KB金融集团连续第三年赞助韩国最大艺术博览会Kiaf SEOUL 2026

KB Financial Group (105560) first sponsored Kiaf SEOUL, South Korea's largest art fair, in 2024. The move followed Chairman Yang Jong-hee's appointment at KB Financial Group, which marked the start of the group's support for the visual arts. The stated aim was to give customers closer access to arts and culture while supporting the domestic art market. Another factor was the resemblance between finance and the nature of artworks, whose value accumulates over time and turns into an asset.
KB Financial Group's sponsorship of Kiaf SEOUL now enters its third year. Market watchers say KB has moved beyond exhibition sponsorship to build business activities around arts and culture, including discovering emerging artists, offering cultural experiences to customers and funding free admission to museums and galleries.
KB Financial Group said on the 31st that it will hold a special exhibition, "A Gathering of Stars," with artist Kim Taek-sang at the 2026 Kiaf SEOUL, running from September 2 to 6 at COEX in Seoul.
Kim has spent more than 30 years exploring how color spreads and overlaps using water as a medium. He has continued a distinctive method of pouring water mixed with acrylic paint onto canvas and letting it dry, repeating the process dozens of times to build up layers of color.
"A Gathering of Stars," the large-scale new work being presented at Kiaf, reflects that method and the artist's broader body of work. The exhibition space has been kept dark so the piece stands out like a single source of light, with sound and scent matched to the mood of the work so that visitors can experience it in more dimensions. "Just as KB Financial Group delivers trust, the essence of finance, to its customers, we will continue to provide a range of support so that the essence of arts and culture can reach the daily lives of more people," Chairman Yang Jong-hee said.
KB Financial Group is also working to discover artists and help energize the domestic arts ecosystem. At the Galleries Art Fair, the country's longest-running art fair, it sponsors "ZOOM-IN," a special exhibition for emerging artists, and runs a special prize called the KB Star Award. Winners of the KB Star Award receive support including merchandise production and solo exhibitions. At last year's Kiaf, works by KB Star Award winners were displayed separately, giving emerging artists a chance to meet audiences at a major art fair.
The group is also expanding customer touchpoints through arts and culture. Each May, KB Financial Group holds the KB GOLD&WISE Museum Day, inviting about 2,000 customers from its affiliates to the Leeum Museum of Art. It is also lowering the barriers to cultural access. Since September last year, in partnership with the Korean Museum Association, KB Financial Group has allowed customers who apply through KB Star Banking to use exhibitions and hands-on programs free of charge at more than 40 major public museums and galleries nationwide. About 34,000 people took part in roughly four months after the program began.
KB Financial Group is expanding its arts and culture work beyond customer marketing and one-off sponsorships into social contribution that supports both the growth of emerging artists and wider public access to culture. "We hope this special exhibition at Kiaf SEOUL, where we are taking part for a third year, gives customers a chance to feel the beauty and fresh appeal of Korean art up close," an official at KB Financial Group said. "We will keep broadening opportunities for customers to encounter and enjoy a variety of arts and culture in their daily lives."