Frieze Seoul kicked off its fifth edition Wednesday at Coex in southern Seoul, where it opened to VIPs and the press a day before the public. More than 130 galleries from 30 countries and regions are taking part in this year's fair, which runs through Saturday. Sharing the building, as it has every September since 2022, is Kiaf Seoul, the homegrown fair put on by the Galleries Association of Korea. Now in its 25th year, Kiaf brings together 175 galleries from 18 countries and stays open a day lo

G-Dragon has been many things — K-pop legend, fashion icon, one-man brand — but rarely a subject of a work of art. At JN Gallery in Gangnam, southern Seoul, a sculpture derived from the singer's voice now stands 170 centimeters tall, cast in resin and steel and lit from within by LEDs. Named "PEACEMINUSONE" after the star's fashion brand, the artwork is the centerpiece of a solo exhibition by Korean artist Lee Kwan-young. The vertical column of light began with an in-person meeting, where Lee re

The Busan International Film Festival will screen 315 films at its 31st edition next month, organizers announced Tuesday. The lineup includes 246 official selections from 59 countries — 95 of which are world premieres — making it the festival's biggest slate since 2019. This year's edition is the first since the International Federation of Film Producers Associations designated Busan as one of its 17 A-list festivals. The winner of the Busan Award for best film now also qualifies for submission

Design Miami Seoul opened to the public Tuesday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, kicking off a six-day run that coincides with the city's biggest art week headlined by Frieze Seoul and Kiaf. Now in its second year, the fair takes place in the Design Lab of the Zaha Hadid-designed landmark under the theme "Resonance," which looks at how objects carry memory and emotion across generations. The event is organized in partnership with the Seoul Design Foundation and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Cho

Polished steel sits near bronzes cast to look like meteorites, and a monumental metal colossus shares a gallery with a tower of pencil leads that seem as if they might scatter at a touch. "Koo Jeong A: Ousssmos," the Paris-based artist's largest solo exhibition in Korea, revels in collisions like these — the futuristic scattered alongside the primitive, the industrial among the ancient — until a sense of estrangement takes hold, hard to pin down but oddly absorbing. Opening Saturday at Leeum Mus

Heavy rain accompanied by gusty winds, thunder and lightning is forecast across most of South Korea through Monday. The central west coast is expected to bear the brunt of the downpours. Rain was already falling in southern parts of the country Sunday, where heavy rain warnings were in effect as of 5 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. The rain will spread across most of the country by Monday, hitting hardest in southern Gyeonggi Province, southwestern Gangwon Province, t

The box office race that had local film fans hooked through the month finally has a winner. Over the weekend, "The Odyssey" pulled ahead of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" to become the year's biggest foreign release in Korea, capping a monthlong duel between two Hollywood blockbusters that have put up massive numbers worldwide. Christopher Nolan's Homer adaptation had drawn 8.47 million admissions as of Sunday morning, nudging past the 8.45 million recorded by Marvel's superhero sequel, according t

The Busan Biennale launched its 2026 edition Friday with an opening ceremony at a shuttered high school in Yeongdo, kicking off a 65-day run through Nov. 1. Featuring 46 artists and collectives from 22 countries, the exhibition opened to the public Saturday. Led by co-artistic directors Evelyn Simons and Amal Khalaf, this year's edition treats rhythm, voice and assembly as means of communication and resistance — a tribute to the city's long tradition of labor activism and pro-democracy protest.

"The End of Oak Street" (US) Opened Aug. 26 Sci-Fi/Adventure Directed by David Robert Mitchell A family fights for survival when their suburban neighborhood gets thrown back in the age of dinosaurs. "The Journey to Gyeongju" (South Korea) Opened Aug. 26 Comedy/Drama Directed by Kim Mi-jo A mother and her three grown daughters hit the road to get revenge for the youngest daughter's murder. "Warfare" (US/UK) Opened Aug. 19 War/Drama Directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland A Navy SEAL platoon's su

A memorial service for Homer B. Hulbert, an American missionary and educator who campaigned for Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule, was held Thursday at his burial site in Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery in Seoul. Born in New Haven, Vermont, in 1863, Hulbert arrived in Korea in 1886 to teach at the Royal English School, the country's first government-run Western-style school. Over the next two decades, he devoted himself to writing, producing the first textbook in the Korean

Frieze lasts only four days, but the museum shows timed to it run for months, so a short trip is no reason to feel shortchanged. Seoul's institutions save their biggest openings for the first week of September, when collectors and curators are in town. Here are five worth planning a day around after a long afternoon of booth-hopping. The biggest of the lot opened Thursday at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in Samcheong-dong: the largest show yet by arguably the most in-

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 countr

Few Korean artists are in higher demand, at home or abroad, than Suh Do-ho. The world knows him as the artist who rebuilds the houses he has lived in at full scale in translucent polyester. Be it a hanok in Seoul or a studio in New York, each detail, down to the doorknobs and light switches, is rendered in bold colors that pull the eye from across the room. The reading that has built up over shows at the Whitney, the Smithsonian and, last year, Tate Modern is a story about nostalgia and the stub

There's Korean cinema as most of the world recognizes it, all stylish violence and class warfare, and there's the kind Lee Chang-dong has made his own over three decades. A published novelist who came to filmmaking in his 40s, Lee has made only six features in three decades, but few directors can match his brand of naturalism, closely observed and rendered with ferocious patience. His camera has a way of settling on the people undone by forces bigger than themselves, whether they be the broken m

What says the Chuseok holidays quite like a family with a few days to kill and nowhere they have to be, and what suits that better than a remake of a Hollywood crowd-pleaser everyone already half-remembers liking? Nancy Meyers' 2015 workplace comedy was warm, wholesome, escapist stuff, a feel-good ode to well-meaning people doing nice things. The major draw, of course, was the pairing of Robert De Niro, as a widowed retiree who signs on to be a senior intern at a fashion startup, and Anne Hathaw