Galleries Art Fair will feature over 500 artists

The coronavirus won’t stop the “2020 Galleries Art Fair” from opening this week, as the annual event works to embrace a younger generation of audience and artists, Choi Woong-chul, president of the Galleries Association of Korea, said Thursday.

“We talked about whether we should go ahead with the art fair, because of the coronavirus outbreak,” Choi said during the press conference. “So we called up every single one of the 110 galleries and asked them whether they thought we should go ahead or not. Seventy people said yes to pushing forward, and we decided that it was our duty to follow the wishes of the galleries.”

Now in its 38th year, this year’s fair will feature 110 Korean galleries, which will show some 3,000 works of art by 530 artists from Wednesday to Sunday at Hall C in Coex, southern Seoul. The Galleries Art Fair is the country’s oldest art fair, put together by the Galleries Association of Korea (KIAF).

To open itself up to a younger generation of artists, the fair will present “Zoom-In,” a collaboration with Naver in which the work of 10 new artists will be exhibited in a special section. They received 150 pieces last year in November and chose 10 to introduce to the audience. Among them, the fair will choose artists to further sponsor and connect them to galleries in an effort to nurture a new generation of creative professionals.

To appeal to a younger, more digital-friendly audience, the fair is adding an online tour of the fair. The organizers will film every work, booth and special exhibit at the fair and post it through Naver’s online “Art Window.”

“There are 147 art galleries across Korea,” said Choi. “Of them, some make 100 billion [$84.5 million] won a year, while some struggle to make even 50 million won. The fair is a chance for galleries to show themselves to the audience at the same venue, with the same size booths and under the same conditions.”

Participating galleries include the biggest in Korea including PKM Gallery, Gana Art, Gallery Hyundai, Kukje Gallery, Woong Gallery, Johyun Gallery and Hakgojae. Other special exhibitions include “PyongPyong-PangPang,” a collaboration between the Gyeonggi Culture Foundation and up-and-coming artists from the Gyeonggi region. Artists from both “PyongPyong-PangPang” and “Zoom-In” will give talks each day from Thursday to Sunday. For more details, visit www.koreagalleries.or.kr

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]