KIAF 2017 ART SEOUL

The 16th edition of the KIAF 2017 ART SEOUL was held at the COEX Hall A & B in Seoul, Korea September 20. The show is until September 24 (Sun). 167 galleries from 13 countries participated this year. 

I had visited the Kiaf a few times in the past. But this time, I was impressed at how international the KIAF is. When I started to walk around the fair. They provide us two packing wines and small cheese and olive for VIPs. The VIP package was so cute. I went around the show a few times to see the overall detail.

I could see many artworks which have Asian flavor:

#JonghwaLee #MikyoungKim #SunchelKim #JeongminSuh

Some of Older Korean Artists' works: #KimSou #MyungsikKim #SuFanOh

New Artists works with fun multimedia; #DaunJeong (Fabrics acrylic on Canvas)

#YongRaeKwon (Stainless Steel on Canvas) #LaurenMartin #Hwancho

At the fair, there is a gallery, that got my attention, the East gallery from Taipei. Most galleries present modern or contemporary artworks, but the East Gallery shows more traditional-style paintings by Chien Bih Wang. I had a good conversation with the art director, Eric Koehn. He said the artist was a feminist and the concept of painting was not traditional like the style of painting. More surprisingly, His booth was popular among the VIP females. Many people stop by look at the painting or take a photo in front of the painting... To me, the style of painting wasn't definitely my favorite, but it was an oil painting, and somehow it looked like a Chinese watercolor painting which was interesting.

                            Attended two conversations;  Gyungseong Dadaist in the 1920s (me with #YoshikawaNagi,

                             the photo above left) and Post-War Abstract Art in Asia (#MatsutaniTakesada, 

                            #HoKan, and #ParkSuhBo, photo by clockwise )

Gyungseong Dadaist in 1920; Based on the book The Dada in Tokyo, The Dada in Gyungseong (Seoul's older name) by Japanese Literary critic, Yoshikawa Nagi. She said 1920s Dada was created by Young artists who lived in the dramatic period with their passion and youthful mind.

Post-War Abstract Art in Asia; three major contemporary Artists: Park, Seobo (Korea), Ho Kan (Taiwan), and Matsutani Takesada (Japan) talked about their life with their artworks. It was very nice to hear how they have lived after the war in three different countries as an artist.

I really like Park, Seobo's phrase, "In the future, Artists should create artworks which can heal people's minds living in fast growing stressful society".