From Damien Hirst to Do Ho Suh, MMCA bets big on blockbuster shows

Damien Hirst's "Spot Paintings" (1986) / Courtesy of the artist and Science Ltd.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) is launching a new annual blockbuster exhibition series, “Global Focus,” dedicated to contemporary heavyweights who have helped shape the international art scene of the 21st century.

The announcement comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for the state-run museum, which welcomed an all-time high of 3.46 million visitors. Much of that surge was fueled by the runaway success of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck’s solo show, which alone drew more than 530,000 visitors.

As part of the series, MMCA will spotlight Damien Hirst and Do Ho Suh in 2026.

Hirst’s exhibition in March — his first large-scale solo presentation in Asia — is set to feature more than 50 pieces spanning his career, including his iconic works from “Natural History,” with its animals suspended in formaldehyde tanks, to “For the Love of God,” the platinum cast of a human skull bejeweled with thousands of diamonds, alongside some never-before-seen objects.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Director Kim Sung-hee speaks during a press conference at the museum in central Seoul, Tuesday, where she announced the major projects as well as the museum's exhibition lineup for 2026. Newsis

As to why the public museum chose to focus on Hirst — a figure as influential as he is polarizing, and whose relevance has at times been questioned — at this moment, MMCA Director Kim Sung-hee pointed to the British artist’s consistent interrogation of humanity’s relationship with death, the desire to overcome it, the capital that feeds on that desire and the social systems that legitimize such forces under the guise of science and progress.

“Through performance-like stunts, he has continuously dismantled and overturned these structures,” she said at a New Year press conference in Seoul, Tuesday, adding that the exhibition seeks to reexamine these facets of his practice for the audience here.

Behind the blockbuster scale of the show also lies a pragmatic institutional aim. Priced at the museum’s highest admission fee of 8,000 won ($5.6), these large-scale exhibitions are designed to generate revenue that flows back into the public coffers and can be reinvested in future programs. Last year’s Ron Mueck exhibition, for instance, brought in an estimated 2.5 billion won in ticket sales, enough to offset much of its 3 billion won budget.

During Korea’s busy September art season, a comprehensive retrospective of Suh will take over the institution. The show offers a multidimensional survey of his practice, centered on ideas of home, displacement and belonging. Alongside his signature translucent architectural installations drawn from personal history, a substantial body of Suh’s drawings is being presented for the first time in Korea.

Kim Beom's "Untitled" (1995) / Courtesy of MMCA

At the heart of MMCA’s solo show program is an effort to revisit Korean trailblazers whose reputations have yet to fully catch up with their artistic achievement: modernist painter Lee Dai-won, abstract sculptor Park Suk-won and Paris-based painter Bang Hai-ja.

That spirit of reassessment extends to thematic exhibitions that trace different constellations in Korean art. “Korean Artists in France, 1950s–1970s” brings together some 50 artists — including Kim Tschang-yeul, Moon Shin, Rhee Seund-ja and Lee Ung-no — who relocated to Paris and forged their own visual languages in a land far from home.

“This Is (Not) Conceptual Art” turns to the 1990s to examine the country’s own take on conceptualism that privileged ideas and language over material form. Featuring works by 20 artists such as Kim Beom, Gimhongsok and Ahn Kyu-chul, the show maps how conceptual strategies evolved within a local context.

Meanwhile, some of the museum’s most notable international offerings will unfold at its Gwacheon branch in Gyeonggi Province. Among them is a November presentation devoted to American modern art, anchored by the pioneering painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

The branch is also set to mark its 40th anniversary with a constellation of light-based installations by James Turrell, Philippe Parreno, Koo Jeong-a and Kim A-young, woven through the building and its grounds.