Kiaf SEOUL Turns 25 as Market Splits

Kiaf SEOUL, a major fixture on the Asian art calendar, is celebrating its 25th edition this year. Founded in 2002 by the Galleries Association of Korea, it has become the leading platform for contemporary Korean and international art in East Asia, mirroring a local scene whose reach has steadily expanded. This anniversary arrives amid questions about the real state of South Korea's art ecology.

According to ArtAsiaPacific, this year's edition brings a divided market into focus. The fair draws a clear line between large international and well-established national galleries, which occupy the most prominent positions, and smaller outfits that struggle to attract the same attention. This segmentation reflects current conditions in the South Korean art market, where sales are increasingly concentrated among a handful of proven players.

Seoul has held a prominent place in the global art trade for years. The arrival of competing international platforms and the opening of foreign galleries in the capital have reshaped the sector's balance. Long-standing Korean galleries, which carried the contemporary scene for decades, now contend with heightened competition and steadily rising presentation costs.

Looking at the 2026 edition serves as a gauge: it illuminates not only the distribution of sales and the visibility of artists but also the difficulty young galleries face in establishing themselves for the long term. The question the fair poses at 25 is whether South Korea can preserve a diverse artistic ecology against the pressure of a market that rewards the solidity of established actors.

Kiaf SEOUL remains a key moment for collectors and professionals across the region, who use it to take the pulse of shifting tastes and exchanges. Yet this quarter century also invites reflection on what comes next: the health of a scene cannot be reduced to the transaction volume of its most powerful players, and that tension is what the fair makes visible.

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Written by the ADM desk based on ArtAsiaPacific. Read the original article for the full story.