BUSAN — Visitors will step inside a former bank vault to view contemporary art at a curated art fair opening this week. The third edition of the Emerging Artist Art Show, titled "Busan, Connected," opens on the 16th and runs through the 25th at the Vault Museum, located on the first basement level of the main building of the Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum on Daecheong-ro in Busan's Jung District.
The Vault Museum was built in 1963 and served for 50 years as the actual vault room of the Bank of Korea's Busan branch. Three sections that retain the vault's original features, including steel doors and iron bars, have been transformed into a showcase for cutting-edge contemporary art.
This year's theme is "Arrival." It is a metaphor for the moment when emerging artists who have completed their own distinct visual language after long preparation finally arrive in the art market. Unlike conventional art fairs that aim for department-store-style scale and display works at random, this event adds curation. The city of Busan, which hosts the event, sought to build a virtuous cycle in which artists do more than get discovered and exhibited — they establish themselves in the art market, become self-sustaining and keep working. To that end, AML (Art Meets Life), the agency running the exhibition, created a new "Pre-Fair" model that borrows the operating structure of an art fair. At its core is a one-on-one gallery partnership program, in which a single gallery takes full charge of one duo of emerging artists. The organizers also raised the quality of the exhibition through artist-led programming. The galleries provided professional market consulting, including artist positioning, pricing of works and advice on exhibition direction. "Busan, Connected" offers exhibition grants for each artist along with practical support to strengthen market competitiveness, such as inviting collectors, arranging follow-up exhibitions and connecting artists to distribution channels.
The novelty of the program drew a warm response from the art world. A total of 95 teams applied to this year's open call, the third such competition, for a competition ratio of 9.5 to 1. The screening of galleries was also fierce, and 10 galleries — three based in Busan and seven in the Seoul metropolitan area — were paired with 10 promising artist teams.
The participating galleries and artists are staging dense two-person shows inside the vault. A-Company is presenting artists Yang Yu-jin and Lee Han-hee under the name "01 Collective," while Karin Gallery is introducing Park So-hyun and Kim Ok as "Slow Diary." Combine Works has teamed up with Noh In-woo and Park Ki-won ("People Walking Between"), APO Project with Lee Sung-eun and Choi Su-yeon ("Between"), and Space So with Kim Yu and Shin In-ae ("Stranger"). Gallery CDA is presenting Choi Min-hyung and Seo Ji-woo ("Two as One"), Hippie Hannam is showing Lee Hae-ju and Hwang Jung-won ("Cheonggeunrok"), OKNP is featuring Son Min-hee and Park So-hoon ("Pink Liberation Front"), YK Present is presenting Noh Hyun-joo and Lee Seung-jin ("Grey Molecule"), and Gallery Soso is showing Ha Na-young and Hong Ji-hye ("Kunstein"). The genres and techniques on view are also varied, spanning painting, media installation, ceramics and airbrush work.
Project Yooyoung (Lee Jae-kyun and Choi Won-kyo), which won the first edition of the event in 2024, has returned to face audiences once more in a special exhibition at the Vault Museum. Luminea, the winner of the second edition last year, is also preparing a special exhibition at the Vault Museum in December, and both teams will take part in a special section of The Preview art fair. The team that finishes first this year will earn a chance to appear in a special exhibition at The Preview 2027 next year.
The local government has also shown firm resolve to strengthen the regional arts ecosystem. "By bringing galleries in, we focused on accompanying artists through the entire process of entering the art market, not just discovering them," a Busan city official said. "We will provide full support for creative activity, which is at the heart of support for the basic arts, and create conditions in which local artists can work freely."