Before Frieze decamps to Dongdaemun Design Plaza next year, the fairs' fifth run at Coex brings overlooked 20th-century names, craft in the spotlight and a citywide coin hunt Visitors view a work by Takashi Murakami in Gagosian's booth during Frieze Seoul 2025 at Coex, southern Seoul (Frieze) Think of it as a farewell party of sorts. Frieze Seoul returns to Coex in Gangnam from Sept. 2 to 5, sharing the building with Kiaf Seoul (Sept. 2-6) as it has since 2022, but this will be the last time the two are under one roof.With the convention center due for a renovation starting next year, Frieze moves across the river to Dongdaemun Design Plaza in 2027 while Kiaf stays put — so enjoy the short escalator ride between the two while it lasts.Frieze brings some 130 galleries from 30 countries and regions; Kiaf, now in its 25th edition, fields 175 from 18. One ticket, sold through Frieze, covers both.The big change at Frieze is two new sections. "Spotlight" gives 15 artists from the last century a solo booth apiece, most of them little known outside their home countries, from Han Young-soo's photographs of 1950s Seoul to conceptual and modernist works out of Myanmar and Nepal, among others. "Material Practice" does the same for craft, treating ceramics, textiles and hanji as contemporary art, with a paper-walled scholar's study as its centerpiece. Kwak Hoon's "Soil to Soil - I" (1979), shown by PNC Gallery in Frieze Seoul's Spotlight section (PNC Gallery) The blue-chip booths offer what people fly in for. Gagosian, the New York powerhouse, hands its entire stand to Damien Hirst, spin paintings and pill cabinets included. Several galleries are riffing on what's already up in the city's museums: Pace, another New York heavyweight with an outpost in Hannam-dong, pairs a 1989 Yoo Young-kuk painting with a new James Turrell glass piece, while the Austrian dealer Thaddaeus Ropac shows Georg Baselitz, who died in April, alongside Lee Kang-so.Local galleries also bring in the heavy hitters. Kukje Gallery spans generations from dansaekhwa master Ha Chong-hyun to Haegue Yang; Gallery Hyundai pairs Kim Tschang-yeul's water-drop paintings with sculptures by avant-garde pioneer Lee Seung-taek. Hakgojae builds its booth around Nam June Paik's "Tolstoy" (1995), a video sculpture named after the writer Paik admired all his life. Nam June Paik's "Tolstoy" (1995), to be shown by Hakgojae at Frieze Seoul 2026 (Hakgojae) Downstairs, Kiaf has gotten a makeover. For its 25th edition the fair brought on fashion designer Jung Kuho as its first-ever creative director, a pick that had the local art world talking for a while.Jung, a fixture of Seoul's fashion scene since the 1990s, has redrawn the floor plan around the theme of "coexistence" and built two special exhibitions on it. "Humal," a mash-up of "human" and "animal," has seven Korean artists taking on the body and instinct in the age of AI; "Virtual Vital" picks up where it leaves off in augmented reality, reachable by scanning QR codes posted around the halls.Out in the city Frieze Film, one of Frieze Seoul's citywide events, at a Seoul Museum of Art rooftop screening with the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale on Sept. 2, 2025 (Hong Cheol-ki/Seoul Museum of Art) Outside the convention center, the whole city gets in on the act. Galleries stay open late and museums time their openings to the crowds as the fair's own side programs spill into the neighborhoods, bringing public art, film screenings and live music along with them.The easiest way in is Neighborhood Nights, Frieze's after-hours gallery crawl, which takes over a different district each evening: Euljiro on Aug. 31, Hannam on Sept. 1, Cheongdam and Samcheong on the two nights that follow. Expect drinks, music and plenty of mingling.The Samcheong finale on Sept. 3 is the one to catch for a proper night out, since it also hosts Frieze Music, the fair's annual concert. Singer-songwriter Roy Kim performs live, followed by a DJ set. Visitors gather in Samcheong-dong during Samcheong Night, part of Frieze Seoul's Neighborhood Nights program, on Sept. 2, 2022. (Herald DB) Also keep an eye on the ground in those same four neighborhoods and around Coex: British artist Ryan Gander's "The Find Seoul" scatters 16,000 coins around the city from Aug. 31 to Sept. 10, turning every sidewalk along the way into hunting grounds. Every coin has a different piece of advice on it; find one and it's yours to keep or give away.Kiaf, for its part, is bringing in the country's biggest name in classical music to round out the program. Pianist Cho Seong-jin plays a recital at the Coex Auditorium on Sept. 4, translating this year's theme of coexistence into music.The fair has also teamed up with the Seoul city government on "OUTfront," a project that turns the blocks around Gwanghwamun Square into an open-air media art show. Works will be beamed onto eight building facades on the hour from Sept. 1 through 19.For those who want the discourse alongside the spectacle, a talks program jointly organized by the two fairs runs Sept. 3-5 at Coex, bringing in museum directors, curators, artists and collectors from Korea and abroad; seats are first come, first served.Frieze House Seoul, the fair's year-round space in Yaksu-dong, also has two shows through Sept. 19, including a bamboo installation of roughly 7,000 strips by the Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV.Sept. 2 is invitation-only at both fairs. General admission starts at 3 p.m. on Sept. 3, and Sept. 4 and 5 run 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Kiaf continues alone on Sept. 6, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.