The Korean Wave: Why We Are seeing More Korean Art in U.S. Museums

Art lovers may be wondering why so many American museums and institutions have recently mounted shows focused on Korean art and culture. There were “Lineages” at the Met; “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” at London’s V&A Museum and the MFA Boston; and Korean Arts Week at Lincoln Center, among others. In brief, what we’re seeing is likely the result of a strategic series of Korean policies aimed at promoting the region’s contemporary culture, with billions of investments supporting the growth and expansion of its art system. Since the 1950s, South Korea has experienced accelerated modernization that made the country a leader in specific tech industries. At the same time, it was re-establishing national identity and culture after the challenging period of Japanese colonization and the subsequent American influence, ultimately becoming a culture that lives in continuous tension between tradition and this compressed modernity.

But South Korea’s remarkable trajectory from “rags to riches” has been marked by governmental control, daring strategies, and I.T. innovations paired with a ppalli-ppalli (“quick-quick”) ethos, where speed is the essence of development. This abrupt transformation process generated paradoxes within contemporary South Korean society, where cutting-edge technology now coexists with centuries-old shamanistic and Confucian rituals. This modern/historical hybridity has contributed to shaping ‘hallyu,’ or the ‘Korean Wave’ that transformed the country from a traditional inwardly focused nation to a global cultural superpower that exports award-winning films like “Parasite,” series like “Squid Game” and chart-topping music by K-pop groups including BTS and BLACKPINK.

“Hallyu! The Korean Wave” tried to trace and explain to U.K. and U.S. audiences the genesis of this phenomenon with more than 200 pieces of contemporary Korean culture: costumes, props, photographs, videos, pop culture ephemera and contemporary works. While thus highlighting the country’s transformative contributions to cinema, drama, music, fashion, beauty and technology, the show also explored its relationship to traditions by showcasing masterpieces from the MFA’s renowned collection of Korean art. The traveling exhibition was, not surprisingly, partially sponsored by Korea’s culture ministry as part of ongoing efforts to promote Korean art and culture.

The art market has also been swept up in the ‘Korean Wave,’ as South Korea has been directing huge investments toward contemporary art after having grown the K-movie and K-pop industries. Last year, the country reportedly invested $ 3.7 billion in the contemporary art sector, which coincided with the art market in Korea reaching new heights and the return of Frieze Seoul (which corresponds with the country’s first international art fair, Kiaf SEOUL). The investments aimed at making the country more “culturally attractive” have clearly helped establish its capital, Seoul, as one of the most important artistic hubs in the region.

For 2024, the government allocated 4.7 billion Korean won ($3.4 million) for special exhibitions at major events to promote Korean art globally. That included an impressive 1.7 billion Korean won ($1.2 million) for the 30th-anniversary commemorative exhibition of the Korean pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, which is an impressive amount considering that the pavilion hosting the project Odorama Cities by artist Koo Jeong is basically empty, with the exception of the fragrance and an uncanny sculpture of a humanoid.

Meanwhile, Korean patrons and collectors, as well as major national corporate entities such as the mega groups Samsung (SSNLF), LG and Hyundai, are actively influencing museums in the U.S. (via donations and board seats) to make sure that Korean contemporary artists get spotlighted in American institutions, as well as in major institutions abroad. The most popular and clear example is probably the major commission projects sponsored by Hyundai for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, which presented both Korean and international artists. Hyundai also sponsors various prizes, including the renowned Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech and the VH Award, as well as artist commissions and writer fellowships via its ArtLab.

LACMA has an ongoing collaboration with several Korean institutions like the National Museum of Korea that makes possible loans of significant artworks along with collaborative exhibitions and joint educational initiatives that enhance the Los Angeles museum’s Korean art programming—important in a city with a large Korean community. At the same time, the museum has benefited from donations and support from Korean philanthropists, organizations and government entities, including Samsung, South Korea’s conglomerate The C.J. Group, private art collectors and The Korea Foundation. Meanwhile, LG became a main sponsor of Frieze, not just in Seoul but also at its fairs worldwide, promoting not only its products but also its connection to the broader Korean culture and its growing global influence.

While the art system in South Korea has expanded rapidly and is receiving more international attention, the country already had a solid art ecosystem between established galleries, private and public museums and active collectors that dates back to the beginning of its process of modernization and specific cultural policies starting in the 1980s. The Korean art market last year was reportedly worth 922.3 billion won (about $726 million at the current exchange rate), according to a report from Seoul National University and the Paradise Cultural Foundation. Almost 300 galleries were active in Seoul, according to a 2020 survey conducted by the Korea Arts Management Service, plus many other international galleries that have opened in Seoul in the past three years.

Coinciding with the launch of Frieze Seoul in 2022, international galleries such as Gladstone and Thaddaeus Ropac opened in the city, while Pace expanded its new flagship in the South Korean capital, where it has had a presence since 2017, along with Perrotin (in South Korea since 2016). Other international galleries that opened outposts in the city in recent years include Whitecube, which opened during the last Frieze Seoul, and the Berlin-based KÖNIG GALERIE and Peres Projects, for which South Korea became a driving market. This year, Gagosian will host a pop-up exhibition during Seoul Art Week, with a major solo show of Derrick Adams opening at Amorepacific—a sign that the Korean capital and Korean collectors are still on top of the target list for mega galleries.

Local powerhouses such as KUKJE GALLERY and Gallery Hyundai regularly show at all the major fairs around the world, championing Korean artists abroad and actively supporting their participation in biennials and museum exhibitions. Younger galleries like Foundry Seoul or Cylinder have also been able to grow fast in both their programming and audience, participating in fairs abroad both in Europe and the U.S.

All these developments can be traced back to a South Korean market that skyrocketed during the pandemic when Koreans started to consider art as an alternative investment due in part to tax policies that penalized investments like real estate. This was a driving factor in sales—the country has no import or transfer tax, and more importantly, no VAT tax on art by living artists valued at less than 60 million Korean won ($45,000).

On the other hand, South Korea still has some very protectionist attitudes toward foreign investments, and entering the Korean market as a foreign company can be complicated. The only way, most of the time, is to partner with a local entity, and that’s the reason why  Frieze, when it launched in 2022, had to partner with the region’s established international art fair, Kiaf, which has been operating since 2002. Both are happening in the same week at the COEX center, and the partnership hasn’t exactly been tension-free.

Meanwhile, the two leading local auction houses, K Auction and Seoul Auction, are also active players in the Korean ecosystem despite having been the subject of accusations by The Galleries Association of Korea for causing growing speculation in the art market, which could undermine the role of the primary sector. This resulted in a formal statement in 2022 announcing that the auctioneers had violated a “gentleman’s agreement” made in 2007 and outlining a series of measures to keep a “healthy balance” between the primary and secondary sectors. Conducting around eighty online auctions annually, K-auction reportedly brought in $9.6 million in revenue, which, despite a decline compared to the year before, is significant for a local auction house. Seoul Auctions, arguably the first art auction house in South Korea, reported $30.1 million in annual revenue—a 23 percent decline from the year before. Since its founding in 1998, the auction house has significantly impacted the Korean art market with notable sales, vast market penetration and loans against art.

On the institutional side, Seoul now boasts over 100 museums between publicly funded and private institutions, most founded after 2000. The primary contemporary museum, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), invests around $5 million every year in acquisitions.

Despite the art market significantly slowing down compared to two years ago, artists, galleries and institutions are still benefiting from government support and funds. One of the most important ones is the Fund for Korean Art Abroad, a grant program administered by the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) that promotes Korea’s contemporary visual art to an international audience and supports exhibitions of Korean artists overseas. Similarly, the Traveling Korean Arts (TKA) project supports the global sharing of Korean performances and exhibitions, with eight projects awarded KRW 550 million in 2024. This has contributed to the increasing number of shows of Korean artists in major capitals like New York, London and Paris, with more Korean names, both established and emerging, joining the rosters of international powerhouses.

There’s now a solid art market with rising prices in and outside of South Korea for Dansaekhwa masters like Park Seo-Bo, Ha Chong Hyun and Lee Ufan. These and other artists have deeply influenced a generation of creatives who came after and practiced a similar brand of conceptual minimal abstraction. However, in the last decades, a new generation of Korean artists has emerged with practices that are much more technology-forward and focused on topics hot in today’s society, such as the relations between digital and physical realities and experiences and the concept of “interspecies” or other alternative expressions of body and identity. Artists such as Anicka Yi, Mire Lee and Lee Bul (recently chosen to create works for “The Genesis Facade Commission” ) are now showing their highly visionary practices at the intersection of art and technology at institutions around the world, redefining the aesthetic and narrative expectations traditionally associated with Korean art.

Some experts are now concerned that, having reached its peak in 2022 and expanding globally, this ‘Korean Wave’ might be a bubble that bursts as soon as the national economy slows down. Hopefully, all of the participants in the evolving Korean art ecosystem will be able to find a balance via healthy collaboration to make it sustainable and not so reliant on government funding—something that is generally considered a double-edged sword. Censorship might not be a pressing concern in South Korea, but political agendas can influence how government agencies allocate funds.

As we approach the third edition of Frieze Seoul, Kiaf and the city’s increasingly international art week in early September, sales figures plus the general mood around the fairs will be useful metrics for understanding the state of the Korean art market and the country’s cultural scene.