White Cube latest Western gallery to open in Seoul

White Dice is the newest Western gallery to launch in Seoul amid the town’s continued artwork market growth. The worldwide dealership, which has areas in London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong, will open within the upscale riverside district of Gangnam-gu this autumn; the precise opening date has not but been disclosed.

The bottom-floor, avenue going through gallery will measure 300 sq m and be housed in the identical constructing because the personal artwork museum Horim Artwork Centre, which holds a group of Korean Trendy artwork and antiquities.

“The Korean artwork scene is characterised by deep connections with each the native and the worldwide. That is completely displayed in our new White Dice location, which is in shut proximity to the colourful and busy Gangnam space, subsequent to Dosan Park, and shares a constructing with the Horim Artwork Centre, whose assortment of Korean objects and artwork I personally have admired for a few years,” says Jini Yang, the director of White Dice Seoul. Yang has served because the gallery’s Korea consultant since 2018, a title that she retains. Previous to becoming a member of White Dice, Yang served for 9 years because the chief curator of Gallery Ihn, a now-closed Seoul business gallery that took half in Artwork Basel in Hong Kong.

White Dice presently has only one Korean artist on its roster, albeit a heavyweight: Park Web optimization Bo, one of many nation’s most well-known and commercially profitable artists, finest identified for minimalist summary work related to the Dansaekhwa motion of the Nineteen Sixties. Earlier this 12 months the Gwangju Biennale, Korea’s most prestigious artwork exhibition, discontinued a $100,000 prize named after and funded by Park following complaints that the artist’s aesthetic fashion and political stances have been at odds with the spirit of the Gwangju Biennale.

White Dice has additionally beforehand proven two different Korean artists, Minjung Kim and Seung-taek Lee, in accordance with a spokesperson for the gallery.

Because the inaugural Frieze Seoul, which happened in September 2022, a variety of Western galleries have opened first or second areas within the metropolis, together with, most not too long ago, Peres Tasks.

In the meantime, Thaddaeus Ropac introduced at this time that it’s doubling its footprint area in Seoul by extending its present gallery in Hannam-dong. The gallery will open its extension in time for Frieze Seoul 2023 (6-9 September), with separate exhibitions of Joseph Beuys drawings and three-dimensional works by Donald Judd.

However sustained curiosity from worldwide sellers in Seoul belies a bleaker evaluation of the South Korean economic system, which contracted within the closing quarter of 2022 by 0.4%, the primary time it has dipped since 2020. The OECD expects South Korea’s economic system to develop 1.6% in 2023, a major drop from 2022, when it grew by 2.6%, and from its 4.1% recorded development in 2021. Growing personal consumption continues to be a serious driver of development in South Korea, spurred partially by the Financial institution of Korea pausing rate of interest will increase in January.

In the meantime, different main Western sellers are additionally utilizing the run as much as Frieze Seoul to make inroads with Korean collectors, in addition to utilizing their platforms to strengthen the presence of Korean artwork abroad. That is the case at Esther Schipper gallery, which subsequent month is staging a bunch present of eight Korean artists throughout its areas in Berlin and Seoul, the latter of which opened final 12 months within the Geyonglidan-street space.

“For me it’s not a one-way avenue: sure, I wish to deliver the work of European artists to Seoul, however I additionally very a lot wish to contribute to an elevated visibility of Korean artists in Western Europe and at European gala’s,” the gallery’s founder Esther Schipper says. “The exhibition Dui Jip Ki will do exactly that: artists from throughout 5 generations can be exhibited in Seoul and in Berlin, some for the primary time in Germany.”

Schipper provides that she has been travelling and creating relationships in South Korea for ten years. In accordance with a spokesperson for Schipper, the gallery maintains a staff of round 4 consultants and employed administrators specialising within the Korean artwork market.