The 1st Kiaf PLUS art fair ended successfully on September 5th.
Kiaf PLUS, which celebrates its first year, took place at SETEC (Seoul Trade Exhibition and Convention Center) from September 1 (Thu) to 5 (Mon). With increased participation of young and emerging galleries, Kiaf PLUS provided a platform for those experimenting with modern art as well as new media and technologies such as non-fungible tokens(NFT) and augmented reality (AR).
73 galleries from 11 countries participated, and many of them consisted of new galleries less than 5 years old. In addition, Kiaf PLUS opened the Online Viewing Room (OVR) at the same time as the offline exhibition for those who couldn’t visit, helping visitors purchase artworks easily.
This year, contrary to concerns that the number of visitors will be low due to Covid-19 restrictions, Kiaf SEOUL and Kiaf PLUS welcomed more than 70,000 visitors including major domestic and foreign collectors and institutions during the VIP opening and general admission period.
As an NFT art platform, ETNAH also participated in Kiaf PLUS as an exhibitioner to introduce novel NFT projects by prestigious artists.
ETNAH attracted the attention of visitors by showing a promotional video of artist Lee Kun-Yong’s first NFT project Digital Bodyscape 76–3 and a launch teaser video of Emoshow by Kenny Scharf.
Digital Bodyscape 76–3 was the first NFT art project presented by ETNAH in June 2022, and 1,976 pieces were minted with reference to Bodyscape 76–3 by Lee Kun-Yong (b. 1942), a master of Korean experimental art. Holders who purchase Lee Kun-Yong’s NFT contribute to the completion of the work by selecting the paint colors and canvas color according to their preference, and an avatar that represents the body of artist Lee Kun-Yong appears and presents a performance exclusively for the holder.
Emoshow is an NFT project by Kenny Scharf (b. 1958), a famous pop artist alongside Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. Based on 365 Tondo drawings, it is an animated NFT project under the concept of understanding and sharing our various emotions that constantly change, and is projected to mint this November.
Artists Lee Kun-Yong and Kenny Scharf visited ETNAH’s exhibition booth, heating up the interest of the visitors even more. As Kiaf PLUS is a platform for people experimenting with new media and technologies such as NFT and AR, ETNAH designed an entire wall of the booth with a large LED media façade to attract attention in the exhibition hall. Everybody stopped to appreciate what ETNAH had to show.
By participating in Kiaf PLUS and meeting with art lovers and collectors, we were able to promote ETNAH to a wide audience. Seeing the successful sold-out of Digital Bodyscape 76–3 and the enthusiastic response from Kiaf PLUS visitors, we look forward to ETNAH’s outstanding progress in the future.
“This year’s Kiaf was a historical issue that confirmed the potential of the Korean art market. The collaboration between the two art fairs created a great synergy, and I think that Seoul, especially Korea, experienced an opportunity to appear in the world art market beyond Asia.”
-Hyung-Teh Do, Founder of ETNAH
