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Art Market

What Sold at Frieze Seoul and The Armory Show 2023

Arun Kakar
Sep 11, 2023 5:21PM

Interior view of The Armory Show, 2023. Photo by Vincent Tullo. Courtesy of The Armory Show.

Summer came to an end for the art world last week with the return of two major art fairs on two different continents: The Armory Show (September 8th–10th) in New York and Frieze Seoul (September 6th–9th) in Seoul. Both fairs are now owned by the same company after Frieze announced that it would acquire The Armory Show, along with EXPO Chicago, earlier this year.

Both fairs—for now—have not revealed any plans to change their September slots in light of the acquisition. As The Armory Show’s executive director Nicole Berry told us earlier this week, this year’s fair was “business as usual.”

The Armory Show, which has occupied its September slot since 2021 (it was held in March before the switch in dates), is part of a week of fairs in New York that also includes Independent 20th Century, Art on Paper, and the inaugural Photofairs New York. Frieze Seoul, which staged its first edition in 2022, takes place in the same building as Korea’s longest-running art fair, KIAF, and is a part of Seoul Art Week, which features numerous gallery openings and events across the Korean capital.

Installation view of White Cube’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.

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“The ambience at the fair felt upbeat with a good attendance from international collectors, and we have observed again that the city represents one of the most sophisticated art markets anywhere in the world,” said Wendy Xu, White Cube’s general manager of Asia, at Frieze Seoul. “It’s clear that there is a community here that is deeply knowledgeable and engaged with both local and international modern and contemporary art.”

Taking place amid a period of sustained tension for the art world, with worries of a market “correction” abound, both fairs reported positive sales and strong attendance throughout.

While dealers at Frieze Seoul disclosed a higher number of six-figure sales, reported figures from The Armory Show reflect more strength in the middle market. This will have come as a relief to many of the galleries in attendance, following a slower-than-expected first half to the year across the art market broadly.

Here, we run down the key sales from both fairs.


Top sales at Frieze Seoul 2023

Katherine Bernhardt
Untitled, 2023
David Zwirner

Hauser & Wirth reported a number of significant sales, including:

David Zwirner sold works by Mamma Andersson, Katherine Bernhardt, and Rose Wylie at prices ranging from $250,000–$550,000, as well as multiple works by Yayoi Kusama and paintings by Josef Albers and Joan Mitchell for undisclosed prices.

Installation view of Thaddaeus Ropac’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac.

Thaddaeus Ropac—one of Artsy’s 10 best booths from the fair—sold:

  • A work by Georg Baselitz for €1,200,000 ($1.3 million).
  • A work by David Salle for $250,000.
  • A work by Lee Bul for $190,000.
  • A work by Tony Cragg for €300,000 ($322,000).
  • Two works by Daniel Richter for €375,000 ($402,000) apiece.
  • Ropac also announced a string of five-figure sales for works by artists including Mandy El-Sayegh and Heemin Chung, the latter of whom the gallery announced representation of during the course of the fair.

Kukje Gallery—another of Artsy’s best booths—confirmed multiple sales including:

  • A work by Park Seo-Bo in the range of $490,000–$590,000.
  • A work by Ha Chong-Hyun in the range of $223,000–$268,000.
  • A work by Kyungah Ham in the range of $110,000–$132,000.

Installation view of White Cube’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.

White Cube reported sales including:

Pace Gallery reported several sales including:

Loriel Beltrán
GP (Black and Blue), 2023
Lehmann Maupin
Suki Seokyeong Kang
Mat 120 x 165 #23-66, 2022-2023
Tina Kim Gallery

Lehmann Maupin reported a string of sales from its booth, led by:

  • Lee Bul’s Perdu XXI (2019), which sold for $200,000. Another painting by the artist, Perdu CLXXXII (2023), sold for $190,000.
  • A painting by Loriel Beltrán for $75,000.
  • Five works by Chantal Joffe in the range of £24,000–£80,000 ($30,000–$100,000) each.
  • A work by Tammy Nguyen for $100,000.
  • An oil on canvas work by Soun Hong for $50,000.

Tina Kim Gallery—which was among the winners of the inaugural Frieze Seoul Stand Prizes—sold multiple works by Ha Chong-Hyun, Park Seo-Bo, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Maia Ruth Lee, Seok Ho Kang, and others in the $20,000–$250,000 price range.


Installation view of GALLERIA CONTINUA’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.

MASSIMODECARLO reported the following sales:

GALLERIA CONTINUA’s sales included a sculpture by Anish Kapoor for £600,000–£800,000 ($751,000–$1 million).

Cardi Gallery sold:

Almine Rech sold:

  • A painting by Ha Chong-Hyun in the range of $450,000–$460,000.
  • A painting by Javier Calleja in the range of €240,000–€260,000 ($258,000–$279,000).
  • A painting by Cristina de Miguel in the range of $60,000–65,000.
  • A painting by Timothy Curtis in the range of $85,000–$90,000.
  • A painting by Medhi Ghadyanloo in the range of €78,000–€84,000 ($84,000–$90,000).
  • A painting by Oliver Beer in the range of £45,000–£50,000 ($56,000–$63,000).
  • A work by Jenny Brosinski in the range of €38,000–€42,000 ($41,000–$45,000).
  • A painting by José Lerma in the range of $35,000–$40,000.
  • A painting by Li Peng in the range of $15,000–$20,000.
  • Two works by Gioele Amaro in the range of €19,000–€21,000 ($20,000–$25,000) and €20,000–€25,000 ($22,000–$27,000).

Gallery Hyundai’s sales included a pair of works by Seund Ja Rhee, which each sold in the range of $400,000–$450,000.

Kurimanzutto sold works by Gabriel Orozco, Rirkrit Tiravanija, WangShui, and Haegue Yang in the range of $40,000–$550,000, mostly to Korean institutions.

Lisson Gallery’s sales included the placing of a work by Stanley Whitney for $550,000.


Other notable sales from Frieze Seoul 2023

Sahara Longe
Mirror, 2023
Timothy Taylor
  • Timothy Taylor sold out its presentation of 13 paintings by Artsy Vanguard alumnus Sahara Longe at prices ranging from $20,000–$30,000 apiece.
  • Stephen Friedman Gallery sold a number of works, including a Caroline Walker painting for £25,000 ($31,000); a Yooyun Yang painting for $18,000 ($23,000); and a Sarah Ball oil on linen work for £85,000 ($106,000).
  • Jessica Silverman’s solo presentation of works by Woody De Othello was met with strong interest. Sales included two large, glazed ceramic sculptures for $92,000 each; a free-standing sculpture for $85,000; a glazed ceramic sculpture for $75,000; and a large oil on canvas for $65,000.


Top sales from The Armory Show 2023

While there were fewer six-figure sales reported at The Armory Show compared to Frieze Seoul, sales within the high five-figure price ranges were consistent across the fair.

The leading sales from the fair are as follows:

William Brickle, Two Figures, Under and Over, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Kohn Gallery.

Chiharu Shiota
Endless Line, 2023
KÖNIG GALERIE


Other notable sales from The Armory Show 2023

Thomas Bils
Kansas City, Missouri, 2023
Spinello Projects
Jaclyn Conley
The Return of the Herd, 2023
MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY
Arun Kakar
Arun Kakar is Artsy’s Art Market Editor.