters” brief: Les Enluminures with illuminated manuscripts, Regis Krampf Gallery with Georges Braque, and Bernard Bouche with Émilie Charmy. The absence of European dealers such as Axel Vervoordt and Daniel Crouch Rare Books was felt, and the increase in East Asian galleries in the section read, to some, as filling the gaps. Most of the Masters exhibitors this year came from Korea or the wider region, giving the section a noticeably different tilt.

One through-line is the presence of the artist Salvo. Mazzoleni, among the few Western galleries that keep returning to Seoul’s Masters, has doubled down: after drawing eyes in year one and staging an off-site focus later. The complication is ubiquity—Salvo is everywhere, from mega-dealer walls to contemporary stands. Still, the appeal is obvious: vibrant color, crisp silhouettes, a graphic directness that travels. Here, Salvo reads like an Asian favorite—a rare Western rediscovery resonating more intensely in Seoul than at home. 

Tina Kim Gallery, Frieze Seoul 2025. Photo by Wecap Studio. Courtesy of Frieze.

Consolidation is evident. While roughly forty galleries from last year did not return, still the mega-galleries hold the line. Mid-tier calculus—shipping, install, narrower margins—may be part of the story. Another visible shift is the rise of alliances and shared stands between galleries, especially among East Asian dealers, sharpening presentations through intra-gallery dialogue: P21 × Gallery Vacancy, Make Room × Apalazzo, Commonwealth and Council × Antenna Space.

What does it really mean to “adapt to the local”? Some dealers leaned heavily on Korean star artists—Esther Schipper, for instance, foregrounded work by Yeesookyung. Established Korean galleries with international reach, such as Kukje and Arario, continue to set the tempo, while New York–based Tina Kim Gallery has become a key hub for Korean artists and the diaspora abroad. Global galleries are also moving decisively into this space: Sprüth Magers announced representation of Mire Lee last year, Lehmann Maupin and STPI highlighted works by Do Ho Suh, and others brought in figures like Anicka Yi and Gala Porras-Kim. Meanwhile, galleries such as Commonwealth and Council are embedding themselves in the wider Asian and diasporic discourse; their long game of supporting Asian diasporic artists is finally visible in Seoul.

Hauser&Wirth, Frieze Seoul 2025. Photo by Wecap Studio. Courtesy of Frieze.

Across the aisles, installations and experimental formats dominate—bold as propositions, generous in ideas, calibrated for open-ended engagement. They appeal to institutions, certainly, but are they suited to domestic collections? That tension threads through the fair. Korean art, in particular, often presents as calm and meticulous on the surface while carrying, just beneath, a raw, uneasy, hypersensitive charge—the same blunt clarity about class and precarity that global audiences recognised in Parasite and Squid Game. Against this backdrop of conceptual ambition, the market signal began to cut through.

Hauser & Wirth reported the fair’s most significant placement to date, with Mark Bradford’s triptych Okay, then I apologize acquired by a private Asian collection for $4.5 million. The gallery also placed a George Condo for $1.2 million and, debuting Lee Bul at its booth after announcing her representation in March, sold a metallic sculpture for $400,000 and an oil painting for $300,000. Momentum carried elsewhere: Thaddaeus Ropac reported a Georg Baselitz at €1.8 million and an Alex Katz at $900,000, while White Cube placed another Baselitz for €1.3 million. On the Korean side, Hakgojae Gallery found a buyer for a Kim Whanki canvas at ₩2 billion.

It was widely expected that sales would be muted; the question was only how sharply. To hedge, many galleries brought works at more approachable price points—pieces they thought could move rather than stretch collectors to the limit. It seems this strategy paid off, at least in part: while overall volumes appeared thinner, transactions ticked along, and some dealers hinted at quiet satisfaction. Across aisles, booths seemed to recalibrate after the first day, shifting emphasis toward what was drawing interest. In a market braced for worse, the prevailing mood by mid-week was one of cautious relief.

Hakgojae Gallery, Frieze Seoul 2025. Photo by Wecap Studio. Courtesy of Frieze

With the fair still unfolding, the question is whether this edition will crystallise as a four-day success or a near miss. Seoul buyers often favour works in the lower- to mid-price bands rather than seven-figure leaps, and that may shape the week’s rhythm beyond the VIP days. Yet access to Asian collectors—and to international buyers with an eye on the region—may still unlock deeper reserves, as glimpsed in the opening hours.

What matters more than a single set of sales, however, is the four-year arc: Korean and Korean-diaspora artists have built remarkable traction—especially in London and across Europe—with institutions and mega-galleries investing, and solo shows multiplying. With the COEX renewal looming, the Armory dynamic in play, and open questions about direction under new ownership, Frieze Seoul has become a bellwether—at once a primer and a barometer for the ecosystem ahead.

Alice Kim

Interviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED