SEOUL — Emmanuel Perrotin is a gallerist known for spotting — or, some would say, creating — an art trend and having a knack for the being part of the next big thing.
With one Seoul gallery since 2016 in the traditional neighborhood of Samcheong-dong — near centuries-old palaces, museums and tucked-away coffee shops — Mr. Perrotin realized that a second gallery made sense in a city known these days for a more youthful vibe, consumerism and a culture defined by movies, music and, yes, a growing visual arts scene.
And so Perrotin Dosan Park opened Saturday in the uber-hip Gangnam area with a solo exhibition of works by the Los Angeles-based artist Emma Webster. This is Perrotin’s 11th gallery in seven cities: Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Dubai and Seoul. Outside Paris, Seoul is the only city to have more than one Perrotin gallery (Paris has four spaces).
Perrotin will also participate in the first-ever Frieze Seoul, which runs Saturday through Monday, with a solo exhibition by the New York artist Tavares Strachan, who made his Asia debut at Art Basel Hong Kong in May. The new gallery opening and the double serving of Frieze Seoul and the 21st edition of Kiaf Seoul, Saturday through Tuesday, are all testament to this city’s place on the international stage and the growing influence of young artists and art collectors.
“People have long been focused on the Dansaekhwa movement of South Korea, but there is an explosion of young emerging artists now, and the new buyers are very bullish on them,” said Alice Lung, a Seoul-based partner at Perrotin, referring to the movement of monochromatic art that emerged in South Korea and Japan in the 1970s.
“Our collector base has been growing,” Ms. Lung said. “A lot of new collectors previously have been 50-plus. Now we are seeing those in their 30s and 40s.”
Mr. Perrotin is known for championing artists, many who have become superstars in the global arts scene since he opened his Paris gallery in 1990. And the melding of art and commercialism that he has become known for would certainly feel at home in the consumer culture of South Korea. He is credited with discovering such celebrity artists as Damien Hirst (who had an early career show in Mr. Perrotin’s Paris apartment, also in 1990), Kaws (also known as Brian Donnelly) and Takashi Murakami.
A show featuring Ms. Webster’s landscapes, which are created digitally using virtual-reality imaging and then painted onto canvases with an almost hallucinatory effect, seems like a fitting opening for a gallery in an area known for information technology and for nurturing start-ups.
“Emma’s approach to painting is so dynamic and intelligent,” Mr. Perrotin said. “She will be a boon to our program, I have no doubt.”
Seoul in many ways represents the future of Asia for the Perrotin group. South Korea is seen by artists and international collectors as a safe and stable place to visit and invest in. And for local collectors, art could be a safe and relatively cheap investment as housing costs skyrocket with the booming economy.
“In the past two or three years, the tax system has changed dramatically with properties, and it’s led to people to reconsider their investment portfolios,” Ms. Lung said. “Younger people have started to look more at art because it’s no longer always possible to invest in real estate.”
Ms. Lung attributes much of the boom in South Korean art to the growing influence of social media, coupled with the effects of pandemic lockdowns, when people spent more time at home and, presumably, on their devices.
“During the pandemic, people started to pay attention to their abode instead of looking outward and were spending more time at home,” she said. “Before people weren’t looking at decorating because they were thinking of moving. But now it’s more about investing in art.”
The two-story building has about 2,060 square feet of exhibition space and is designed by the Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio in Tokyo. It is near major luxury brand stores and two major auction houses and a few other galleries that have set up shop south of the Han River.
“With the entry of Frieze, it’s going to make the whole art ecosystem stronger, and the Koreans will see many more of the best contemporary artists, and more competition will be better for the locals,” Ms. Lung said. “On the gallery side we will have to work more, but it will be great for the city.”
For now, Perrotin is squarely focused on the immediacy of Frieze Seoul and the shows for Ms. Webster and Mr. Strachan, who will feature works from his recent “Galaxy” series of paintings, in which he reimagines the experience of looking skyward and becoming the author of what is there. Growing up in the Bahamas and being drawn to the night sky informs much of his work, which often takes on larger themes such as climatology, politics and cultural displacement.
As far as Mr. Strachan’s approach to art, his sentiments might be similar to those of Mr. Perrotin as they both embark on their next chapter, starting with the next few days in Seoul.
“I consider myself a storyteller, so the idea is that hopefully your story and what you’re developing will resonate with new audiences,” Mr. Strachan said. “It’s like making music. You just make your music and hope everyone can dance to it.”
