From ceramics to design, craft takes its place in the art market

A vessel becomes art when it is declared a sculpture. A chair becomes more valuable when a gallery places it on a plinth. A tapestry shifts from decoration to art when an exhibition presents it as a textile work. The old boundaries between art, design and craft are beginning to dissolve.

Frieze Seoul is making that change visible with “Material Practice,” a new section devoted to ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, wood, paper and traditional Korean hanji, a mulberry paper used across art and craft. Ten exhibitors are taking part. Hyeyoung Cho, a curator, ceramic artist and prominent advocate for Korean craft, has curated the section and placed craft and fine art on equal footing.

The idea has a long history. Josef Hoffmann, the architect and designer associated with the Wiener Werkstätte, developed the concept of the total work of art, bringing architecture, craftsmanship, garden design and interiors into a single aesthetic whole. Yet the art world spent decades treating ideas as superior to technical mastery, which it classified as merely decorative.

That hierarchy is now weakening. Ceramics, glass, textiles and wood have moved out of the applied arts and into galleries and art fairs. Korea offers a particularly vivid example, with younger artists reinterpreting traditions involving hanji, lacquer, bamboo, porcelain and mother-of-pearl. Dahye Jeong, who won the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022, works with horsehair using a nearly lost technique once used to make hats for the Korean court. This year’s prizewinner, Jongjin Park, turns paper coated with porcelain slip into sculptural objects.

International auction houses have also helped blur the old divide. Sotheby’s has presented collections such as that of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg as curated sales where art and design stand side by side, while design and craft are gaining ground in price as well as recognition.