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.
Unexpected encounters with art on Jeju Island
Installation view of the thematic space "Glass Cosmos" at the Podo Museum on Jeju Island / Courtesy of Podo Museum
By Park Han-sol
Art may not be the first thing that comes to mind when planning a trip to Jeju, Korea's lush southern island. Yet scattered across its shores and hills are sanctuaries where art and nature breathe as one.
Here are four museums that may be worth adding to your next itinerary.
Podo Museum
Podo Museum, in the southwestern part of the island, invites visitors to slow down, offering just one exhibition each year — a full 12 months to absorb its ideas and atmosphere.
A relative newcomer to Jeju’s art scene, it opened in 2021 under the operation of SK Group, yet has quickly become a must-visit spot for art enthusiasts.
Led by executive director Chloe Kim, its curated exhibitions have delved into timely social themes — from hate speech and diaspora to aging — with a lens that is as probing as it is empathetic.
Sumi Kanazawa's "Drawings on Newspaper" (2017-present) at the Podo Museum / Courtesy of Podo Museum
Its latest show, “We, Such Fragile Beings,” reflects on our shared human fragility and imperfection against the vast scale of the cosmos, seeking in that recognition new possibilities for connection.
Thirteen artists, including Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Liza Lou and Lee Wan, trace the delicate threads that quietly bind us to one another.
Beyond its white-cube galleries stretches a sculpture garden dotted with works by Ugo Rondinone, Gimhongsok and Robert Montgomery. Danish art collective Superflex’s playful swing set will join the landscape later this year.
The Water Museum is an open-air chamber with a circular aperture in the ceiling, beneath which lies a still pool. The Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol
Water Wind Stone Museum
At the Water Wind Stone Museum, no paintings hang on the walls — for here, the buildings, each bound to one of Jeju’s three elemental forces, are the art themselves.
Designed by Jun Itami (1935-2011) in 2006, the museum embodies the Japan-born Korean architect’s lifelong pursuit of structures that breathe with their surroundings.
The Water Museum is an open-air chamber with a circular aperture in the ceiling, beneath which lies a still pool. Sunlight, rain, snow and clouds freely drift across its surface, turning the water into an ever-shifting canvas.
At the Stone Museum, a slanted opening in the roof lets sunlight pour in, casting shapes that shift with the hours. Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol
The Wind Museum is a place where Jeju’s breezes can be heard as much as felt. Built from red pine, its walls are pierced with slender vertical slits that allow the wind to pass through. The sounds it creates — likened to the twang of a bowstring or the crash of breaking waves — transform the building into an instrument played by the island’s breath.
At the Stone Museum, a slanted opening in the roof lets sunlight pour in, casting shapes that shift with the hours. At certain times of the day, the beam falls precisely on a single flat stone lying on the floor. The building itself is made of steel that has weathered to a natural rust, blending seamlessly with volcanic basalts scattered across the site.
Entry is by reservation only, with two time slots available each day.
The Bonte Museum on Jeju Island is designed by star architect Tadao Ando in his signature language of exposed concrete, water and light. Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo
Bonte Museum
If the combined star power of Tadao Ando and Yayoi Kusama isn’t reason enough to visit the Bonte Museum, it’s hard to imagine what is.
Conceived by Ando in his signature architectural language of exposed concrete, water and light, the museum is home to two of Kusama’s career-defining pieces: the immersive “Infinity Mirror Room” and the gigantic, polka-dotted “Pumpkin.”
But what makes Bonte noteworthy beyond these star names is its embrace of contrasts — placing titans of modern art such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik and Robert Indiana alongside the refined traditions of Korean craftsmanship, all under one roof.
The Bonte Museum on Jeju Island is home to one of Yayoi Kusama's career-defining pieces: the immersive "Infinity Mirror Room." Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo
This vision unfolds across five distinct galleries: Gallery 1 devoted to the breadth of traditional Korean craft; Gallery 2 to contemporary art; Gallery 3 to Kusama; Gallery 4 to ritual artifacts and ornaments used in funeral rites; and Gallery 5 to rotating special exhibitions.
The ongoing exhibition in Gallery 5, “Space: The Encounter of Life and Buddhist Art,” brings together nearly 350 works that embody the genre’s serene, timeless beauty.
Kim Tschang-yeul Art Museum on Jeju Island / Courtesy of Kim Tschang-yeul Art Museum
Kim Tschang-yeul Art Museum
Kim Tschang-yeul's "Water Drops" (1995) / Courtesy of Kim Tschang-yeul Art Museum
Nestled within Jeoji Artists’ Village on the island’s western side, the Kim Tschang-yeul Art Museum stands in homage to the eponymous “water drop master.”
Kim (1929-2021) was among the most influential abstract artists in postwar Korean history. The hyperrealistic water droplets were his lifelong motif, a way to sublimate the trauma of the 1950-53 Korean War into something luminous and poetic.
From the 1970s until his passing, the artist painted these drops in acrylic, oil, watercolor and “meok” (traditional Korean ink), setting them against surfaces as varied as monochrome expanses and classical East Asian texts.
The museum opened its doors in 2016, following Kim’s donation of more than 220 canvas works and glass sculptures to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. The painter considered the island his second hometown, a place of refuge where he lived for 18 months during the war.
Its current exhibition, “The Cabinet of Water Drops,” on view through Nov. 16, zooms in on the transformative years between 1983 and 1985 in his creative odyssey.