A view of the Photography Seoul Museum of Art, set to open in May in the city's Dobong District / Courtesy of SeMA
The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) is set for an eventful year in 2025, with the grand opening of two new venues — the Photography Seoul Museum of Art and the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art — alongside expanded institutional partnerships spanning the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
“This year might just be the busiest yet for our museum,” Choi Eun-ju, SeMA's general director, said during a press conference on Monday, where she unveiled the institution's 2025 agenda. “The Photography Seoul Museum of Art is scheduled to open in May [in the city's Dobong District], followed by the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art in the latter half of the year in Geumcheon District.”
Choi Eun-ju, general director of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), speaks during a press conference at the museum in Seoul, Monday. Newsis
The Photography Seoul Museum of Art will become Korea's first public institution dedicated exclusively to the art and history of photography, with a collection of over 20,000 works and archival materials, while the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art will put its curatorial focus on media art.
Once inaugurated, these two venues will join SeMA's network of six other museums and art-focused spaces spread across the capital.
The museum's ongoing collaboration with institutional partners in the Middle East is set to deliver new exhibitions this year.
“Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits,” launching in May at the Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, will be the largest-ever showcase of Korean contemporary art staged in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
Meanwhile, at SeMA's main Seosomun branch in December, “Intense Proximities” will be co-organized with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation to spotlight first- to third-generation contemporary creatives from the United Arab Emirates.
Kang Myong-hi's "Requiem" (2024) / Courtesy of SeMA
Other highlights in the city museum's lineup include a solo presentation of Kang Myong-hi, whose ethereal cosmic paintings poetically encapsulate the interplay between her nomadic life and the natural world; a solo exhibition dedicated to modernist abstract sculptor Chun Kook-kwang; and the inaugural group show at the Photography Seoul Museum of Art featuring five defining masters of the medium.
In August, the Seoul Mediacity Biennale returns for its 13th edition, curated by Anton Vidokle, Hallie Ayres and Lukas Brasiskis. This year's biennial delves into the mechanics of séance, illuminating artistic practices rooted in occult, mystical and spiritual traditions as a lens to navigate the complexities of the present moment.