Instead of an "Open Run," Serious Collectors Arrive... 1,580 Flock to Art Busan on Opening Day

VIP Preview Attendance Up 33%
Moona's Large Works Sell Out, Five Julian Opie Pieces Sold

The art market may have cooled, but serious buyers have come to Busan. On May 21, Art Busan 2026 opened with a VIP preview, welcoming 1,580 VIP guests in its first five hours. Major booths reported immediate sell-outs of large works and continued sales updates right after the opening. The actual sales performance on the preview’s first day indicated that this year’s Art Busan is evolving from a fair for spectators into a platform for active collectors.

Art Busan 2026 launched its VIP preview on May 21 at Exhibition Hall 1 of BEXCO in Busan. Celebrating its 15th edition this year, Art Busan features more than 100 galleries from 18 countries. During the first five hours of the preview, 1,580 VIP guests visited the venue, an increase of about 33% compared to last year. Ticket sales surpassed last year’s figures by 37% within just a month of opening. More noteworthy than the number of visitors, however, was the atmosphere on site. Rather than the previous craze of “open runs,” there was a marked shift to a calm, collecting mood, with visitors lingering in front of works, asking about prices and provenance.

Deeper inside the exhibition hall, visitors flowed quickly beneath a large blue “ART BUSAN” sign. Movements overlapped between the white booths, with small groups forming here and there to listen to explanations about the artworks. One new observation this year was the speed of actual transactions.

Sales results quickly followed. Everyday Monday sold both of Moona’s large-scale works (size 200 and 150) immediately upon opening. There was also high interest in an 8-meter-wide folding screen. DIA Contemporary reported a complete sell-out of works by Yeonyeo In. These pieces were sold to both domestic and international collectors, with the condition that they be available for future loans to museums and other institutions. Kukje Gallery sold five works, including Julian Opie’s “Angel couple 1.”

Art Busan 2026 International Gallery Booth View. Art Busan

The Kukje Gallery booth offered perhaps the most intuitive example of this year’s exhibition-focused trend at Art Busan. Julian Opie’s flat figures stood in a white space, with actual visitors walking among them. As the outlined sculptures and real viewers moved in the same direction, the booth appeared less a space for viewing art and more a scene of walking together with figures from the paintings. The bold lines and simple color fields attracted attention even from afar, and many visitors stopped to take photos.

Overseas galleries also reported positive responses. Gladstone noted strong collector interest in works by Salvo, Ugo Rondinone, and new pieces by Kim Joeun Achim. Awase Gallery sold multiple Sosouen works to collectors in the Busan region, while Void Gallery reported ongoing inquiries for Masaho Anotani’s works. Gallery Baton sold both sculptures and paintings by Yuichi Hirako to a corporate collector from Busan. At Z Gallery, Hannah Woo’s “Twins” and Yoonhee Choi’s “Songs #4” also found new owners.

ThePage Gallery, participating in Art Busan 2026, presented Jung Goohos' "Baekdong (White Bronze)". ThePage Gallery

Another highlight of this year’s Art Busan is the exhibition-style booths. ThePage Gallery presented Jung Kooho’s “Baekdong (White Bronze)” series, which reinterprets the metal decorations of traditional bandaji chests within transparent acrylic structures. Prices for the works range from 70 million to 90 million won, depending on size. The production technique, which features seamless transparency achieved through collaboration between acrylic specialists and metal artisans, is a key feature. The decorations from traditional furniture have evolved from merely functional components to surfaces that transmit light as part of sculptural art.

There was also a clear trend of artists and galleries organizing their booths as exhibition spaces. Maek Gallery showcased a large new work by Kim Eunju, measuring 21 meters, in its Connect Solo booth—a scale difficult to display in a standard booth. This demonstrates how Art Busan is moving beyond a marketplace for small, sellable items and is instead securing spaces that present an artist’s body of work with a certain density.

On-site feedback was best described as “calm yet proactive.” Unlike the boom years, when visitors would compete for works, collectors at the booths asked highly specific questions. Conversations covered artwork prices, the artist's exhibition history, prospects for future institutional shows, and conditions for acquisition. Industry observers note that the short-term speculative demand that entered the market during the 2021–2022 art boom has since receded, and genuine collectors focused on the long-term value of works and the sustainability of artists are now at the center of the market.

On the 21st at Busan BEXCO, visitors were viewing artist Jung-Ah Bang's "Flatfish Raising Its Head High" displayed at the Maek Gallery booth during the VIP preview of Art Busan 2026. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

Hong Wonpyo, director of Topsan Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic and Taps Plastic Surgery Clinic and a well-known collector, remarked on this year’s event, saying, “As the market has entered a stagnant phase, it seems that only true art enthusiasts remain as collectors.”

This year, Art Busan also enhanced its related programs to encourage visitors to spend more time both at the venue and within the city. Artist studio visits, Ananti collaboration programs, and Momos Coffee collaboration programs were all fully booked in advance. All sessions of the Conversations Program were also fully reserved. The strategy is to extend not just the time spent buying and selling art, but also the time spent seeing, hearing, and experiencing Busan itself. With the new Hive Art Fair in Seoul running during the same period, Art Busan is setting itself apart not as a “regional fair” but as a citywide, stay-type art fair that connects the entire city.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.