As Seoul Art Week returns this September, the capital’s museums, galleries and institutions offer a cultural programme that is as ambitious as the city itself. With a packed calendar of exhibitions, performances and installations unfolding across town, even the most seasoned fairgoers might need a moment to regroup. Here is a curated shortlist of must-sees for the week ahead, including landmark shows, rare debuts and conversations between the global and the hyperlocal.

Lee Bul: My Grand Narrative at Leeum Museum of Art, 4 September 2025 to 4 January 2026

One of Korea’s most influential contemporary artists, Lee Bul presents a major survey of her boundary-pushing practice at the Leeum Museum of Art. Known for her immersive installations and speculative sculptures, this exhibition revisits three decades of work interrogating technology, modernity and the human body.

Chiharu Shiota: Return to Earth at Gana Art Centre, 25 July to 7 September 2025

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota returns to Seoul with Return to Earth, her latest installation at Gana Art Centre. As ever, her work invites viewers to step into the subconscious through threaded spaces built from memory, absence and emotional tension.

Louise Bourgeois at Ho-Am Art Museum, 30 August 2025 to 4 January 2026

For the first time in 25 years, a Korean museum hosts a dedicated exhibition to Louise Bourgeois. This focused retrospective, featuring iconic pieces like Mother and rarely seen early paintings, centres the psychological depth of the artist’s world. Personal writings, diaries and notes on psychoanalysis accompany the works, offering a window into her interior life.

Antony Gormley: Inextricable at White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac, 2 September to 8 November 2025

Two spaces, one artist. Antony Gormley makes his Seoul debut with a citywide presentation across White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac. At the heart of Inextricable is a meditation on the body within the built environment and how architecture both houses and reshapes us. With major works from Gormley’s Blockworks, Beamer, Strapworks and Knotworks series, the exhibition plays out as a sculptural dialogue between form, space and urban life.

Frieze Seoul 2025: Special Projects, 3 to 6 September 2025

Back for its fourth edition, Frieze Seoul expands its reach with a series of special projects exploring the intersection of contemporary practice and local context. Highlights include a new commission by acclaimed duo Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, known for their socially engaged work, and a site-specific intervention by Liam Gillick featuring two raised Plexiglas platforms designed for conversation, contemplation and everything in between.