09/04/2026
Thank you to Artsy and Hayoung Chung for featuring our solo presentation of Johanna Seidel as one of Frieze Seoul’s best booths!
“At a corner of the fair’s Focus section, visitors to Gaa Gallery’s booth were welcomed by the gallerist—and his eight-month-old son, watching from a stroller. It was a fittingly personal introduction to the pastoral yet slightly surreal paintings of Dresden-based German artist Johanna Seidel.
With spaces in Cologne and New York, the gallery is making its Frieze Seoul debut in the section for galleries founded since 2014. This is also Seidel’s first presentation in Korea, following a strong response at Art Basel Hong Kong earlier this year.
Her scenes initially appear familiar: Figures occupy bedrooms and domestic interiors, while animals, plants, and celestial forms hover nearby. Look longer, and they drift somewhere between everyday life and dreams. Siennas, violets, and murky greens give the oil paintings an unexpectedly soft, almost porous quality.
Most are modest enough to fit above a bed. Jewel Thief (2026), a portrait of a woman holding a cigar on a tall, narrow canvas, is priced at €3,000 ($3,478). While I was there, a collector who had purchased another small painting was already asking whether they could take it home that day.”
