Seoul Museum of Art 2026 Exhibition Preview

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) has unveiled its major exhibition schedule for 2026, ahead of the New Year. For 2026, SeMA has set its institutional agenda as Creation and its exhibition agenda as Technology.

Across its various branches—including the Seosomun Main Branch, Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Art Archives, and the Museum of Photography—SeMA plans to present diverse exhibitions and multidimensional programs that align with these themes.

(Note: Exhibition titles for 2026 are tentative.)

Seosomun Main Branch: Masters of Modern & Contemporary Art

The Main Branch will host two blockbuster exhibitions featuring a Korean modern master in the first half of the year and a representative international artist in the second half.

Yoo Youngkuk: Mountains Are Within Me

• Dates: May 14 – October 18, 2026
• Details: This is the largest retrospective ever held to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of Yoo Youngkuk, a pioneer of Korean abstract art. It is also the first project of SeMA's newly introduced "Korean Modern Master Exhibition" series. The exhibition will provide an in-depth look at his broad artistic world, including previously undisclosed works.

Lynn Hershman Leeson

• Dates: October 1, 2026 – February 7, 2027 (Scheduled)
• Details: Reflecting the 2026 agenda of "Technology," this exhibition surveys over 60 years of work by Lynn Hershman Leeson (b. 1941), a pioneering American female media artist and film director. Having held major solo exhibitions at the New Museum and ZKM in Germany, this will be her first solo museum exhibition in Asia, adding significant meaning to the event.

Buk Seoul Museum of Art: Experiments in Media

The Buk Seoul branch will host exhibitions that experiment with and expand the sensory relationships between seeing, reading, and hearing.

Writing Art

• Dates: April 23 – July 12, 2026.
• Details: This media focus exhibition explores the creative process where various forms of writing—from poetry, novels, and essays to scripts and song lyrics—lead to connections and dialogues between different arts. Visitors will encounter the long efforts and creative time of artists who use writing as a material for art.

Sound Has Always Been Alive

• Dates: December 10, 2026 – March 21, 2027.
• Details: This large-scale international special exhibition is the fruition of the SeMA-Northeast Europe cooperation project (2024–2026). It will spread the artistic, technical, and social resonance of sound, featuring artists from Korea, Poland, and Germany, covering everything from avant-garde sound art to sound-based performances.

SeMA Art Archives & Nam Seoul Museum of Art

Oh Yoon Collection (Art Archives)

• Dates: August 27, 2026 – February 21, 2027.
• Details: Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the passing of Oh Yoon (1946–1986), a representative figure of 1980s Minjung art (People's Art), this exhibition re-illuminates his artistic world and creative process through the Oh Yoon Archives collected in 2024.

Cho Sook-jin (Nam Seoul Museum of Art)

• Dates: July 29 – November 15, 2026 (Scheduled).
• Details: This annual sculptor solo exhibition features Cho Sook-jin, who has been active internationally since moving to the US in 1988. It comprehensively introduces her work, ranging from early relief series to installations, performances, architectural projects, and drawings from her New York period.

Seoul Museum of Photography

The 13th Seoul Photo Festival: Come Back Home

• Dates: April 9 – June 14, 2026
• Details: This festival explores the meaning of "Home" as a space where memory, time, and identity intersect through various photographic expressions. It will include citizen participation programs such as contests, film screenings, and symposiums, providing a platform for everyone to experience photography through diverse perspectives.

West Seoul Museum of Art: A New Opening

Scheduled to open in the first half of next year, the West Seoul Museum of Art will present various special opening exhibitions.

Construction Record Exhibition: "Our Time Starts Here"

This exhibition highlights the significance of the museum's construction. It interprets construction record photos and stories of the southwestern Seoul region as memory data stemming from the bond between humans and places, reflecting on the memories of a location where time has overlapped.

SeMA Performance: Breath & New Media Collection

• Performance: A total of 25 artists/teams will participate in Breath, exploring the intersection of the body, art, and society.

• Collection: The exhibition West Seoul's Transparent |Youth| Machine focuses on youth as post-humans through new media collections.

• Note: The museum will also operate a "Youth Studio" and unveil about 10 major large-scale works from its specialized new media collection for the first time.

Source: Seoul newsletter