Seoul’s September Art Rush: Your Essential Exhibition Guide
View of Lee Bul- From 1998 to Now, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, 2025. Photo- Jeon Byung-cheol. Courtesy of Leeum Museum of Art.
If you know Seoul, you know September. The summer heat finally breaks, the city shakes off its August lethargy, and suddenly every major cultural institution seems to unveil something remarkable. This year's lineup is particularly stellar, a perfect storm of international heavyweights and Korea's most compelling contemporary voices, all converging in what locals simply call "The Art Week."
From Gangnam's sleek museum spaces to the more experimental venues scattered across the city, here's what deserves your attention this month.
INTERNATIONAL MASTERS
Louise Bourgeois: The Evanescent and the Eternal
AT HOAM Museum of Art
Louise Bourgeois, The Couple, 2003, Aluminum, 365.1 x 200 x 109.9 cm, Photo- Jonathan Leijonhufvud, © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by SACK, Korea
Twenty-five years is a long time to wait, but Louise Bourgeois's return to Seoul feels perfectly timed. The HOAM has pulled out all the stops for this retrospective, over 110 works spanning seven decades of the French-American master's career. It's the kind of exhibition that reminds you why Bourgeois remains so vital.
The museum's decision to focus on themes of permanence and transience couldn't be more apt for an artist whose work constantly interrogated memory and time. Expect crowds, but also expect to understand why Seoul's art community has been buzzing about this since the announcement.
Until January 4, 2026 | 16,000 won
Takashi Murakami: Seoul, Kawaii Summer Vacation
APMA Cabinet
Artwork © 2025 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo- Jeon Byung Cheol
Murakami's first Seoul outing in over a decade comes with typical fanfare, but this smaller-scale presentation at APMA Cabinet feels refreshingly focused. The exhibition zeros in on his floral works—those deceptively cheerful blooms that have become as recognizable as any logo. It's Murakami distilled to his essence: that uncanny ability to make beauty feel slightly sinister, or perhaps it's the other way around.
The intimate setting suits the work well. Without the spectacle of a major museum presentation, you can actually spend time with individual pieces, noticing how his flowers have evolved from pop optimism to something more psychologically complex.
September 2 – October 11 | Free
KOREA’S MASTERS IN FOCUS
Kim Tschang-Yeul
AT MMCA Seoul
Installation view of Kim Tschang-Yeul exhibition at National Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Korea. Photo: Diana Martinez
If you've spent any time in Korean galleries, you've encountered Kim Tschang-Yeul's water drops, those impossibly rendered spheres that seem to hover between painting and reality. This retrospective at the National Modern and Contemporary Art Museum (MMCA) traces the artist's journey from war-torn Korea to the studios of New York and Paris, showing how a single motif can contain multitudes.
What makes this exhibition essential isn't just the breadth of work, it's seeing how Kim's drops evolved from technical exercises into profound meditations on presence and absence. In an age of digital simulation, his analog illusions feel more relevant than ever.
Until December 21 | 2,000 won
Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now
AT Leeum Museum of Art
Lee Bul, Mon grand récit- Weep into stones..., 2005. Installation view, Lee Bul- From Me, Belongs to You Only, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2012. Collection of HITEJINRO Co., Ltd. © Lee Bul. Photo- Watanabe Osamu. Courtesy of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
Lee Bul has spent decades asking questions about bodies, technology, and desire. Questions that feel increasingly urgent in our current moment. This major survey at Leeum spans nearly three decades, from her early Cyborg series (still shocking in their visceral beauty) to recent large-scale installations that imagine futures both utopian and dystopian.
As artificial intelligence and body modification move from science fiction to daily reality, Lee Bul's prescient visions of enhanced humans and architectural fantasies read less like art and more like prophecy. Her work has always been about transformation—of bodies, cities, societies—and this retrospective makes clear just how ahead of the curve she's been.
September 4 – January 4, 2026 | 16,000 won
The City of Nam June Paik: The Sea Fused with The Sun
Nam June Paik Art Center
The challenge with any exhibition about video art pioneers is avoiding the museum treatment—that tendency to turn living practices into historical artifacts. This show succeeds by focusing on contemporary artists who share Paik's essential question: how do moving images change the way we experience time and space?
The answers vary wildly, which is precisely the point. Some artists embrace digital excess, others pursue minimalist precision, but all demonstrate that video art has moved far beyond its experimental origins to become a mature medium with its own sophisticated vocabulary.
The center's location in Yongin means this isn't a casual drop-in, but the combination of this exhibition with Paik's permanent works justifies the excursion.
Until October 19 | Free
Future Forward
13th Seoul Media City Biennale: Séance: Technology of the Spirit
AT Seoul Museum of Art
Byungjun Kwon, Opening Blooming from the center; Golden Flower of Potential, 2025. Production assistant: Suhee Yoon. Commissioned by The 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale. Courtesy of the Seoul Museum of Art
This year's Mediacity Biennale tackles an intriguing premise: what happens when artists turn to mysticism and the occult as forms of resistance against digital capitalism? The results are as varied as you'd expect, ranging from the genuinely transcendent to the deliberately obscure.
What works best are the pieces that take the exhibition's central question seriously: how do we maintain spiritual connection in an increasingly mediated world? It's a timely theme, executed with the Biennale characteristic blend of technological sophistication and cultural depth.
Until November 23 | Free
Korea Artist Prize 2025
AT MMCA Seoul
Installation view of Korea Artist Prize 2025 exhibition at the National Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Korea. Photo: Diana Martinez
The Korea Artist Prize has become Seoul's one of most reliable barometer for emerging talent, and this year's cohort—Kim YoungEun, Im Youngzoo, Kim Jipyeong, and Unmake Lab—represents the diversity and ambition of Korea's current art scene. Their work spans sound art, traditional craft reinterpretations, and technological experimentation, united by a shared willingness to push boundaries.
It's exactly the kind of exhibition that reminds you why Seoul has become such a compelling art destination: the combination of technical excellence, cultural specificity, and genuine innovation feels distinctly Korean, yet speaks to universal concerns.
Until February 1, 2026 | 2,000 won
PANORAMA
AT SONGEUN ART SPACE
SongEun Art Space has built a reputation for exceptional group shows, and PANORAMA upholds that standard. PANORAMA brings together eight Korean artists without forcing artificial connections or overwrought thematic frameworks. Instead, it lets the work speak across generational lines, creating the kind of organic conversation between practices that feels increasingly rare in our heavily theorized art world.
The exhibition functions as both snapshot and introduction—capturing a moment in Korean contemporary art while serving as an accessible entry point. It's the sort of quietly excellent show that reminds you why smaller spaces often outmaneuver their grander counterparts when it comes to pure curatorial intelligence.
Until October 16 | Free
Immersive Encounters
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Language of the Enemy
AT Art Sonje Center
Installation view of Adrián Villar Rojas: The Language of the Enemy at Art Sonje Center, Courtesy of Art Sonje Center, Seoul.
Some exhibitions occupy galleries; others colonize them entirely. Villar Rojas's first Korean solo show falls definitively into the latter category, transforming all four floors of Art Sonje Center into what can only be described as a sculptural ecosystem. Soil, fire, and plant life infiltrate the white cube, creating an environment that feels more like controlled wilderness than traditional art space.
The Argentine artist has built a reputation for these kind of totalizing installations—works that refuse the polite boundaries between art object and architectural container. Here, he's essentially asking whether contemporary art can still surprise us, and the answer, judging by early reports, seems to be a resounding yes. It's the sort of ambitious undertaking that reminds you why certain artists can't be contained by conventional exhibition formats.
September 3 – February 1, 2026 | 10,000 won
The Practical Bits
Most of these exhibitions run well beyond September, which means you can take your time. But experiencing them during the season's peak has its advantages, the city's art community is at its most energetic, gallery events are frequent, and the general cultural buzz makes even familiar venues feel newly vital.
Transport is straightforward: Seoul's museum district is well-served by subway, and most venues offer English-language materials. Free exhibitions outnumber paid ones, and even the pricier tickets (16,000 won at most) represent excellent value for international visitors.
The real luxury here isn't just access to world-class art, it's the chance to experience Seoul's cultural ecosystem at full throttle.
September in Seoul: consider yourself advised.
For current ticketing and hours, check individual venue websites. Gallery hopping is encouraged!
