Left: Hernan Bas, Hide Out, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Phillips.
Right: Ania Hobson, Tunnel, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Phillips.
Phillips, one of the three largest auction houses in the world with headquarters in London, has announced that it will hold its first exhibition in Seoul concurrently with the Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul art fairs.
The announcement was made just several weeks after Christie’s, one of the largest art auction houses, announced that it would host a two-person show by Francis Bacon and Adrian Gheniea in Seoul during this time.
Phillips collaborated with The Artist Room, a London-based online platform, to open New Romantics, which featured the works of twenty-three emerging and established artists from various European countries, including the UK. The exhibition will be held at the Lee Eugean Gallery in the Gangnam district from August 31 to September 6, 2022. The featured works will be available for purchase at Phillips Hong Kong from September 19 to October 21, 2022.
The exhibition will highlight contemporary artists who seek the new spirit of romanticism that has recently been re-examined. Romanticism is an artistic movement of the late 18th century that emphasizes emotion and imagination that break away from existing ideas and traditions, the idealization of nature, and the importance of individual artistic expression. The artists in New Romantics inherit this vision from a new perspective.
Henry Highley, Director of Private Sales, Europe, and Principal Auctioneer, Phillips, stated, “New Romantics marks the first time Phillips has hosted a contemporary art exhibition outside of our auction calendar in Seoul, as the art scene in South Korea continues to thrive. We have witnessed incredible growth in the market here, with buying activity from collectors based in South Korea increasing by 258% in 2021, compared to the previous year.”
The Korean Arts Management Services (KAMS) predicted the size of the Korean art market at 922.3 billion KRW in 2021 (approximately $770.5 million), more than double that of 2019, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As South Korea attracts attention as an emerging Asian art market, international auction companies are also trying to enter the Korean art market.
*Phillips is an art auction house specializing in contemporary art and design from the 20th and 21st centuries. Auctions and exhibitions are held in four cities: New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, in addition to representative offices in Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Korea.
