Just two weeks after Art Basel Hong Kong wrapped up its grand showcase, Seoul welcomed the second edition of Art OnO at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention (SETEC) from April 11–13, which offered a refreshingly intimate contrast to Hong Kong’s marquee event. With 40 galleries from more than 20 countries, the young fair has found its rhythm in South Korea’s increasingly dynamic art market, operating alongside Frieze Seoul and other prominent regional fairs.

Art OnO’s smaller scale translated into a more relaxed atmosphere—one of its defining characteristics, according to the fair’s founder JaeMyung Noh, which this year’s edition certainly lived up to. Participating galleries embraced this approach, spotlighting younger artists from their rosters. The overall price point remained accessible, without the multimillion-dollar works that typically dominate major art fairs.   

Several galleries presented thoughtfully designed booths. Tokyo-based Tomio Koyama Gallery recreated a 1980s Korean living room with vintage furniture sourced from Seoul’s Dongmyo Flea Market. Here, Tom Sachs’s installation Model Ninety Three (2023), a mixed-media audio system arrangement, adorned with liquor bottles and surveillance cameras, seamlessly melded with this nostalgic setting. Yoko Ono’s An Invisible Flower (2011), a solegraph on Japanese paper, rested naturally on a bookshelf alongside Katherine Bradford’s acrylic-on-canvas Boxers Winners Circles (2024) and Daisuke Fukunaga’s delicate figurative portraits. Meanwhile, Waldkirchen-based Galerie Zink transformed part of their booth into a mini-cinema for Turkish artist Erkan Özgen’s video works. Their booth also presented Thảo Nguyên Phan’s ethereal silk paintings that explore agricultural memory and colonial legacies—a preview of the Vietnamese artist’s upcoming solo exhibition at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo in June.

Following their relocation within Seoul in February, Esther Schipper showcased works by a broad range of artists. A major highlight was British multimedia artist Ryan Gander’s Phantom Ambition (2024) series,  which comprises 50 posters of imaginary exhibitions layered upon one another. One such piece on view,  Phantom Ambition (FACE OFF), depicts two labradors in a mock-MMA poster style. Further notable works at the booth included Korean painter Hyunsun Jeon’s vivid geometric abstractions, which drew significant collector interest, and British Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara’s Who is the Great Goat of the Night? (2023), a sizable cartoon reimagining of Francisco Goya’s uncanny oil-on-canvas Witches’ Sabbath (1798). At first-time participant Massimodecarlo’s booth, highlights included Cameroon-born painter Ludovic Nkoth’s vibrant portrait, Yellow Jazz (2022); Chinese artist Wang Yuyang’s abstract depiction of a lunar surface, The Moon 20181019 (2019); and Korean sculptor Yeesookyung’s ceramic vases made of broken ceramic shards, epoxy, and gold leaf. The latter artist’s large-scale ceramic sculptures are currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 

Many presentations at the fair centered on Korean creatives. Among them, Arario Gallery’s booth featured works by seven artists from Korea and Taiwan, with Noh Sangho’s large-scale wood-and-3D-print installation HOLY-Gravity and Grace (2024) drawing crowds. Taking the form of an ominous portal, the work features eerie snowmen, engulfed in flames and melting—a playful nod to the infernal scene in Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell (1917). Seoul-based drawingRoom assembled pieces by emerging Korean artists, such as Dew Kim’s Perfect Worship (No.02) (2025), a traditional stained-glass church window infused with erotic and queer imagery; Roh Choong Hyun’s subdued yet poetic paintings of quiet interiors and urban scenes; and Yang Moonmo’s colorful canvases of abstract geometric configurations. Berlin-based Peres Projects, which has an outpost in Seoul, showcased Keunmin Lee’s signature red-hued paintings that blend hallucinatory visions with corporeal elements. 

Despite the absence of several leading South Korean galleries—such as Kukje, Hyundai, and PKM—Art OnO appears to be comfortable charting its own course. As the country continues to establish itself as a key player in the global art world, the second edition of Art OnO demonstrated that there is still room for something more nimble and focused to thrive.

Louis Lu is an associate editor at ArtAsiaPacific.

Subscribe to ArtAsiaPacific’s free weekly newsletter with all the latest news, reviews, and perspectives, directly to your inbox each Monday.