Thaddaeus Ropac is going to open its first Asian gallery, in Seoul, this October as the South Korean capital attracts increasing attention from the global art industry. The gallery will be located in Seoul’s Hannam-dong district and will take over the first floor of the Fort Hill building, designed by Juhwan Park, which won both the Korean National Architecture Award and Seoul Architecture Award in 2011.
Ropac has assigned the interior works to Teo Yang Studio. The new gallery will be led by Kyu Jin Hwang, Ropac’s Asia director, who will continue to split her time between Seoul and London. “It’s with tremendous excitement that we are establishing the gallery in Seoul and a privilege to participate in and contribute to a city that has such strong and long-established foundations for artistic interchange,” Ropac said in a statement.
The gallery’s first show in Seoul will open in early fall, but Ropac, whose roster includes the leading South Korean artist Lee Bul, is keeping details of the inaugural show under wraps for the moment.
The move comes as Seoul has been generating buzz as an increasingly attractive center for the art market in Asia. Ropac’s expansion comes as a growing number of major galleries and institutions consider moving their activities in Asia outside of Hong Kong. Pace Gallery recently announced it would be opening its second space in Seoul, also in Hannam-dong, this June, and Frieze had also been exploring fair options in the city.
“We’ve been thinking about Asia for quite some time and been building up an Asian team, and considering several places [in which to open a gallery],” Thaddaeus Ropac tells. “I’ve built up a relationship with Seoul over the past 20 years and it had to do with artists first—we had our first show with Lee Bull in 2007 and did an exhibition with Lee Ufan in Paris in 2009. And we were involved in introducing George Baselitz into Korea, organising the first major museum show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea in 2009. It was years in the making and we were very involved.” He adds: “I love the city, I love the sophistication of the Koreans.”
Ropac has been active in the Seoul scene since 2007, and some of its artists, including Georg Baselitz, Alex Katz, and Antony Gormley have exhibited at the city’s premier institutions. Currently, Lee Bul has a solo exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art.
“There is such energy and enthusiastic engagement with contemporary art in the city of Seoul,” the gallery’s Asia director, Kyu Jin Hwang, said in a statement. “Our team here is growing and we are delighted to play a role in the already flourishing art scene.” The director will split her time between Seoul and London.