Frieze Seoul Closes Its Fifth Edition and Prepares to Move

Frieze Seoul closed its fifth edition on 5 September 2026 at COEX, the convention centre in Gangnam. The fair brought together 133 galleries and received more than 70,000 visitors over five days. Kiaf Seoul, the Korean fair that has run alongside Frieze since its arrival in 2022, occupied the floor below with 175 exhibitors.

What sold

The highest reported sale was Korean. Kukje Gallery sold a 1971 painting by Yoo Youngkuk, the pioneer of Korean abstraction, for between 2.2 and 2.5 billion won, about 1.6 to 1.85 million US dollars. It was the highest price reported for a Korean artist at the fair since the first edition. Almine Rech sold a painting by Lee Ufan for between 1.25 and 1.5 million dollars.

Among Western galleries, Hauser & Wirth sold a 2025 painting by Rashid Johnson for 1.2 million dollars and Thaddaeus Ropac a new work by Adrian Ghenie for 1.1 million. The fair’s director, Patrick Lee, said galleries had made sales across price points, from emerging artists to Korean modern masters. The pattern confirmed what dealers have said for two years: the Seoul market is steadier in the middle and more selective at the top than it was during the boom that brought Frieze to the city.

Institutions

Representatives of 178 museums and institutions from 25 countries attended, a record for the fair. This is the figure that matters most for Seoul’s standing. A fair survives on sales, but a city becomes an art capital when curators and museum groups plan their year around it, and the first week of September is now fixed in that calendar, with openings at the Leeum, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the galleries of Samcheong-dong and Hannam-dong timed to coincide.

The move to Dongdaemun

The 2027 edition will not be held at COEX, which is closing for renovation. Frieze Seoul will move to Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the curving aluminium building by Zaha Hadid that opened in 2014 on the east side of the old city. Kiaf will remain at COEX. The two fairs will therefore be separated for the first time, on opposite sides of the Han River, which changes the logistics of the week and gives Frieze a setting with far more character than a convention hall.

For visitors

Frieze week is the best time of year to see art in Seoul, and the hardest time to book a room. Hotels in Gangnam fill first; with the move to Dongdaemun, those north of the river, including Four Seasons Hotel Seoul and The Shilla, will be the more practical base in 2027.