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| 'Circulation' (2020) by Kwon Chi-gyu / Courtesy of PLAS |
By Park Han-sol
With a recent surge in interest in the art market and an influx of new, young collectors, local art fairs have been enjoying a rare boom this year. Against this backdrop, the Plastic Art Seoul (PLAS) fair is currently being held at COEX in Gangnam District.
Founded in 2016, the country's largest sculpture-focused art fair kicked off Sunday and will be open to the public until Wednesday under the theme, "New Generation." The event aims to serve as a platform for rising and established artists of sculptures and installation art, fields that have been considered relatively non-mainstream in painting-focused, local art fairs.
On the first day of its run, PLAS saw its number of visitors double to nearly 10,000, and generated more than a billion won in sales, continuing the success of local art fairs held earlier this year.
Both the 39th Galleries Art Fair, the oldest art fair in the country, held in March, and the 10th Busan Annual Market of Art (BAMA), held in April, saw record sales. Last week's Art Busan quickly followed suit, with even bigger success. It experienced the best turnout, of more than 80,000 visitors, and generated total sales of 35 billion won ($31 million), the highest figures in Korea's art fair history, during its four-day run.
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| Kim Byung-kyu's 'Play ― Her' (2021), left, and Park Chan-girl's 'DAVID' (2021) / Courtesy of PLAS |
A total of 89 galleries, both from here and abroad, including Chungjark Gallery, Seojung Art Center, Bien Gallery and Galerie Oh Song-Paris, have joined this year's show, presenting 2,500 works by 700 artists. While the fair features sculptures, other types of art, such as oil paintings, photography and mixed media pieces are also on display.
In one of its special exhibitions, PLAS brought large sculptures, notably Kwon Chi-gyu's "Circulation," commonly seen only outdoors, into the interior of the gallery, creating an imposing atmosphere. The organizer stated that showing the outdoor works indoors can provide an opportunity for corporate clients, who wish to install the works in their buildings, to see them in person.
The three-day fair presents a "K-Pop Sculpture" section that features the works of 33 emerging artists, including Kim Byung-kyu, Kim Ji-young and Sin Pil-geun, to promote "K-Sculptures and Art" in time for the Frieze Art Fair landing in Korea next year, which will bring in world-class art from around the world, the organizer explained.
It has also displayed the selected works of a number of promising and talented Korean sculptors, such as Lee Myeong-hoon and Kim Sung-ji, who joined the event last year.
With many of the event's gallery selections deemed relatively affordable, priced in the range of 1 to 5 million won, compared to other prominent art fairs, more young visitors and families have been making purchases, further leading to an influx of new collectors.
