Frieze Seoul 2025 is spotlighting queer and female artists through two major exhibitions: “off-site 2: Eleven Episodes” at Kukje Gallery K2, organized in partnership with Art Sonje Center, and “UnHouse” at the new Frieze House space. The former features works by 11 emerging Korean female and genderqueer artists exploring non-normative bodies and identities, including photography by Hong Ji-young, video by duo Yagwang, and an experimental piece by Kwak So-jin. The latter reimagines domestic space through a queer lens with 14 artists such as Anne Imhof, Catherine Opie, and Xiyadie.
This focus on queer perspectives at a major international art fair marks a significant cultural shift in Korea’s art scene, where female and genderqueer artists are moving from the margins to the forefront after the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibitions reflect broader societal negotiations around identity and normativity, with artists like Kwak So-jin arguing that queerness and art share a fundamental idealism. The prominence of these voices at Frieze Seoul signals both curatorial evolution and a growing institutional embrace of radical, non-normative expression in a country still grappling with questions of gender and sexuality.