FRIEZE SEOUL

Frieze Seoul is four days of contemporary art in early September at COEX, in the Gangnam district of Seoul: more than a hundred and twenty-five galleries from some thirty countries on the third floor, an invitation-only first day, a preview and then the public, with Kiaf SEOUL, the Korean galleries’ own fair, in the halls below. Each evening in the days before, galleries across the city stay open late, a different district every night. It belongs to Frieze, and was its first fair in Asia.

The two fairs have shared COEX every September since 2022. In 2026 they did so for the last time: in 2027 Frieze Seoul moves to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

The Magazine

Frieze began as a magazine. Amanda Sharp, Matthew Slotover and the artist Tom Gidley launched it in 1991, and in 2003 Slotover and Sharp opened Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park, with 124 galleries and 27,700 visitors in the first year. Frieze Masters and Frieze New York followed in 2012, and Frieze Los Angeles in 2019. In 2016 Endeavor took a controlling stake of seventy per cent.

Seoul came next. The first Frieze Seoul ran from 2 to 5 September 2022 at COEX, with more than a hundred and ten galleries: the fifth fair Frieze had launched, and its first venture in Asia. Frieze Masters came with it, eighteen galleries “showing art throughout the ages”, and a section called Focus Asia gave ten solo presentations to galleries based in Asia and opened in or after 2010.

From the start it ran alongside Kiaf, operated by the Galleries Association of Korea. Kiaf is the older of the two: South Korea’s first international art fair, opened in 2002. The two have shared COEX every September since, Frieze with 121 galleries in 2023 and 110 in 2024. In 2025 some seventy thousand people came to Frieze Seoul and some eighty-two thousand to Kiaf.

Frieze has gone on growing. In 2023 it bought The Armory Show in New York and EXPO Chicago, and in 2026 it opened a fair in Abu Dhabi.

The Four Days

The week opens before the fair does. Under the name Neighborhood Nights, from the Monday to the Thursday, galleries open late in a different district each evening: Euljiro, Hannam, Cheongdam and Samcheong.

The fair itself fills Halls C and D on the third floor of COEX; Kiaf has Halls A and B on the first, and runs a day longer. The Wednesday is by invitation only. On the Thursday the doors open at eleven for a preview, and to the public at three; Friday and Saturday are public from eleven to seven. Alongside the booths run Frieze LIVE, Frieze Film, Frieze Music, talks and the Frieze Seoul Artist Award, with Deutsche Bank as Global Lead Partner.

The sections change. In 2026 there were three: Focus, returning; Material Practice, new, for collectible design and craft in ceramics, wood, glass, metal, textiles, paper and hanji; and Spotlight, new to Seoul, “dedicated to giving 15 comparatively overlooked 20th-century artists a fresh and deserved reappraisal”. Frieze Masters, present in earlier years, was absent, though Frieze has not announced its removal.

The fifth edition ran from 2 to 5 September 2026 under its director, Patrick Lee. The leading sale of the opening was Adrian Ghenie’s Figure with Funerary Stele, at Thaddaeus Ropac, for €1.1 million; Ropac also sold Antony Gormley’s HOLD for £750,000, and White Cube a Gerhard Richter, Fuji, for €625,000. Hauser & Wirth showed a new gold-leaf work by Jenny Holzer, PROFORMA, and Gagosian showed Damien Hirst.

What to Know

It runs from a Wednesday to a Saturday in the first week of September. In 2027 it moves to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, while Kiaf stays at COEX, where building work is to be done; the two fairs keep their joint programme and a single ticketing system. The 2027 dates have not been announced.

Tickets are sold online only, through a link shared with Kiaf, and the discounted bundles sell out. In 2026 a Frieze Insider pass cost ₩750,000, a Preview pass for several days ₩250,000, first access on the Thursday ₩90,000 and the Thursday afternoon ₩70,000. The invitation-only Wednesday is not sold.

A lounge suit. Nothing is published, and the Court goes on the invitation-only day.

Through 2026 COEX was reached by Samseong station, on Line 2 of the subway, or Bongeunsa, on Line 9. Frieze has named the Park Hyatt Seoul, a quarter of an hour’s walk from COEX, and the Andaz Seoul Gangnam among its hotels; the InterContinental Seoul COEX and the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul are others. For 2027, stay with Dongdaemun in mind.

The mistake is to come for the fair alone. Seoul Art Week runs around it, from 1 to 10 September in 2026, and the biennales at Busan and Gwangju make a week of it. In 2027, the mistake will be to go to COEX: Frieze will be at Dongdaemun.

The Court

Frieze Seoul is not the Court’s own. Places on the invitation-only first day are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay in Seoul, and the table afterward. The Armory Show, under the same ownership, follows in New York at the end of the month.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.