Jeong Seon, Rodin, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford: Art to see in 2025

By Park Han-sol

The Korean art market faced headwinds in 2024, with a prolonged downturn that dampened auction and fair sales after the pandemic-fueled spending spree.

Yet, the country’s art scene found its silver linings. Homegrown talents like Yoo Young-kuk and Rhee Seund-ja emerged as surprise standouts, their market momentum buoyed by their well-received presentations during the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Octogenarian sculptor Kim Yun-shin also enjoyed a late-career breakthrough, propelled by her inclusion in the Biennale’s flagship International Art Exhibition and her joint representation by heavyweight galleries, Lehmann Maupin and Kukje Gallery.

Other artists continued to make international waves, with major moments taking place in London last fall — Haegue Yang’s first U.K. survey at the Hayward Gallery, Lee Mi-re’s presentation at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and architect Cho Min-suk’s striking Serpentine Pavilion commission.

Back on home turf, 2025 is shaping up to be another year filled with eye-catching offerings — a rare chance to view centuries-old landscape paintings by a Joseon-era pioneer under one roof, museum retrospectives of European and American art icons and a fresh dive into the country’s rising stars.

Museums

Continuing its streak of headline-grabbing shows, the Samsung Foundation of Culture’s two flagship venues — Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul and Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province — promise standout programs for the year ahead.

The Hoam Museum of Art will commence 2025 with a rare blockbuster retrospective of 18th-century painter Jeong Seon.

Jeong, a renowned Joseon-era literati artist, is celebrated for his “jingyeong sansuhwa” (true-view landscape paintings), which depict Korea’s mountain ridges and waterways with striking realism, departing from the idealized Chinese-influenced styles of his time.

Over 120 works, including landscapes, portraits and flower-and-bird paintings will be brought to view in the April show. Among the highlights is the state-designated national treasure “Geumgang Jeondo” (1734), a masterpiece making its first public appearance in a decade.

Next in the lineup is an August solo exhibition dedicated to 20th-century titan Louise Bourgeois, whose art delves into profound themes of family, motherhood and childhood trauma.

Marking her first major museum presentation on Korean soil in 25 years, the event brings together the mammoth spider sculpture “Maman” (1999) and the evocative “Cell XI (Portrait)” (2000), alongside a selection of 1940s paintings that have never been shown here before.

The Leeum Museum of Art is set to fill the year with surveys of two international visionaries: Paris-born Pierre Huyghe in February and Korean artist Lee Bul in August.

Equally noteworthy is the museum’s sculpture-focused showcase in March, presenting over 60 masterpieces from its modern and contemporary art collection. With a star-studded roster that includes Auguste Rodin, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg and Nam June Paik, it’s a must-visit event for art enthusiasts.

Notably, this occasion marks the return of Rodin’s iconic bronze sculpture “The Burghers of Calais,” back on public display for the first time in nine years.

Headlining the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea’s (MMCA) lineup this year is Asia’s first solo exhibition of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck in April.

Mueck’s colossal, hyper-realistic human figures, including “Mass,” a gigantic pile of 100 human skulls, will grace the museum’s Seoul branch, offering a visceral experience of life, fear and death.

August will see a large-scale retrospective of Kim Tschang-yeul, chronicling his creative odyssey through Seoul, New York and Paris, where he sublimated the scars of the 1950-53 Korean War into his trademark water drop paintings.

Meanwhile, the Amorepacific Museum of Art’s 2025 exhibition roster intriguingly pairs traditional Korean art with a showcase of contemporary American visual art.

Opening in March is a reexamination of “minhwa” (Korean folk paintings), a genre known for its humor-infused, free-spirited brushwork and vibrant hues. That will be followed by the country’s first-ever exhibition of celebrated abstractionist Mark Bradford in August.

Hailed as one of America’s greatest living painters, Bradford uses everyday urban materials for his abstract compositions that confront the violence and trauma endured by the marginalized throughout America’s history. The Seoul exhibition will feature a wide array of his large-scale works, including “Spoiled Foot,” the monumental centerpiece of his presentation at the 2017 Venice Biennale, where he represented the U.S. Pavilion.

Prominent names in the art world will enliven other venues in the capital city throughout the year.

These include “dansaekhwa” (Korean monochrome painting) master Ha Chong-hyun at Art Sonje Center in February, focusing on his early experimental forays from 1959 to 1975 which paved the way for his now-famed “Conjunction” series; and Kang Myong-hi at the Seoul Museum of Art in March, whose ethereal cosmic paintings poetically encapsulate the interplay between her nomadic life and nature.

Galleries

Beyond museums, Seoul’s galleries are gearing up for the new year with a packed lineup of showcases spotlighting both seasoned and emerging talent.

Kukje Gallery is set to highlight two art icons in its space to complement their aforementioned museum retrospectives — Ha Chong-hyun in March and Louise Bourgeois in September.

Its fall program also includes a solo show by Gala Porras-Kim, an artist whose interest lies in investigating the fraught relationship between historical relics and the conservation doctrines of modern museums. Her practice poses a compelling question: When ancient artifacts enter these antiseptic, often bureaucratic, environments, can they still perform their original function?

For her Seoul presentation, Porras-Kim will turn her gaze to the institutions’ arbitrary conventions of assigning meaning to nature, exposing how these practices reflect a human desire to understand — and ultimately control — the natural world.

Gallery Hyundai is kicking off 2025 with a solo exhibition of Shin Sung-hy in February, whose series is recognized for bringing three-dimensionality to flat surfaces: “couturage,” where the canvas is cut and sewn, and “nouage,” where painted strips are knotted across the canvas.

Coming on the heels of this, the gallery’s April show celebrates its 55th anniversary with a generation-spanning roster of Korean artists who have collaborated with it over the past half-century — from Kim Whanki and Lee Ufan to Kim Ayoung and Moon & Jeon.

In August, the exhibitor will pair two creatives who investigate the politics of representation: Lee Kang-seung, who unearths forgotten queer narratives through gold-threaded embroidery and graphite drawings, and Candice Lin, who uses unconventional materials like opium poppies, silkworms and dead bats to interrogate the buried histories of colonialism and race.

Meanwhile, in September, when the country is swept up in a whirlwind of art events to coincide with the Frieze Seoul fair, Lee Jin-ju will take center stage at Arario Gallery.

Known for weaving fragments of personal memories, past traumas and subconscious imagery into hauntingly surreal compositions, Lee renders her visions with exacting detail using powdered pigments — a nod to the techniques of traditional Korean painting.

Also adding to the buzz of September’s art frenzy is emerging talent Woo Hannah’s solo show at G Gallery.

Woo has been a name to watch since her fluid, fabric-based installations earned her the inaugural Frieze Seoul Artist Award in 2023. Her winning commission, “The Great Ballroom,” featured draped fabrics that evoke the contours of an aging female body, designed to evolve over time under the pull of gravity.

Now, the artist continues to push creative boundaries, conjuring organic creatures in her ever-transforming sculptural creations.