Kiaf Seoul 2026 spotlights Korea's contemporary art heritage

The Korea International Art Fair, known as Kiaf Seoul, opened on September 3, 2026 at the COEX convention center in the South Korean capital, running for four days. The fair takes place alongside Frieze Seoul, which occupies the third floor of the same venue while Kiaf fills the first level — a pairing that has become an annual fixture, cementing Seoul's September dates as one of the key stops on the Asian art calendar.

This edition brings together 175 galleries from 18 countries and regions, a scale consistent with recent years, including 20 first-time exhibitors. Eight Japanese galleries are participating, the same number as in 2025, among them Gallery Tsubaki and Whitestone Gallery, joined by newcomers Empathy Gallery and Suisai.

A defining trend of this year's fair is the strong emphasis on Korea's contemporary art legacy. Several established galleries chose to highlight artists already commanding high market recognition internationally, notably figures of the Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement led by Park Seo-bo, as well as video art pioneer Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Gallery Hyundai, founded in the 1970s and a longtime pillar of the Korean scene, showed multiple major Paik works including My Faust: Arts (1989-91), while simultaneously presenting Kim Tschang-yeul (1929-2021) and Lee Seung-taek (b. 1932) at its Frieze booth. Kukje Gallery, another leading Korean gallery, devoted its booth to a solo presentation of French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel.

Among the notable discoveries, Wellside Gallery exhibited Lee Ufan's (b. 1936) "Wind" series alongside Park Seo-bo monochromes, but it was a lesser-known work that drew crowds: Industrial City — Nanjido, Midsummer (1985), a three-meter-wide landscape by Song Sang-hi (1949-1988), regarded as an important figure of Korean art from the 1970s-80s. The painting depicts shanty dwellings on Nanjido, a former landfill island in Seoul's Han River, rendered with visible tenderness toward the residents who made their living scavenging waste there.

The fair continues through September 6, underscoring organizers' intent to bridge the international art market with Korea's own artistic history, as Seoul continues to assert itself as a major art market hub in Asia.

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Written by the ADM desk based on 美術手帖. Read the original article for the full story.