What's on in Seoul
September 2026
September at a glance: 9 exhibitions opening, 5 closing, and 36 more on view across the city.
Permanent guide to September 2026 →
Opening in September
The 2nd Seoul Yoolizzy Craft Award Exhibition1 SeptSeoul Museum of Craft Art · Free
Award-winning contemporary craft works from the Seoul Yoolizzy Craft Award, spanning ceramics, metal, fiber, wood, lacquer and glass.
Si-gan: Time (時間)1 SeptHorim Museum (Sinsa)
A special exhibition on traditional East Asian concepts of time, examining cyclical time, astronomical observation and the rhythms of daily life through the museum's collection, across three galleries.
Sol LeWitt: Open Structure1 SeptAmorepacific Museum of Art (APMA)
Korea's first major retrospective of conceptual art pioneer Sol LeWitt, with roughly 45 works including 13 wall drawings realised anew within APMA's galleries.
- Koo Jeong A: OUSSSMOS5 Sept
Leeum Museum of Art
Koo Jeong A's largest solo show in Korea to date, spanning three decades of work with phosphorescence, magnets, scent and skatepark architecture spread through the M2 galleries, lobby and grounds.
The Path that Remains9 SeptSeoul Museum of Craft Art · Free
A contemporary craft exhibition featuring works in ceramic, fiber and mixed media.
- DDP Collaborative Exhibition [SPECTRUM]9 Sept
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) · Free
The 9th Promenade Design Exhibition, presenting nine artists and designers working across ceramics, sculpture, product design and visual art under the theme "the prism of creativity."
- Seoul Life: Heritage Reimagined, Soban Exhibition14 Sept
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) · Free
A design exhibition reinterpreting the soban, Korea's traditional low dining table, exploring how a historic craft object can be reimagined for contemporary life.
- Hyundai Card Culture Project 31: Wayne Thiebaud [The Order of Things]19 Sept
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
Korea's first major retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud, one of the 20th century's leading artists, known for his distinctive paintings of everyday objects.
Equinox22 SeptSeoul Museum of Craft Art · Free
Designer Chang Eungbok reinterprets the aesthetics of Korean gyubang craft and folk art as contemporary patterns across textiles, furniture and artisan techniques.
Last chance
- Kim Joo Young: Beyond the Window, Utopia30 Sept
Whanki Museum
2026 Whanki Foundation Artists show surveying four decades of Kim Joo Young's work, from hanok-lattice paintings to her Paris-period black canvases.
Goya, the Spanish Master: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters30 SeptHangaram Art Museum
A retrospective of Francisco Goya's prints, drawings and court paintings, centered on his "Caprichos" series and its dark social commentary.
- WHANKI MUSEUM Highlights II30 Sept
Whanki Museum
Collection special exhibition centred on Kim Whanki's 1963-74 New York period, tracing how his wife Kim HyangAn built the museum's holdings after his death.
- Whanki Foundation Collection Exhibition — Collector Kim HyangAn: And Beyond30 Sept
Whanki Museum
At Suhyangsanbang: the Korean art collection Kim HyangAn built after founding the Whanki Foundation in 1974, and what came after her.
- LALARECIPE x MeME: Happiness Recipe for Every Skin30 Sept
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) · Free
A K-beauty and pop-art collaboration between skincare brand Lala Recipe and artist MeME, with four themed zones blending beauty products and character art.
Also on through September
Yang Ah Ham: Undefined Panoramato 4 OctArt Sonje Center
A long-term research project tracing how social structures, disaster and the climate crisis shape our collective narratives, rooted in a 2014 tragedy in Korea.
Muyeong Kim: Pigto 4 OctArt Sonje Center
Muyeong Kim's first solo museum show, transforming the Art Hall theater into an exhibition site with photographs from Sorok Island and Seodaemun Prison, plus new sculpture.
SONGEUN × Unboxing Project: Generative Formsto 10 OctSongEun Art Space · Free
Marking 25 years of the SONGEUN Art Award, nearly 180 past winners and finalists each transform an identical box of plywood sheets into a distinct work.
Groundwork – Jong Oh: Sinking, Sittingto 10 OctSongEun Art Space · Free
A solo installation by Jong Oh reimagining SONGEUN's B2 Bunker Room, a former private storage space, exploring architecture, light and material.
This is (Not) Conceptual Artto 11 OctMMCA Seoul
Around 140 works by 28 artists, including Kim Beom, Kim Soun-Gui, Bahc Yiso, Ahn Kyuchul, and Lee Kun-Yong, tracing conceptual tendencies in Korean art from the 1970s to the 2000s.
Revisiting Constitution Dayto 11 OctNational Museum of Korean Contemporary History · Free
Marking Constitution Day's return as a public holiday, this show uses AI-reconstructed footage and period artifacts to revisit the 1948 drafting and proclamation of Korea's founding constitution.
Martin Parr: We Are Martin Parrto 18 OctPhotography Seoul Museum of Art (Photo SeMA) · Free
First major Asian retrospective of Martin Parr, spanning 14 series, 500+ photographs and his images of North and South Korea. With Magnum Photos and the Martin Parr Foundation.
Crinkle, Crinkle, Whisper, Whisperto 25 OctMMCA Seoul
Sound-inspired works created by artist Kim Joon together with ten families from Seoul Metropolitan Children's Hospital, part of MMCA's inclusive-museum programme.
2026 Korean Modern Masters: Yoo Youngkuk — A Mountain Within Meto 25 OctSeoul Museum of Art · Free
A comprehensive retrospective marking the 110th birth anniversary of abstract pioneer Yoo Youngkuk, with over 170 works and archival materials spanning six decades, opening SeMA's new Korean Modern Masters series.
2026 Title Match — Inhwan Oh vs. Seo Young Chang: Human Errorto 25 OctBuk-Seoul Museum of Art · Free
The 13th edition of Title Match pairs artists Inhwan Oh and Seo Young Chang, reframing human imperfection as a source of creativity rather than a flaw, across installation, video and photography.
Yeomingongsu: Defending the City Together with the Peopleto 25 OctSeoul Museum of History · Free
How Joseon-era Seoul's soldiers and residents jointly built and repaired the city's defenses, including the Seoul City Wall, across generations of conflict.
- The Korean Table: Food, Nature, and Lifeto 25 Oct
National Museum of Korea
A special exhibition exploring Korean culinary culture and its relationship to nature and everyday life, on view in Special Exhibition Gallery 2.
Cups, Between Usto 1 NovNational Folk Museum of Korea · Free
Over 190 folkloric cups, from ancient earthenware and celadon to modern glass and paper, shown alongside 13 contemporary artists' works on how cups connect people.
The 5th Hangeul Design Project: Senses of Writing — Tools & Perception at Gimhaeto 1 NovNational Hangeul Museum · Free
Touring design exhibition on Hangeul, tools and perception, hosted at Gimhae's Kimyoungwon Museum of Art while the main building is closed for fire-damage repairs.
Lee Kang So: Emergence and Dissolutionto 1 NovLotte Museum of Art
A survey of Lee Kang So's five-decade practice across painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance, tracing where the visible and invisible, reality and image, begin to waver.
Lee Daiwon: Nothing Here Makes You Sadto 8 NovMMCA Deoksugung
The first retrospective of landscape painter Lee Daiwon (1921-2005), tracing the disciplined technique behind his vivid orchards, mountains and fields.
The Making of Seoul's Urban Futureto 8 NovSeoul Museum of History · Free
Marking 60 years since Seoul's first 1966 master plan, tracing how early urban visions shaped the city's growth and imagining what comes next.
GanaArt Collection: Beneath Technology — Scenes at the Thresholdto 22 NovSeoul Museum of Art · Free
Works from the donated GanaArt Collection of Korean realist art examining how technology and industrialization reshaped urban life, social order and individual experience.
- Folding Screens from the ARARIO Collectionto 22 Nov
Arario Museum in Space
Five historic Korean folding screens by Yu Deokjang, Kim Heesoon, Kim Eunho, Park Saengkwang and Pak Nosoo, tracing bamboo, birds and dragons across centuries of ink painting.
- Kim Jeonghui and His Companionsto 22 Nov
National Museum of Korea
A thematic show on 19th-century Joseon scholar-calligrapher Kim Jeonghui, exploring his intellectual circle through letters, calligraphy and paintings. Calligraphy and Painting Gallery, 2F.
MMCA×LG OLED Series 2026: Christine Sun Kimto 29 NovMMCA Seoul
Second edition of the MMCA x LG OLED media-art commission, presenting Christine Sun Kim's "Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock" on a large curved OLED screen installation in Seoul Box.
- Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956-1976to 29 Nov
Leeum Museum of Art
Immersive, sensory environments by pioneering women artists including Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark and Marta Minujin, reconstructing a radical strand of postwar art often left out of the canon.
Happy Onam: A Festival for All, the Joy of Dancing Togetherto 6 DecNational Folk Museum of Korea · Free
Kerala's Onam harvest festival explored through floral arrangements, ritual objects, festive foods and the Kummattikali masked dance, drawing parallels with Korea's Chuseok.
Korea Artist Prize 2026to 6 DecMMCA Seoul
Korea's leading contemporary-art award exhibition, presenting new and key earlier works by the four 2026 finalists: Lee Haemin Sun, Lee Jungwoo, Jeon Hyunsun, and Hong Jin-hwon.
- Baby Shark The Experience: Unlock the Secret Oceanto 19 Dec
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
An interactive family exhibition based on the global children's franchise Baby Shark, inviting visitors to explore a secret ocean through immersive play zones.
SeMA Public Space Project: Dance of Eternal Polaritiesto 31 DecSeoul Museum of Art · Free
A large-scale crocheted installation by Ernesto Neto, filled with guava and tea-tree leaves, transforming the museum's lobby and public spaces with sensory forms drawn from Brazil's Neo-Concrete movement.
From Lacquer Tree to Lacquerwareto 31 DecSeoul Museum of Craft Art · Free
Traces the journey of lacquerware craftsmanship, from cultivating lacquer trees to the artisan techniques behind finished pieces.
- Evergreen Bamboo Through the Four Seasons Embodied in Ceramicsto 31 Jan
National Museum of Korea
A thematic display of ceramics decorated with bamboo motifs across the seasons, in the Buncheong Ware and White Porcelain Gallery, permanent exhibition hall 3F.
Do Ho Suhto 9 FebMMCA Seoul
A large-scale retrospective of Korea's leading installation artist Do Ho Suh, spanning early works, major pieces on home and migration, and ongoing projects.
ZERO: The North Koreato 14 FebNational Folk Museum of Korea · Free
North Korean folk culture through regional memories of Gaeseong, Hwanghae-do, Pyeongan-do and Hamgyeong-do, shared everyday traditions, and Geumgangsan Mountain as a common cultural memory.
Taehwagwan: A Space Weaving Together Timeto 7 MarSeoul Museum of History · Free
The layered history of one Insa-dong site, from a Joseon yangban residence and royal quarters to a modern restaurant and the site of the 1919 Declaration of Independence.
You, As You Are — SimLee Da Eunto 11 AprBuk-Seoul Museum of Art · Free
A sound installation in which visitors turn handles to blend live audio streamed from around Nowon-gu with the imagined footsteps of a fictional stray cat, exploring whose sensory experience of the city counts as "normal".
Kwon Byungjun: I Embrace Youto 16 MayBuk-Seoul Museum of Art · Free
A media-art show of imperfect, experimental humanoid robots and sound works by Kwon Byungjun, inviting visitors to reconsider how they welcome "strangers" and difference.
Beyond project: Somatic Ground — Small Studio Semito 30 MayBuk-Seoul Museum of Art · Free
Woodworking sculptures and geometric installations by Small Studio Semi that engage senses beyond sight, inviting visitors to experience the museum's spaces through their bodies rather than in silence.
Folded Time, Unfolded Memory—Andong Palaceto 29 AugSeoul Museum of Craft Art · Free
A collaboration with the Oryundae Korean Martyrs Museum exploring how craft mediates the memories of the site's people and places across eras.
Twinkle Twinkle, Hippity-Hopto 31 DecNational Folk Museum of Korea · Free
Interactive Children's Museum exhibition following a bunny doll into the museum's collection, with hands-on excavation, cleaning, conservation and packing activities.
Stay in the loop on Seoul
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.