Exhibitions in Seoul
July 2026
July 2026 at a glance: 12 exhibitions opened, 0 closed, and 16 more were on view across the city.
Opened in July
- The Korean Table: Food, Nature, and Life1 Jul
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.
Yeomingongsu: Defending the City Together with the People14 JulSeoul 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.
Revisiting Constitution Day16 JulNational 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 Parr16 JulPhotography 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.
Cups, Between Us23 JulNational 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.
- Kim Joo Young: Beyond the Window, Utopia24 Jul
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.
- WHANKI MUSEUM Highlights II24 Jul
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 Beyond24 Jul
Whanki Museum
At Suhyangsanbang: the Korean art collection Kim HyangAn built after founding the Whanki Foundation in 1974, and what came after her.
Korea Artist Prize 202624 JulMMCA 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.
- Folding Screens from the ARARIO Collection30 Jul
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.
Yang Ah Ham: Undefined Panorama31 JulArt 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.
MMCA×LG OLED Series 2026: Christine Sun Kim31 JulMMCA 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.
Was on view in July
Goya, the Spanish Master: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monstersto 30 SeptHangaram Art Museum
A retrospective of Francisco Goya's prints, drawings and court paintings, centered on his "Caprichos" series and its dark social commentary.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.