As the third edition of Frieze Seoul (Sep 4–7) and the long-running KIAF Seoul (Sep 4–8) converge at the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center in Gangnam, the Korean capital will be pulsating with contemporary art and its fans. Amid all the openings, talks, and events, the editors selected some of the major exhibitions at Seoul’s museums, private art centers, and art spaces to check out in early September.

Jul 26–Oct 6
Heecheon Kim: Studies
Atelier Hermès

Heecheon Kim, the post-internet artist and winner of the 20th Hermès Foundation Missulsang award, questions the very nature of contemporary society in his new two-channel video installation, Studies (2024), inspired by early-2000s horror films. The 40-minute video work follows a depressed and suicidal wrestling coach whose students begin to mysteriously vanish, even from footage of their training videos. Throughout the work, Kim recalls classic horror tropes and creates a persistent sense of unease through the use of grainy visuals and warped, distorted images void of outlines. In doing so, the artist interrogates our present fears in the face of an era dominated by technology.

Aug 9–Nov 10 
Kylie Manning: Yellow Sea 
Space K

Having grown up living between Alaska and Mexico, New York-based painter Kylie Manning manifests her coastal experiences through oil-on-linen seascapes. In “Yellow Sea,” she presents works inspired by the tides of the eponymous ocean that conjoins China and the Korean peninsula. Employing a technique inspired by Dutch Baroque painters, her luminous works contain impressions of figures that ebb and flow between moments of clarity and abstraction.

Aug 17–Nov 3 
Do Ho Suh: Speculations
Art Sonje Center

For the London-based artist Do Ho Suh, “speculation” encapsulates contemplation, displacement, memory, and the interplay between individuals, communities, and the environment. Suh’s three-part retrospective on the concept opens with mixed-media installations from his eponymous Speculations series (2005– ), transforming everyday objects into light, translucent sculptures that blur the boundaries between the personal and the collective. The section “Bridge Project” showcases Suh’s architectural imagination, connecting the cities he has lived in with the concept of home. The exhibition concludes with two architectural films that explore themes of time, spatiality, and belonging, through the eyes of disappearing communal housing complexes in London and Daegu.

Aug 22–Nov 3 
SeMA Omnibus: I Want to Love Us
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art

“I Want to Love Us” falls under the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art’s (SeMA) large-scale collection-based exhibition series “Omnibus.” In this exhibition, established and emerging artists present 72 artworks (some of which are new commissions) on feminism, disability, and queer identity, providing a full spectrum of stories from minority individuals existing in contemporary society. In doing so, “I Want to Love Us” aims to fight against the tokenization and collectivization of oppressed peoples whose identities are often reduced to a singular viewpoint. 

Aug 23–Oct 13 
Inbai Kim: Seeing What is Not There
Primary Practice

Seoul-born artist Inbai Kim’s sculptural practice goes beyond superficial images to encompass the inner essence of physical matter. His latest solo exhibition, “Seeing What is Not There,” focuses on the invisible as a visual subject, depicting sculptural action by maximizing the medium’s basic elements, such as dots, lines, volume, and texture. By mediating the act of seeing into sculptural experiments, Kim is able to interrogate the relationship between absence and invisibility in the context of observation. The resulting body of work remains uncategorized and symbolic, while the exhibition expands on the concepts of logic and sensation. 

Aug 31–Nov 17
IMA Picks: Kim Minae, Bek Hyunjin, Cha Jeamin
Ilmin Museum of Art

Now in its third edition, “IMA Picks 2024” presents solo exhibitions of three artists, including sculptor and installation artist Kim Minae in “White Circus”; multidisciplinary artist Bek Hyunjin’s “ComposedUncomposed Lounge”; and video-based installation artist Cha Jeamin in “Stories of Visible Spectrum.” Established in 2021, the Ilmin Museum of Art’s project aims to highlight international and Korean artists who are making waves in the current scene.

Sep 3–Mar 3, 2025
Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Curated by Bae Myungji, “Connecting Bodies” showcases nearly 130 artworks by 60 Asian women from the 1960s to the present, including Japanese avant-garde artist Atsuko Tanaka, Filipina painter and printmaker Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Chinese sculptor Yin Xiuzhen, and Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo. Embracing the concept of “transcorporeality,” the major group exhibition explores interconnectedness within transnational female experiences, particularly concerning questions surrounding sexuality and body politics. Expressive, diverse, and marked by unanimous resilience, the thematic display seeks to rejuvenate perceptions of Asian women’s artistry.

Sep 3–Jan 19, 2025 
Nicolas Party: Dust
Hoam Museum of Art, Yongin

Nicolas Party’s first solo exhibition in Korea, “Dust” explores themes of nature, delving into issues such as preservation versus extinction, and the relationship between humans and other species. The exhibition presents more than 80 of the Swiss-born, New York-based artist’s works, including numerous landscapes, still lifes, portraits, sculptures, a collection of traditional Korean artworks, and five pastel murals on the museum’s lobby and gallery walls, creating an immersive environment for visitors. “Dust” follows Party’s unique approach to painting, as the artist has long garnered global attention for his architecture-scale works that reinterpret styles, motifs, and mediums from 18th-century Europe.

Sep 5–Dec 29
Anicka Yi: There Exists Another Evolution, But in This One
Leeum Museum of Art

Anicka Yi’s “There Exists Another Evolution, But in This One” marks the Korean American artist’s first major solo museum show in Asia. Renowned for her experimental works that link technology and biology to explore complex issues relating to racism, ecology, and machine learning, Yi asks us to contemplate our place in the world and in the ecosystems we inhabit. The exhibition features approximately 40 works along with new commissions supported by the Leeum Museum of Art. The show is co-organized by the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, where it will travel to in early 2025.

Sep 5–Dec 29
Art Spectrum: Dream Screen
Leeum Museum of Art

Art Spectrum was established in 2001 to promote emerging Korean artists, and in “Dream Screen,” the platform seeks to contextualize itself in today’s climate of contemporary art. Co-curated by Rirkrit Tiravanija, a Thai artist renowned for his social and performative artworks, the group exhibition encompasses 26 artists from Asian cultures who present their generational sensibilities in the form of individually curated rooms. The audience is invited to experience each artist’s unique practice, which as a whole demonstrates how a chronically online generation has adopted a renewed sense of the physical world.

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