Seoul Is The Artwork World’s Scorching New Vacation spot

It was a sizzling summer season day in Seoul, and I had taken refuge from the solar within the cool, industrial studio of the Korean artist Kim Yun Shin. Wearing denim overalls, with a poof of grey hair, Kim, 89, had the demeanor of a lady content material together with her life. By way of a translator, I admired the sculptures lining the partitions: blunt picket items reduce with a chainsaw, a lot of them painted, some replicated in bronze. All of them had a geometrical high quality that felt distinctly trendy, but in addition jogged my memory of the joinery of a hanok, or conventional Korean home. 

Kim defined that she made them from algarrobo, a kind of wooden native to South America—not the pink pine historically used on this area. As we walked by way of her studio—she moved slowly, steadying herself with a cane—she instructed me how she got here to work in that materials. She was born in 1935, at a time when Korea was underneath Japanese occupation, within the metropolis of Wonsan, now in North Korea. She all the time knew she was an artist. Nature was her first instructor—as a baby, she would draw within the grime with a stick. However after the battle between North and South Korea within the early Fifties, there have been no bushes left. All the pieces had been reduce down.

We paused to take a look at drawings Kim made as a lithography and sculpture pupil in Paris within the Sixties. She lived in Europe for a number of years, then returned to Korea to show and work. Quickly after, although, on a visit to South America for an exhibition, she had an epiphany. “After I noticed the forests there, I needed to remain,” she mentioned. Kim moved to Argentina in 1984, and lived within the nation for 40 years. It wasn’t simply in regards to the supplies: Kim discovered it simpler to work as an artist there. Within the 80s, she defined, life in Korea was laborious. There have been no museums and galleries to indicate her work. Ladies had fewer assets. The Korea we see right this moment is totally completely different—modernized, digitized, consistently metabolizing and evolving. “The children now,” she added, “are actually quick.” 

At the moment, South Korea has the world’s 14th-largest economic system, and its evolution from an underdeveloped, war-torn nation to certainly one of Asia’s monetary powerhouses had been on full show as I drove throughout town to go to Kim that morning. Towering workplace buildings shimmered within the warmth, and the streets bustled with staff on their strategy to workplace jobs. Within the blocks surrounding my plush lodge within the Gangnam district, I observed quite a few plastic-surgery places of work (and the occasional affected person rising, bandaged and bruised, contemporary from a process). There have been high-end retail areas just like the idea retailer Haus Dosan the place, the earlier night, a life-size animatronic robotic had greeted me as I had browsed items by Light Monster, a hip South Korean eyewear model.

Maybe most spectacular of all was the Frieze Seoul, which was to start the day after I arrived. In 2022, Frieze—which operates artwork gala’s in London, New York Metropolis, and Los Angeles—launched its first Asian iteration in Seoul: a sign of South Korea’s strong urge for food for modern artwork. The capital has a number of museums specializing within the style, together with the Seoul Museum of Artwork, the Leeum Museum of Artwork, and the Nationwide Museum of Fashionable and Up to date Artwork, in addition to dense gallery scenes in neighborhoods like Samcheong and the upscale Hannam-dong. 

Again in Kim’s studio, we slowly wrapped up the tour. She confirmed me sculptures she was contemplating sending to London for Frieze Masters, an offshoot of the truthful for artworks produced earlier than the 12 months 2000, and mentioned that she had simply exhibited on the Venice Biennale, one of many world’s premiere artwork exhibitions. These achievements symbolize the type of recognition many artists dream of, however Kim mentioned she by no means aimed to exhibit in artwork gala’s or compete for prizes; she has all the time been extra centered on the work itself. I admired her indifference to the market. It was exceptional to take a look at not simply her physique of labor, however to think about how a lot of Korea had modified in her lifetime, and the way her profession as an artist mirrored that. 

On her bookshelf stood a miniature turtle sculpture. I requested her if it had any particular which means. “Turtles reside a really lengthy life,” she mentioned. “I need to reside a really lengthy life, too.” 

The following morning was the opening day of Frieze. I joined the crowds of artists, curators, collectors, museum leaders, and gallerists coming into COEX, with its glass partitions and cavernous halls. I handed the David Zwirner sales space, the place a Yoyoi Kusama pumpkin and a Gerhard Richter portray have been on outstanding show. Kukje Gallery, which represents Kim and is among the most established in South Korea, had a big sales space displaying works by painter Park Search engine marketing-Bo and the pioneering multimedia artist Suki Seokyeong Kang. 

I noticed lots of the artwork world gamers who’ve staked a severe declare in Seoul. The London gallerist Jay Jopling, who opened a department of his White Dice gallery in Dosan in 2023, was standing in his sales space, discussing tax breaks with a person in a go well with. Antwaun Sargent, a director of Gagosian Gallery, was there from New York Metropolis to assist oversee the opening of a small present of Derrick Adams’s work at AMPA Cupboard, a gallery situated within the headquarters of magnificence conglomerate Amorepacific. 

The individuals who populate an artwork truthful are all the time trendy, and all the time discreet. Gallerists and their staff have been tastefully adorned in quiet-luxury labels—Loro Piano, the Row, Celine, and Dries Van Noten—and sitting at tables bearing equally discreet floral preparations. Effectively-to-do South Koreans roamed the truthful. Often, celebrities made an look, just like the Okay-Pop star Joshua Hong of the boy band Seventeen, who I may solely simply glimpse by way of the group of followers and bodyguards that surrounded him. 

It was within the Focus Asia part—the place solely 10 Asian galleries have been invited to exhibit—that I discovered the sense of discovery I used to be searching for. The cubicles had the texture of an exhibition, slightly than of a commercially pushed artwork truthful. The galleries have been smaller and took dangers with rising artists or artists with much less of a shiny blue-chip enchantment. Amid the frenzy of shopping for, it was refreshing to see their factors of view. 

I used to be significantly taken by the work of the Sri Lankan artist Kingsley Gunatillake, who’s 73 years outdated and represented by the New Delhi gallery Blueprint.12. His hanging work, Protest, depicts the bloodshed of Sri Lanka’s lengthy civil conflict, utilizing books which might be charred or rendered illegible, typically embellished with symbolic or figurative objects, like toy-soldier collectible figurines marching throughout a dirty web page.

At Frieze Masters, I gazed for a very long time on the extraordinary work by the good mid-century summary Korean painter Kim Whanki. Kim was born to a rich Korean household in 1913, however rebelled towards his father and selected to review artwork in Japan. His focus was the huge change that Korea underwent in his lifetime, and he integrated numerous ideas of abstraction into the extra conventional vernacular of East Asian artwork and ornamental objects. In that crowded conference heart, one thing about Kim’s portray, Moon and Mountain (1967), made the world cease for me. His sense of shade and kind—even the way in which a selected shade of blue felt as if it had been pulled straight from the evening sky—was extraordinary. Out of curiosity, I requested for the worth. The gallerist instructed me it was promoting for about $5 million. 

Close by, subsequent to an unimaginable 18th-century ceramic moon jar from the Joseon dynasty, was one other of his work, Refugee Practice (1951). He painted it earlier in his profession, earlier than he totally deserted figurative portray for abstraction. It depicted individuals in a black prepare towards a flat blue and pink background. They’re, the gallerist defined, fleeing North Korea initially of the conflict. I requested what the worth was. It was not on the market, she knowledgeable me; it was on mortgage for the truthful from a non-public—and nameless—collector. That made me assume, if a lot of Seoul is shiny and new with cash to burn, the fantastic thing about town lies in its depth and sorrow. It’s a place unafraid to confront its historical past in stark phrases.

The following day, I met a Korean photographer named Myoung Ho Lee, within the metropolis heart, on the grounds of part of Deoksugung Palace that was as soon as referred to as Seonwonjeon Corridor. Throughout Korea’s imperial period—which resulted in 1910, after greater than 500 years of Joseon dynasty rule—Seonwonjeon was the place portraits of kings have been enshrined and royal memorial rites have been held. But the two-story constructing in entrance of me didn’t look particularly palatial, with its picket beams and dusty home windows. 

By way of a translator, Lee mentioned that Seonwonjeon was nearly solely destroyed by the Japanese—a destiny that befell many imperial Korean landmarks throughout occupation. In actual fact, he went on, the constructing we have been taking a look at was truly constructed within the Nineteen Twenties as an govt residence for a Korean financial institution. It was later used as a women’ highschool. Quickly, it was to be demolished, however for the previous couple of months of its existence, the Korean authorities had granted Lee an artist’s residency there. 

Like most Koreans, Lee is aware of his nation’s historical past effectively. He defined that firstly of the final century, imperial Japanese forces insisted on changing Korean tradition with their very own. Overtly talking Korean on the time or utilizing Korean names was a punishable offense. At the moment, as a part of a nationwide venture to revive cultural heritage misplaced through the conflict, the Korean authorities is rebuilding Seonwonjeon Corridor, hoping to return the positioning to its former glory. It’s anticipated to be full in 2039. 

Lee pointed to 2 black tents crammed with males in laborious hats. Close by, a lone hen darted round a pile of enormous rectangular blocks of granite. A part of the restoration, Lee mentioned, required staff accustomed to the observe of historical Korean masonry. Many of the staff with such information have been both aged or near retirement; because of this, they labored very slowly. As Lee talked, the sounds of hammers on stone echoed within the background.

Lee, nonetheless, was extra centered on a decades-old Paulownia tree, typically known as the Empress tree in Korea, rising on the positioning. With its thick, barely jagged trunk and foliage nonetheless dense and inexperienced in the summertime season, it was a hanging sight. Lee first began to {photograph} bushes in 2006, and has since constructed a large physique of labor round this observe. He typically erects a white backdrop behind his topics utilizing a crane, ropes, even just a few pairs of fingers, all of which he erases from the ultimate picture with digital retouching. The ultimate result’s a piece of nature framed by a white backdrop, a approach of eradicating the tree from the context of the pure world, whereas nonetheless reminding us that these large vegetation are additionally, in their very own approach, artworks. 

“This tree has been a witness to all the pieces,” Lee mentioned of the Paulownia. On the finish of our go to, he requested the small group of American journalists I used to be with to face in entrance of the tree for a portrait. To suit us into the body, Lee needed to stand along with his digital camera nearly 1 / 4 of a mile away, throughout the large pit that may quickly turn into the inspiration for the brand new Seonwonjeon. We couldn’t hear him over the sound of the hammering masons, so the one approach we knew he was completed was when he waved his arms. As I left, I thanked him for his time, conscious of the actual fact I had witnessed part of Seoul that may quickly be destroyed and rebuilt.

That night, I headed to the Jung neighborhood for Korean barbecue. A number of in-the-know Koreans, together with Patrick Lee, the director of Frieze Seoul, really useful Geumdwaeji Sikdang, or the Gold Pig. I used certainly one of Seoul’s English-speaking taxi apps, Kakao T, to name a automotive for us: a gaggle of pals I had collected from the truthful—an artwork author, an artwork publicist, and some others. As soon as there, we stood impatiently within the lengthy line in entrance of the restaurant. The Gold Pig is unassuming, with a plain white-tiled façade and rows of tables with steel grills and extractor followers to suction up the oily air. However since opening in 2016, it has earned a number of accolades—together with a Michelin Bib Gourmand award, which acknowledges glorious meals at budget-friendly costs. 

It was definitely worth the hours-long wait to eat freshly grilled pork, beef, and greens, dipped into the new and spicy ssamjang sauce or rolled in salt. We ordered rounds of beer and soju, the drink of alternative for late, freewheeling nights on this metropolis. Just a few of the group had the power to discover a nightclub afterward. There was discuss of karaoke. Perhaps even a late-night cease at a Korean spa. That’s the factor about a world artwork truthful: fueled by individuals gathered collectively from around the globe, the power can turn into infectious. It lends a metropolis a way of limitless chance. 

The next day the warmth had dissipated and the climate was overcast and drizzly. There was a deflated really feel to the morning, a type of collective hangover from the push of openings, dinners, and occasions. The general public who arrived for Frieze Seoul had departed for an additional artwork truthful, the Gwangju Biennale, by bus or prepare, or had already gone residence. The gross sales numbers from Frieze had began to emerge. Cubicles had bought out. A portray by Hauser & Wirth artist Nicholas Social gathering had bought for $2.5 million to a non-public Asian collector, the largest buy of the truthful.  

I headed again to town heart, this time to Bukchon Hanok Village. I used to be visiting the house and studio of Teo Yang, a good-looking Korean inside designer and artist who had created an attractive, eclectic residence out of two adjoining hanoks he bought greater than 10 years in the past. Yang left Korea on the age of 19 to review inside structure on the College of the Artwork Institute of Chicago; later he earned a level in environmental design on the ArtCenter Faculty of Design, in Pasadena, California. Nevertheless it was solely after he started working with the Dutch architect and artwork director Marcel Wanders, who mines the wealthy historical past of the Netherlands for his personal observe, that Yang started to take a look at Korea with new eyes, diving deep into the architectural historical past of his homeland. 

Hanoks date again to the 14th century and are made by becoming a member of picket beams in a approach that doesn’t require nails or different bindings. With their low ceilings, insulated mud partitions, and floor-based heating system, hanoks are supposed to face up to each Korea’s sizzling, humid summers and lengthy, chilly winters. Yang had designed his interiors to include a tasteful mixture of Western and Japanese décor: a wall coated in de Gournay wallpaper right here, a Serge Mouille gentle fixture there, Joseon pottery and modern Korean artwork scattered all through. A pine tree grew within the heart of certainly one of Yang’s courtyards. Yang’s studio supervisor instructed me that having a tree within the courtyard just isn’t typical for a hanok, as Confucius believed one wanted a transparent view in a single’s residence. However the tree was completely elegant, its inexperienced boughs peeking above the low-slung roof coated in conventional grey clay tiles. 

Afterward, I walked by way of the streets of Bukchon Hanok Village, a preferred vacationer vacation spot due to its structure, purchasing, and meals. That is the place manufacturers just like the Korean magnificence label Sulwhasoo have transformed conventional hanoks into shops, their picket beams contrasting with smooth glass partitions. I ended to purchase some goguma mattang, or candied candy potatoes, from a avenue vendor. I additionally picked up just a few rice truffles from Biwon Tteokjip, a candy store that first opened in 1949 and claims to make use of the identical recipe it as soon as offered to the king. 

I ended up at EOESeoul, a captivating modernist-looking café, the place I had tea with a younger Korean architect, Daniel Tune, who designed not simply the café however all the constructing. His agency, INTG., which he co-founded along with his spouse, Kate Cho, occupied each the highest flooring and the basement. The couple has developed a fame for minimalist designs with a decidedly Korean standpoint. Tune and Cho studied structure at Columbia College, then labored with a number of companies around the globe, however selected to return to South Korea. Since beginning their observe in 2016, they’ve gone on to design White Dice’s Seoul gallery, numerous personal interiors, and various business areas for Korean firms. 

Tune took me on a fast tour, proudly exhibiting me particulars all through the constructing: the café’s lacquered sambe (hemp) counter tops and the ceiling’s ornamental picket beams, which have been rescued from a derelict hanok. His reverence for Korean tradition was noticeable: materials have been chosen to match the inexperienced of matcha tea or the burgundy of red-bean paste. As I left, Tune gave me a small field of financiers made within the café, wrapped in a bojagi, or conventional Korean wrapping fabric. 

There was simply sufficient of that afternoon left to cease by the Arumjigi Basis, which is dedicated to preserving conventional Korean tradition. This nonprofit was began in 2001 by a gaggle of volunteers who needed to scrub up palace grounds in Seoul that have been on the time deserted and overgrown. The muse has now grown to embody different crafts and conventional Korean practices. An exhibition on the highest flooring defined how Korean partitions have been as soon as made by hand with straw and dirt. On the bottom flooring, shows integrated the work of up to date artists with conventional Korean areas. After a number of days of taking a look at artwork made after the Fifties, it was refreshing to be round such literal, however lovely, objects and concepts. 

I returned to my lodge to prepare for one last Frieze dinner, hosted by Stone Island, the Milan-based trend model that’s enormously widespread in South Korea. That night, I used to be served champagne on a hilltop overlooking Seoul. The town glittered round me. The menu acknowledged that our dinner’s produce was from an natural farm in Surisan Provincial Park, some 27 miles south. The delicately plated programs included dainty slices of aged Korean beef with Parmesan fondue. 

I glimpsed the Korean DJ Peggy Gou posing for a selfie within the lavatory with just a few of her pals, then posting it to her Instagram following of 4 million individuals. A Scottish inventive director who lived in Paris chatted to me about New York eating places and whether or not or to not have children. Close by just a few Frieze executives from London mentioned the pitfalls of jet lag with an American author based mostly in Berlin. For a second, I marveled on the thought that we may very well be wherever, actually. Berlin. New York. London. Mexico Metropolis. For tonight, although, we have been in Seoul. 

A model of this story will seem within the October 2025 problem of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Seoul on Hearth.”