How to Make the Most of Seoul During Frieze and Kiaf

What are the best shows and side quests in Seoul right now? We tapped our community of local curators, artists, writers, and collectors to bring you the best of Korea’s capital city during Frieze, Kiaf, and beyond.

Binna Choi, Curator

Everything, including artworks, must come from somewhere. Everything should have a genealogy, a story, a relationship, and continuity. With this in mind, I recommend a visit to the newly opened National Museum of Korean Democracy at the former Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office, and its display of hundreds of ritual paper flowers by the Buddhist monk Dayeo, in a show curated by Hyunjin Kim (Ashes, Wounds and Paper Petals, 20 August–28 September 2025). Manifesting the art of craft as one of dedication and consolation, the exhibition takes place in the context of a visceral retelling of the South Korean democratisation movement, without which the recent impeachment protests could not have taken place.

For those desiring time away from art, I suggest a short, easy hike to Inwang Mountain in the Seochon area—also home to several small yet distinctive art spaces, such as Factory2, Curating School Seoul, The Book Society, Project Space Sarubia, and Willing N Dealing.

As I started to share life-work lessons as a mentor, I recommend two shows in Euljiro: The Green Ray by Kim Yurmyurng, Kim Jinju, and Shin Jaemin (6 August–13 September 2025)—curators from the Doosan Curator Workshop 2024—and Hum Bomb Hum Bomb Hum Bomb Hum, a solo exhibition by Cha Yeonså at N/A Gallery (1 September–12 October 2025).

Binna Choi is the curator for the Korean Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale and recently co-curated the 2025 Hawai‘i Triennial, ALOHA NŌ.

Group Exhibition Panorama SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation 22 August–16 October 2025
Seoul

AfroAsia Collective

During Frieze Week, make sure to catch PANORAMA at SONGEUN (22 August–16 October 2025). We’re excited to be part of this group exhibition featuring eight Korean artist teams selected by an international jury—a snapshot of Korean art today.

Another place worth visiting is the National Museum of Korea Democracy. Formerly the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office, the building has been preserved as a permanent exhibition of Korea’s modern history. For the show Ashes, Wounds and Paper Petals, the curator Hyunjin Kim has installed over 100 paper flowers by the Buddhist monk Dayeo, honouring the spirits of those unjustly lost.

September in Seoul is hotter than usual (hello, global boiling!). To cool down, we often turn to naengmyeon (cold noodles). Our favourites are the Pyongyang-style bowls at Eulji Myeonok in Jongno and Pildong Myeonok in Jung-gu—both great places for first-timers.

For drinks, we love old pubs with character: Grand Ole Opry in Itaewon (once a U.S. army haunt), Palette in Yeonnam-dong, and Zebidabang in Sangsu-dong for indie live shows. In the city centre, Bar Ray in Jongno is our go-to for a casual night out.

When it comes to art books, we head to The Book Society for the latest international titles, or The Reference for photography and Korean theory—plus, there’s an exhibition space in the basement.

AfroAsia Collective, established in 2021 by curator Sun A Moon and artist Che Onejoon, engages with African and Asian migrant communities through artistic practice and their artist-run Space AfroAsia in Dongducheon.

Ayoung Kim b. 1979, South Korea Follow +

Ayoung Kim, Artist

I had a chance to visit Mark Bradford’s Keep Walking when I had my solo show at Hamburger Bahnhof. I remember stepping into the space and feeling it alive. Now it’s at the Amorepacific Museum of Art, and I can’t wait to see it again.

I’m also very much looking forward to seeing the new works of Kang Seung Lee and Candice Lin in Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me at Gallery Hyundai (27 August–5 October 2025). I should also mention Time Zone Protocols by Black Quantum Futurism at Leeum (4–28 September 2025). I’ve long been fascinated with Afrofuturism and Black Quantum Futurism, and it’s inspiring to see this happening during art week!

Ayoung Kim is a Seoul-based artist. Her work is currently on view in MMCA Collection: Korean Contemporary Art at MMCA Seoul, and she has a forthcoming solo show at MoMA PS1 this autumn.

Jaeyong Park, Writer

I’m making time for Kim Tschang-yeul’s posthumous retrospective at MMCA Seoul. Korea’s beloved ‘water drop artist’ has become so ubiquitous that his work is practically wallpaper. Like many things Korean, there’s complexity underneath: war, exile, and trauma all dissolved into those endless drops. Maybe this first major survey since the artist’s death will finally let us see past the surface tension.

For unexpected refuge, check the second and third-floor bathrooms at Art Sonje Center. But during Adrián Villar Rojas’ exhibition The Language of the Enemy (3 September 2025–1 February 2026), you can only admire them from the corridor, as if window shopping for toilets. Even the artist’s total transformation of the museum can’t touch these stubborn relics, so now they’re accidentally the most exclusive seats in Seoul, reserved for no one.

When even coffee demands context, I head to Café Cadalogs in Euljiro. This artist-run space doubles as a gallery (currently showing PRECARIO CITY V1.2), where you can literally consume the exhibition via ‘mushroom salt shaved ice’. Only in Seoul does art taste this strange.

Jaeyong Park is a curator, writer, and translator from Seoul. He co-runs Curating School Seoul, which is hosting a night of public programmes ‘What Got You Here, by the Way?’ on 4 September. He also leads the annual book-reading party Who Wants to Hang Out in Seoul? during the first week of September.

Lyu Jihye, Collector

You must see the exhibitions curated by Kim Sung woo, who facilitates much of the important art flow in Korea. Art Sonje Center’s linked exhibition UNDO DMZ in the unique Paju Demilitarized Zone (11 August–5 November 2025), and the exhibitions in The Willow, a converted feed warehouse in a noisy and complex grocery market, will lead you into a surreal world.

The bustling Euljiro area is a treasure trove of Korean manufacturing industry, a cradle of exhibition installers where anything can be made to order. The galleries and street restaurants in the area are playgrounds for young Koreans and foreigners alike.

Art Sonje Center will bring together three of the hottest bars during the 2025 Frieze Seoul period: Bar Cham, Pine&co, and Zest! If you get the Magpie Tiger badge from the National Museum of Korea gift shop, you are already a winner.

Lyu Jihye is an art collector living between Seoul and Busan.

Kim Sung woo, Curator

In an era when various media substitute for the role of exhibitions, Museumhead has consistently pursued its mission to critically reflect on and respond to today’s conditions through a focus on exhibition-making and curating as acts of physical presence. I recommend Pit Calls Wall, their ongoing solo exhibition by Kim Seeun (16 July–6 September 2025), one of the leading Korean artists of her generation.

Kim has long reinterpreted the attributes and speed of urbanisation through her own everyday experiences and sense of time. In this exhibition, she translates the restless movements, departures, and transformations of urban space into the language of painting, offering new variations on the gaze toward the city. It’s a vivid opportunity to witness the dynamism of Korean contemporary art.

Kim Sung woo is an independent writer and curator based in Seoul. He is founder of the non-profit art space Primary Practice. —[O]

Main image: AfroAsia Collective (Che Onejoon, Sun A Moon), POWPOW (2025) (still). Courtesy AfroAsia Collective.