Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Key art exhibitions to catch in Korea for season ahead
Ron Mueck's "Mask II" (2002) / Yonhap
By Park Han-sol
The first half of 2025 began with a thunderclap in Korea’s art scene, marked by blockbuster exhibitions that revealed a cultural appetite more fervent than ever.
At the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), “Ron Mueck” — the Australian sculptor’s largest retrospective in Asia — drew over 530,000 visitors across three months, averaging a record-setting 5,000 attendees per day.
Mueck’s silicone sculptures are eerily lifelike, with every wrinkle, vein and pore rendered with surgical precision. Unsettling yet hypnotic, these hyperrealist bodies have struck a chord with a new generation of viewers. The works have found an especially vivid afterlife online among those in their 20s and 30s, for whom the art of image-sharing on social media is second only to the art itself.
The "Gyeomjae Jeong Seon" exhibition at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province drew over 150,000 visitors across its three-month run. Yonhap
Another standout earlier this year was the rare retrospective of Jeong Seon (1676-1759) at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
Titled “Gyeomjae Jeong Seon,” the exhibition marked the most comprehensive presentation to date of the 18th-century master. Assembled under one roof were 165 pieces, including two iconic national treasures: “Clearing after Rain on Inwangsan Mountain” and “Complete View of Geumgangsan Mountain.”
More significantly, the show was the first to chart the full spectrum of Jeong’s oeuvre, from his emblematic landscapes to lesser-known literati-style paintings, portraits and flower-and-bird brushworks. Over 150,000 visitors came to witness the breadth of his creative legacy.
Lee Bul's "Mon grand récit: Weep into stones…" (2005) / Courtesy of Mori Art Museum and the artist
What to look out for
As Korea’s art calendar enters its second half, a slate of heavyweight solo shows is set to open across Seoul’s leading institutions, timed to coincide with the return of the international mega fair Frieze Seoul in September.
Among the highlights, the MMCA, in partnership with LG Electronics, will launch its inaugural “MMCA X LG OLED” series, inviting rising Korean media artist TZUSOO to unveil a new video work. In it, monstrous digital organisms drift through the terrains of female sexuality and procreative desire.
Also on the museum’s fall program is a major retrospective of Kim Tschang-yeul, renowned for his meditative “water drop” paintings.
At the Leeum Museum of Art, a sweeping survey of Lee Bul traces the arc of her boundary-pushing career — from early karaoke pods and cyborgs to her monumental “Mon grand recit” series, where personal memory collides with the fractured narratives of Korea’s modern political history.
Louise Bourgeois' "Maman" (1999) at the Hoam Museum of Art / Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol
Meanwhile, the Hoam Museum of Art stages a blockbuster showcase of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). Anchored by “Maman,” the towering spider sculpture from the museum’s own collection, the exhibition also features a trove of early 1940s paintings never before shown here.
At the Amorepacific Museum of Art, “Mark Bradford: Keep Walking” marks the Korean debut of the celebrated American abstractionist, bringing his layered, large-scale compositions to life.
Mark Bradford's "Float" (2019) / Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Outside the capital, a series of themed biennials will unfold beginning in September.
This year’s Cheongju Craft Biennale, held in North Chungcheong Province, shines a spotlight on the diverse realms of craftmaking under the theme “Re-Crafting Tomorrow.” Featuring around 110 artists from 17 countries, the event invites visitors to reimagine the future through the lens of material artistry, from ceramics and woodwork to textiles and metalwork.
Down on the shores of Busan’s Dadaepo Beach, the Sea Art Festival returns with a site-specific exhibition titled “Undercurrents: Waves Walking on the Water.” Curated by a trio of artistic directors — Kim Keum-hwa, Bernard Vienat and Sara Kim — the show brings art to the edge of land and sea to open a new cultural and ecological dialogue.