On the 13th, KIAF Seoul 2021 was held at the Seoul COEX event site. Provided by KIAF Steering Committee
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Korea International Art Fair (KIAF), the oldest art fair in Korea, recorded the highest sales ever. It once again showed the openness of the art market.
The KIAF Seoul 2021 (20th Korea International Art Fair) Steering Committee announced on the 17th that 88,000 people visited this art fair and the total sales amounted to about 65 billion won.
Sales were concentrated on the 13th, the first day of the event. At the event held at COEX Halls A and B in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul for 5 days from the 13th to the 17th, on the first day of VVIP admission, about 5,000 people watched, and sales were about 35 billion won. The 19th KIAF was held in 2019, surpassing the 31 billion won in sales on the first day of the event.
The enthusiasm for purchasing art is hotter than ever. “Last year, due to COVID-19, KIAF was canceled, causing a fatal blow to domestic galleries and a crisis for both galleries and artists,” the KIAF steering committee explained.
The KIAF Steering Committee said, “This KIAF has reached the upper limit of 3,063 people staying inside the hall in accordance with the quarantine rules several times, so entry was restricted and visitors had to wait for entry.” Also, he added, “It was different from the usual, leisurely and dispersed visits, as 70-80% of the 2,000 VVIP cards provided by the KIAF steering committee and the gallery entered intensively on the first day.”
KIAF was visited by celebrities such as BTS’ V, RM, Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Byung-hun, Lee Min-jung, Lee Min-ho, Ryu Jun-yeol, So Ji-sub, Noh Hong-cheol, Hwang Shin-hye, So Yu-jin, Sung Yu-ri, and Han Ji-hye. In addition, not only overseas galleries staying in Korea, but also overseas directors who do not have a branch in Korea visited the event and showed their international interest. Emmanuel Perrotin of Perrotin and Rachel Maupin, founder of Lehmann Maupin, who participated in KIAF as a solo show by Takashi Murakami, collaborated with KIAF in Seoul next year Frieze, one of the world’s three largest art fairs scheduled to be held, also visited the site.
Regarding the reason for this increase in sales, the KIAF Steering Committee said △The desire of art lovers that was suppressed by the cancellation of KIAF last year was released △The desire to be comforted by artworks in an isolated environment due to Corona 19 △The MZ generation As a result, he pointed out the growing interest in investing in art works by young collectors.
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