From prominent international artists to leading Korean artists, art museums here are gearing up to present highly anticipated exhibitions. This year will see a variety of collaborations between art foundations and museums from home and abroad including M+ museum, Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art and Punta della Dogana.
Leeum Museum of Art will kick off the year with its exhibition of works by Pierre Huyghe on Feb. 27. Fourteen of the French artist's works including media art, installation and sculptures, will be on view, as well as a new work created with support from the museum and Punta della Dogana in Venice, where Huyghe's comprehensive exhibition was held to coincide with the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Hoam Museum of Art, run by the same foundation that operates Leeum Museum, Samsung Foundation of Culture, will present a large-scale exhibition of works by Jeong Seon (1676-1759). The Korean landscape painter from the late Joseon era (1392-1910) is credited with having developed a unique style of Korean landscape painting. The exhibition will open April 2 in collaboration with Kansong Art Museum.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) will present Australian sculptor Ron Mueck’s hyper-realistic sculptures from April to July at its Seoul museum in collaboration with Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris. The exhibition will coincide with another at the state museum's Deoksugung venue, which will shed light on Korea's surrealist artists who have long remained outside the mainstream art scene.
Ha Chong-hyun, one of Korea’s pioneering artists and a key member of the Korean monochrome painting movement known as "dansaekhwa," will have a major solo exhibition at Art Seonje Center. “Ha Chong-hyun 5975” runs from Feb. 14 to April 20.
SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation will host its annual exhibition for the winner of SongEun Art Award. The 21st winner, emerging artist Kwon Ah-ram, will have her extensive exhibition at the museum from July to August.
Korean painter Kang Myonghi is relatively unknown in South Korea, having moved to Paris after her last exhibition here in 1989. The 77-year-old artist will return to Korea to hold an exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art in March.
From late August, state and private museums will bustle again ahead of Frieze Seoul, which is scheduled to hold its fourth edition from Sept. 4 to 7.
Leeum Museum of Art will show a survey exhibition of Korean artist Lee Bul from Sept. 4 to Jan. 4, 2026, in collaboration with Hong Kong museum M+. Hoam Museum of Art will unveil the country's first exhibition of Louise Bourgeois in 25 years, with some featured works shown for the first time here, starting Aug. 21.
The MMCA will present its retrospective of the late Kim Tschang-yeul, Korea’s renowned artist known for his paintings of water drops, from August to January 2026 at the Seoul museum.
Meanwhile, Art Seonje Center will bring together works by Argentinian sculptor Adrian Villar Rojas presenting them throughout the museum from Aug. 19 to Dec. 14.
Organized by the Seoul Museum of Art, the 13th Seoul Media City Biennale will take place from Aug. 26 to Nov. 30 directed by curators Anton Vidokle, Hallie Ayres and Lukas Brasiskis.
