Frieze Seoul 2026 Announces Exhibitors

Frieze Seoul 2026 will return to COEX in the city’s Gangnam district from September 2–5, in continued partnership with Kiaf SEOUL. The fifth edition of the fair will feature more than 125 galleries from 30 countries, of which over 70% are based in the Asia Pacific region and 40% maintain permanent gallery spaces in Seoul. Among the curatorial programs is a revised “Focus” section presenting 16 exhibitors from within and outside Asia, alongside two new sections: “Material Practice,” centered on the intersection of art and design, and “Spotlight,” dedicated to underrepresented 20th-century artists. “Neighborhood Nights,” the fair’s after-hours citywide program, will return, with evening openings and events scheduled across Seoul’s gallery districts. In a statement, Frieze Seoul director Patrick Lee described the city as “looking outward while remaining closely connected to artists, galleries, and cultural heritage.”

Hong Kong Debuts First Permanent Yayoi Kusama Sculpture

Hong Kong’s Lifestyle International has debuted Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin in Kai Tak, marking the Japanese artist’s first permanent outdoor installation in the city. Unveiled on June 6, the three-meter-tall pumpkin—one of Kusama’s signature motifs associated with resilience and healing—stands in the open area of The Twins Tower I, a commercial complex in the heart of East Kowloon. It features an emerald green surface adorned with black polka dots. According to the organizers, the sculpture is one of the artist’s only two green pumpkin installations across the world, with the other residing in the collection of Paris’s Fondation Louis Vuitton. The work is the first of a series of 2026 public art projects at the site, to be followed by more Kusama pieces as well as two newly commissioned rollouts, Antony Gormley’s BIG SPLICE and Izumi Ando’s A Tree & A Pair Of Horses.

2025–26 Taishin Arts Awards Reveals Grand Prize Winner

Indigenous Taiwanese performance collective TAI Body Theatre has won the Grand Prize of the 24th Taishin Arts Awards, which is endowed with TWD 1.5 million (USD 47,700). Founded in 2013 by Truku artist Watan Tusi and based in Hualien, TAI Body Theatre maps histories of labor, often initiating long-term collaborations with migrant worker communities across Taiwan. Their site-responsive projects employ Watan’s “foot scripts” choreography, which involves rhythmic stomping to mimic percussive beats. The group’s winning work, qaqay (2025), draws on the Truku word for “foot” and papak, an onomatopoeia term evoking the sound of animals’ footfalls, probing the relationship between humans and nature. The seven-person jury—which included curators Elisabeth Millqvist, Robin Peckham, and Chou Ling-Chih, as well as critic Chen Tai-Sung—praised the collective’s performance in their comments: “With heartfelt spiritual depth, this work confronts the challenge of disappearance through dynamic tensions and channels the sounds of all beings and past existences into our bodies, achieving the return of the impossible.”

Inaugural LVM Insurance Art Prize for Public Art Announces Recipient

Iranian German artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian has won the inaugural LVM Insurance Art Prize for Public Art—an initiative launched this year by Münster-headquartered insurance firm LVM Versicherung—for her politically charged installation, 86° WALTER HALİT (2025). Resembling a billboard, the large-scale light sculpture sits atop the Kassel Regional Council building in central Germany and features the names “Walter” and “Halit” in bold white lettering against a vibrant pink-orange gradient background. The work commemorates local politician Walter Lübcke and 21-year old café owner Halit Yozgat—both of whom were murdered by right-wing extremists in 2019 and 2006, respectively—and is accompanied by on-site audio guides and an interactive map. The jury noted in a press release that the work “stands as an artistically sophisticated symbol of democracy, vigilance, and social responsibility.” As part of the prize, Haghighian will receive EUR 25,000 (USD 29,100) as well as an exhibition on the LVM campus.