Art Exhibitions to Visit in Seoul through 2022

Climate crises, pandemics and wars are changing the way we live and radically rethinking the values ​​systems defined by the last century. In a time when both macroscopic and microscopic care are needed, we need an expanded perspective that crosses regions and countries, a new cultural solidarity, and the imagination of civilization transformation. At this time, it seems important to ask again about the role of art and Asian society, which has expanded its influence on the world order. How can we create a more thoughtful, free and sustainable future that breaks free from the intricate geopolitical framework of the past?
Leeum Museum of Art’s starts from these concerns. Here, the cloud/cloud, implying climatic, imaginary, and hyperlinked meanings, is a metaphor for the new socio-cultural environment of the 21st century, and a virtual platform that crosses geopolitical boundaries. Artists from various fields participating in the exhibition are walkers/flâneurs, workers/doers, and dreamers/visionaries who freely roam the cloud world and look at contemporary and future social issues with new and critical perspectives. . Those who balance coexistence and technological development are conducting research and practice for sustainable coexistence in a sense of responsibility for the global environment, reconstructing numerous data, unfolding strange and infinite imaginations that transcend time and space, material/immaterial , let you experience a new synesthetic world where reality/virtual intersect. We hope that through the colorful world drawn by those who are slightly ahead of the future, we can get a glimpse of the new possibilities and dynamism of Asian art.

– Leeum Art Museum

In Russian, which has been widely used in Central Asia since the Soviet era, Koreans, Koreans, and Goryeos are all ‘kareichi’ (Корейцы). Like the English ‘Korean’, the distinction between them is ambiguous in Russian. The well-known Russian ‘Kareiski’ (Коре́йский) is the same as ‘Korean’ when translated into Korean, and is not used to refer to people. In contrast, Goryeo people refer to themselves as ‘Koryo people’ (Корё сарам). The use of the expression ‘Koryo people’ means that they recognize that they are not Koreans from Primorsky Province like their ancestors, but rather a different category of community that is distinct from Koreans in their distant homeland.
The exhibition shows, in nine sections, the traces of the daily lives of Korean compatriots who were scattered in an unfamiliar land in Central Asia amid a huge historical vortex in the last century, struggling for settlement and survival. The audience discovers a self-portrait of the Koreans who have formed an overlapping identity between the local natural environment and various cultural resources such as the Russian culture influenced by the Soviet era and the traditions of the Northeast region of the Korean Peninsula, including Hamgyeong-do, and the Uzbeks and Kazakhs.

– Jongro Village (종로마을 N)

The exhibition will spotlight the never-before-seen interactive digital installation Massless Suns and Dark Spheres (2022) along with the monitor-based digital works Waves of Light (2018), Dissipative Figures – 1000 Birds (2022), Dissipative Figures – Human (2022), and Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Eternity II (2019), all of which will be displayed in the gallery’s ground floor exhibition space equipped for experiential, immersive artworks, which was unveiled in March 2022. The interactive digital installation Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light Color, Sunrise and Sunset (2022) will be presented in the gallery’s new outdoor sculpture courtyard, opening to the public on the occasion of Frieze Seoul.

– Pace Gallery

This presentation will mark Ghenie’s first solo show in Asia and coincide with the inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul. Presented in the main gallery space of Pace’s Seoul arts complex, the show—spread across two floors of exhibition space—will include 28 variously sized charcoal drawings that reflect Ghenie’s experimentations in mark-making and figuration.
Ghenie, whose practice spans painting, drawing, and collage, is best known for his lush oil paintings of figures in layered, cinematic works that mine visual, political, and social histories, including those of his native Romania.

– Pace Gallery

After an inaugural run in Hong Kong in May, Christie’s and HomeArt are bringing Flesh And Soul: Bacon/Ghenie to Seoul. It is the first time works by Francis Bacon and Adrian Ghenie have been shown together in Korea.
The not-for-auction exhibition will run from 3 to 5 September at BOONTHESHOP in Cheongdam, and will be free and open to the public.
Worth a combined $US 440 million, the 16 artworks on show include museum-worthy specimens of some of the artists’ most iconic series.
Christie’s Asia Pacific Deputy Chairman and International Director Elaine Holt said the show highlights ‘the visceral tension and haunting energy that Bacon and Ghenie both so brilliantly capture through their manipulation of paint.’

– Ocula Magazine

The Italian illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli is known for a number of different creative attributes. Probably most recognisable is her style, one you can spot a mile off, reminiscent of the Italian creative stars who came before her. The other factor is where these works have popped up, from the walls of galleries to the shopfronts of Uniqlo, a collection with Prada to the cover of The New Yorker or a plastic packet of tissues. But an attribute those who know, or have even briefly met Olimpia, will recognise is her ability to harness community in just a drawing. In fact, as we soon learned, it’s pretty much the basis of all her work too.

– It’s Nice That

“You know it when you see it,” says the book’s author Wally Koval of the immediately identifiable style. Brooklyn-based Koval is the founder of the Accidentally Wes Anderson project, which began “on a whim”, he tells BBC Culture, as a “personal travel bucket list” of places that he and his wife – and partner in the project – Amanda wanted to one day explore. He began to realise that all of these real places around the world had something in common – they all looked like “accidental captures” from one of Anderson’s movies.

– BBC

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a pioneer of photojournalism who took pictures taken on the streets with a small film camera and turned them into art. Cartier-Bresson, who was learning painting as a child, began his photography career in the early 1930s when he encountered the photographs of photographers Eugène Atsee and Man Ray. The camera was an extension of his eyes, and his way of working was to capture authenticity based on intuition and instinct. He, who said, “I am more interested in life than photography,” opposes any artificiality, and instead of excluding directing, flash, and photo cropping, the shutter is released only when the subject is perfectly arranged in form and reveals its essence. pressed Therefore, the world of his work, which contains aesthetic perfection and everyday humanism at the same time, can be condensed into one word: ‘decisive moment’. In his works, we find a keen but warm gaze that gazes at life and the world.

– Seoul Arts Center

The Walkerhill Theater, the center of Korean performance culture, has been reborn as an immersive art exhibition hall, ‘Theatre of Light’. 
A new world of art embodied by immersive art exhibitions unfolds here, with a total area of ​​about 1,000 pyeong, an overwhelming grandeur of a maximum height of 21m, and a three-dimensional sense of space and depth that utilizes the architectural beauty of the grand theater.
As soon as you enter the exhibition hall, the works of masters and magnificent music unfolding through numerous beam projectors and speakers provide a perfect immersion feeling, providing a special experience of becoming one with the work.

– Walkerhill Hotel

Miles Aldridge is a British photographer. Best known for his cinematic images of women, Aldridge’s work is often brightly lit by fluorescent colors and depicts a world that is at once glamorous and surreal.

Following the exhibition at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in 2021, the artist who visited Korea for the first time in a year will present about 60 latest works produced in 2022 for this solo exhibition. 
Colbert’s artistic self, Lobster, freely moves between painting, sculpture, and metaverse, with the message that ‘anyone can do anything’ and ultimately recommends that you complete your own art world.

– Naver Booking

The LOTTE Museum of Art presents the solo exhibition of Shepard Fairey, who disseminates a positive influence through works of art that embody philosophical messages of peace, justice, and the environment, across pop culture and visual arts. The show will feature over 200 signature pieces spanning from his early to his recent works, including two new mural pieces, looking back at how the artist led street art, previously a subculture, into a more expansive art market. It will survey the entire artistic world of the artist, who, based on his distinct unbridled yet tenacious philosophy, reflects on our surroundings and society and stirs the public to take more action.

– Lotte Museum of Art

The LOTTE Museum of Art brings you Alex Prager (b. 1979), an artist who captures Hollywood’s colors and subtle emotions with her camera lens. This exhibition is the first time viewers will have a chance to see Prager in Korea, showcasing a comprehensive body of work of more than one hundred photographs and videos encompassing everything from her early works to her recent releases. Prager’s work is like a scene from a classic movie, possibly from being greatly inspired by mass culture and the film industry as an artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Through its distinct hues and her mysterious image working, the moment she freezes on film sparks viewers’ imaginations, portraying in detail the internal emotions embedded in that split second. With intricate mise-en-scène that articulates the inner-workings of a person, this exhibition will present unforgettable cinematic moments to viewers through which they can experience the rawest human emotions.

– Lotte Museum of Art

The exhibit displays a total of 355 “carefully selected” pieces among the vast collection donated by the late Samsung chairman, according to the museum.  
“Among them, 308 pieces will be from 21,693 ancient artifacts donated to the National Museum of Korea, 35 pieces are from the MMCA, which received 1,488 modern and contemporary artworks and 12 pieces are from five regional museums. They received 102 modern and contemporary artworks,” said Lee Jae-ho, curator of the exhibit from the National Museum of Korea. The artifacts from the National Museum of Korea include six state-designated National Treasures and 15 Treasures.  
As the exhibit at the museum last year only displayed 45 Korean artifacts and old artworks, the current exhibit is much more grand and even includes some modern pieces.

– Korea Joongang Daily

The Lee Kun-hee Collection comprises 1,369 Korean artworks and 119 overseas artworks. By genre, it includes 412 paintings, 371 prints, 296 works of Hangukhwa (Korean traditional painting), 161 drawings, 136 craft pieces, and 104 sculptures. Over 320 of the works were produced before the 1950s, while around 860, or 58%, were produced by modern artists – defined as those born before 1930. The collection includes works by Kim Whanki, Park Sookeun, Lee Jungseop, Lee Ungno, Yoo Youngkuk, Kwon Jinkyu, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and many more.
For this exhibition, around 50 representative works have been selected, most of them representing the modern and contemporary eras from the early to mid-20th century, which account for the main part of the Lee Kun-hee Collection. The first ones to be exhibited are masterworks created by artists beloved by Koreans, including the early 20th century works Peach Blossom Spring by Lee Sangbeom and Paradise by Baik Namsoon and the mid-20th century works Women and Jars by Kim Whanki, Bull by Lee Jungseop, and Woman Pounding Grain by Park Sookeun Yellow Road by Chun Kyungja and A Thousand Years Old House by Rhee Seundja. MMCA also plans to underscore the significance of this gift from Lee Kun-hee and his family by administering the Lee Kun-hee Collection as future cultural heritage, creating an opportunity for the Korean public to continue appreciating these artworks in the years ahead.

– MMCA

The exhibition displays 41 artworks by contemporary artists, including Kwon Jinkyu, Nam Kwan, Christian Boltanski, Sung Neungkyung, Kim Jungwook, and Zach Blas. Instead of being divided into sections, the exhibition makes use of the spatial characteristics of the circular gallery to create a natural flow, allowing viewers to make direct and indirect connections between the artworks. Partitions, installation materials, and lighting from previous exhibitions have been reused as part of the MMCA’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

– MMCA

Hito Steyerl-A Sea of Data at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Asia, sharing 23 of her most representative works from her early video works in the 1990s, which took the form of film essays with a documentary quality such as Germany and Identity (1994) and The Empty Centre (1998), to her most recent video works reflecting on digital technology (including the internet, virtual reality, robot engineering, and artificial intelligence) within its relationship to human beings and society. In particular, this exhibition will mark the first presentation of Animal Spirits (2022), a new work commissioned by MMCA.

– MMCA

This exhibition attempts to tell the fascinating stories of [the Aztecs’] strong will to thank their gods and sustain the world, a belief that had been obscured by the practices of human sacrifices. The exhibition explores the great artistic, intellectual, economic, and political development of the Aztecs that flourished in Mesoamerica, presenting precious collections from 11 museums in Mexico and Europe as well as newly discovered findings never shown to the public.

– National Museum of Korea

Legendary Louis Vuitton’s Trunk Exhibition is an immersive exhibition that you can experience the uniq ue trunks produced by designer Louis Vuitton since the 1850s, especially historical trunks owned by ‘Franklin D Roosevelt’, the 32nd president of US, ‘Ernest Hemingway’, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature by The Old Man and the Sea, and Hollywood actress Judy Garland, who dominated the 1960s, and Holly wood’s hottest star Sharon Stone in the 90s.

– Legendary Louis Vuitton Trunks The Exhibition

JUMP for the new me!! When you jump, the mask comes off. Whatever situation Philip Halsman faces, he finds the perfect picture he wants. Halsmann is a virtuoso with the best cinematography and is a master who showed his imagination to the fullest based on his technical perfection. When he jumps, he defies his gravity with a sudden burst of energy, causing him to lose control of his facial expression, face, and muscles in his limbs. At this moment, the mask is removed and the true self is revealed. Philippe Halsman captured that moment on camera. Through Philip Halsman’s Jumpology, we hope that you will take a moment to look at the personalities and mental states of the main characters in the photos, and to think about when we are truly in our best form. In this exhibition, you can see not only Philip Halsman’s jumping photos and portraits, but also photo sheets that have never been shown in the exhibition, as well as jumping photos of ordinary but special people who convey courage and hope.

– KMCA

At the heart of Beeman’s works is a predicament between reality and fantasy, temporality and permanence in acts of escape versus the fantasy of escapism. While fashion and garment patterns play a central role in each painting, each background is a minimal landscape, as if the women exist on a theatrical stage. Each woman seems to be dreaming with desire for freedom, whether in reaction to the global shutdown or as a necessary release into selfhood and self-realization. Beeman is challenging herself to find meaning in our isolation, to form an almost mythical explanation for our need to be connected to nature, family and friends in times of uncertainty.

– Perrotin

Teresa Freitas is not an artist who simply takes pictures with a camera, but an artist who considers the richness of colors through an experimental process and approaches the material conceptually. Born in Lisbon and based in Portugal, she creates a fairy tale blend of nature, travel, architecture and dreams with vivid imagination. In particular, in this exhibition, the artist actively participates as a visual director, including planning, to provide an experience of walking through a pastel-tone film.

– The Hyundai Seoul

Over 200 original works including drawings, prints and art books will be shown as part of this exhibition, which is eager to illuminate the life and artistic world of Henri Matisse.

– Seoul Arts Center

《Ai Weiwei》is a retrospective of Ai Weiwei (b. 1957), a global installation artist, film director and an activist. It will introduce the artist’s representative works that embody his ways of thought. 〈Coronation〉(2020), a film that depicts the situation of Wuhan City following its shutdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as 〈Omni〉(2019), a film made with VR technology will also be screened. Moreover, a site-specific project that deals with the current issues of 2021 will also be unfolded, which will be a new large-scale work that will be developed by taking into consideration the features of Museum Madang. The exhibition aims to look back on the role and impact of art within the society through the artist who has been dealing with major issues of the contemporary society (i.e. issue of democracy including surveillance and censorship in the modern society, human rights and solidarity of refugees).

– MMCA

In November 2021, My Art Museum held a retrospective exhibition of the painter Chagall who left a mark in art history with his original materials and style, and the most important source of art creation for Chagall, the Bible. It will be held from the 25th to the 10th of April 22nd. Marc Chagall, a Russian-born painter who settled in France, spreads the message of life and love based on colorful colors and dreamy style, and is loved as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century along with Picasso and Matisse. . Unlike the previous Chagall exhibitions held several times in Korea, this exhibition includes 19 oil paintings and gouache, including and , which are in the possession of Chagall’s bereaved family with the theme of ‘the Bible’, which has not been dealt with alone. A total of 220 original works will be displayed, including masterpieces from the store, two large tapestries that are close to 4 meters tall, and the Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster collection in Germany. During the time he was drawing Bible-themed works, he developed his art world based on his love for mankind suffering from war and slaughter. This will be a time to fully appreciate the message of love for mankind that he delivers through the Bible.

– My Art Museum

“Most of the 75 pieces to be showcased have never been seen by viewers in Korea before, except for two ― Kandinsky’s ‘Improvisation No. 217, Gray Oval’ and Malevich’s ‘Suprematism’,” Lee Hoon-suk, the show’s curator and an art historian, told The Korea Times.

– The Korea Times

The first retrospective in Korea on the master of surrealism, Salvador Dalí is opening at DDP, presenting the Spanish artist’s oeuvre based on the collections from the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres in Spain, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and the Dalí (Salvador Dalí Museum) in Florida, United States.
After a long course of collaboration with the Salvador Dali Foundation, Salvador Dalí’s retrospective surveys the artist’s career and his genius talents by exploring the paintings chronologically from the artist’s early period to the last along with many interviews he conducted, film works, advertisements, fashion, and design, etc.

– GNC Media

“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” is an exhibition at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu District that displays replicas of the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and 1,300 relics. Prominent experts took part in the event with the Egyptian government’s support. Marking the centennial anniversary of the tomb’s discovery, which is considered the greatest of its kind in archaeological history, the exhibition features real-size reproductions of items found in the tomb, from the murals of tombs to golden masks. Visitors can experience the process of excavating the tomb and learn about ancient Egyptian history and culture.

– Korea.net