{"id":81081,"date":"2026-08-31T20:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=81081"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:32:03","slug":"seoul-art-week-2026-korean-collectors-on-their-passion-artists-to-watch-shows-to-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=81081","title":{"rendered":"Seoul Art Week 2026: Korean collectors on their passion, artists to watch, shows to catch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">South Korea is the epicentre of the Asian art calendar this week, with Frieze Seoul and the Korea International Art Fair converging alongside the opening of the Busan and Gwangju biennales.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Yet behind the art-week frenzy \u2013 with some 300 galleries courting buyers at the two art fairs \u2013 questions remain about the depth and prospects of the Korean art market.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Korea Art Authentication and Appraisal Institute\u2019s midyear report notes that local auction sales nearly doubled to 111 billion won (US$81 million) in the first half of 2026, but warns that the surge is top-heavy, driven by blue\u2011chip names such as Yoshitomo Nara, whose <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Nothing About It<\/em> fetched a record 15 billion won in March.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Are Korean collectors fixated on big, international names, or is a more diverse base emerging? We speak to several collectors \u2013 an educator, an architect, a collecting couple and an office worker with 200-plus works \u2013 on what fuels their passion, the artists they are watching and the shows they consider unmissable this season.<\/p>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">The community educator<\/h3>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-mv7ovk e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lee So-young is an art collector, historian and educator. Photo: Lee So-young\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/31\/22d53c18-efe0-455c-90f9-15a7644208a8_0b785222.jpg\" title=\"Lee So-young is an art collector, historian and educator. Photo: Lee So-young\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Lee So-young is an art collector, historian and educator. Photo: Lee So-young<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Lee So-young is arguably one of the most recognisable figures in South Korea\u2019s art community. She appears on some of the country\u2019s most popular television programmes, reviews international exhibitions on her popular YouTube channel, writes books about art, and runs art education programmes for children and adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3365814\/seoul-art-week-2026-korean-collectors-their-passion-artists-watch-shows-catch?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea is the epicentre of the Asian art calendar this week, with Frieze Seoul and the Korea International Art Fair converging alongside the opening&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1501,462,5863,6884,498,8581,1645,5679,157,947],"class_list":["post-81081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-art","tag-artists","tag-catch","tag-collectors","tag-korean","tag-passion","tag-seoul","tag-shows","tag-watch","tag-week","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}