Last week, we reflected on the 30-year history of the Gwangju Biennale and its achievements. This week, we will discuss the current state of various biennales actively held across Korea, their challenges, and the direction they need to take moving forward, alongside the Gwangju Biennale.
2024.09.24
The hot topic this year is the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Biennale. To commemorate this, we will take a look at its achievements, divided into two parts. In Part 1, we will briefly review the history and accomplishments of the Gwangju Biennale, and in Part 2, we will examine the challenges it faces and its future prospects.
2024.09.17
In this final article of the series, we will discuss the essential conditions for the success of Korean art fairs and the absolute necessity of global expansion. Additionally, we will briefly examine the operational status of KIAF and Frieze Seoul over the past three years and explore the underlying realities of the so-called "era of 100 art fairs" in Korea.
2024.09.10
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.
2024.09.03
September'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.
2024.08.27
The One & Only Place& limited access to news & exhibitions
“Who bought that piece?” This question often wields more power than the artwork’s intrinsic aesthetics or philosophy. In today’s art world, the collector is not merely a purchaser but a powerful actor who structures value and inscribes narrative.
2025.07.29
In the 21st century, late capitalism has evolved beyond an economy of production and consumption into a system where symbols and signs dominate value. Jean Baudrillard called this the “political economy of the sign,” where the symbolic meaning of things supersedes their material substance. In such a system, commodities are no longer just physical objects—they are bundles of signs, socially coded and ideologically charged.
2025.07.15
Fine art has always touched the deepest strata of the human spirit. It is not simply the skill of creating aesthetic objects, but the act of a living human being attempting to understand themselves. While humans have evolved by using tools, it is in writing poetry and painting images that they crossed from utility into the realm of the mind. Art was born at this very threshold, and it has defined civilization ever since.
2025.07.01
Public support was once the final bastion of art. It served as the only mechanism through which art could defend itself from the logic of the market—a space where the essence of artistic creation could be protected from the accelerating demands of capital.
2025.06.17
In today’s global art market, auctions and art fairs are no longer simply distribution channels or temporary festivities. Auctions reduce art to quantifiable numbers, while art fairs promote the rapid reproduction and immediate consumption of market-friendly works. Empowered by capital, these two forces now dictate not only the market’s direction but also the survival conditions of artists themselves.
2025.06.03
The Korean contemporary art scene today is enveloped in a profound silence—the absence of art criticism. Exhibitions abound, artworks circulate rapidly through the market, and artists are consumed at speed, but there is scarcely a voice that interprets, questions, or inscribes meaning into these movements.
2025.05.20
