This October, biennials across Korea offer markedly different perspectives on contemporary art. Gwangju and Busan host large international exhibitions, Jeju explores the island’s history and culture, and other regions turn their attention to ceramics, sculpture, and nature art.
 
K-ARTNOW introduces six biennials open in October, outlining their themes and origins, the histories that connect them to their host regions, and the museums and exhibitions worth visiting alongside them.
 
 
 
1. The 16th Gwangju Biennale

《You Must Change Your Life》
 
Dates: September 5–November 15, 2026
Venues: Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall and locations across Gwangju
Artistic Director: Ho Tzu Nyen
Participants: 43 artists and collectives from 22 countries; approximately 300 works
Website: Gwangju Biennale
 
 
Origins
 
Announced in 1994 and first held in 1995, the Gwangju Biennale was Korea’s first large-scale international biennial of contemporary art. Established in a city shaped by the May 18 Democratic Uprising of 1980, it has created a forum for international exchange linking contemporary art with democracy and civil society.
 
 
The 2026 Edition
 
The exhibition takes its title from the final line of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo” and explores how artistic practice can open up new ways of living. Artistic Director Ho Tzu Nyen works with curators Park Gahee, Brian Kuan Wood, and Che Kyongfa. Alongside the main exhibition, pavilion projects extend the biennial to venues throughout Gwangju.
 
 
The City and Its Art
 
More than three decades of biennial exhibitions have given Gwangju enduring connections to the international art world. The memory of the May 18 uprising—and the city’s commitment to democracy, human rights, and peace—also continues to inform its cultural life.
 
 
National Asian Culture Center (ACC)
 
The ACC brings together exhibitions, performances, research on Asian cultures, and the production of new work. Its multidisciplinary program makes it a key institution for understanding contemporary arts and culture in Gwangju.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | ACC Future Prize 2026: YoungEun Kim, 《To Future Listeners: Migrating Sounds》
 
Dates: September 3, 2026–February 14, 2027
Venue: ACC Creation, Space 1
Admission: Free

YoungEun Kim uses sound and listening to explore experiences of movement and migration that have remained at the margins of historical accounts. Presented through a 115.4-channel sound system, the installation fills the gallery with voices that move, overlap, and resonate, inviting visitors to encounter histories of migration across Asia through listening.
 
 
 
2. Busan Biennale 2026
 
《Dissident Chorus》
 
Dates: August 29–November 1, 2026
Venues: Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Space OneZ, and the former Busan Nam High School
Artistic Directors: Evelyn Simons and Amal Khalaf
Participants: 46 artists and collectives from 22 countries, comprising 49 individuals
Website: Busan Biennale 2026

Origins
 
The event took its current name, Busan Biennale, in 2002. Drawing on the history of a port city long shaped by the movement of people, goods, and cultures, it has sought to connect the region with the wider world through contemporary art.
 
 
The 2026 Edition

《Dissident Chorus》 focuses on sound and vibration, bodies and memory. Through song, dance, ritual, performance, and voices of resistance, it considers how different beings can form relationships while retaining their differences. Approximately 70 percent of participating artists present new work made for the biennial.
 
The exhibition connects three distinct sites: the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Space OneZ, a former warehouse associated with the shipping industry, and the former Busan Nam High School.
 
 
The City and Its Art
 
Busan’s maritime culture is inseparable from its histories of industry, migration, wartime refuge, and labor. The biennial has repeatedly drawn on these histories, bringing the city’s spaces and memories into conversation with contemporary art from around the world.
 
 
Busan Museum of Art

The Busan Museum of Art reopened in September 2026 following renovations that began in 2024. Its new program places renewed emphasis on the history of art in Busan while developing partnerships with museums internationally.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | 《Still We Are Borne On These Waves: 1945–1953》

Dates: September 17, 2026–February 14, 2027
Venue: Second floor, main building, Busan Museum of Art
On View: Approximately 250 artworks and 450 archival items

A major exhibition in the museum’s reopening program, this presentation examines Korean society from liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 through the Korean War of 1950–1953. Works by artists who lived through the period appear alongside interpretations by contemporary artists, tracing how the upheavals of these years shaped Korean society and art.
 
 
 
3. The 5th Jeju Biennale 2026
 
《Iyahong: The Art of Metamorphosis》
 
Dates: August 25–November 15, 2026
Venues: Jeju Museum of Art, Obaekjanggun Gallery at Jeju Stone Park, and Jeju’s old downtown
Participants: 69 artists and collectives from Korea and abroad
Website: Jeju Biennale

Origins
 
An early effort to establish a biennial on Jeju took the form of a pre-biennial in 1995. The present Jeju Biennale began in 2017. It examines the island’s distinctive environment, history, and culture through contemporary art, while creating opportunities for international artistic exchange.
 
 
The 2026 Edition
 
The fifth Jeju Biennale explores how the island’s indigenous culture has mixed with, absorbed, and transformed influences from northern civilizations. Its Korean title draws on local expressions for mixing (heokkeuda) and gathering (modakchida), together with iyahong, a refrain from Jeju folk songs.
 
The exhibition adopts iyahong as a motif for the processes through which cultures flow, intermingle, and take new forms. Exile, stone culture, and mythology provide three strands connecting Jeju’s history, geology, and religious traditions. Artists from Jeju make up approximately 30 percent of the participants.
 
 
The Island and Its Art
 
Jeju is a volcanic island at the intersection of southern maritime and northern continental cultures. Its landscape, myths, folk traditions, and historical experiences have produced a strong local identity that continues to inform contemporary art on the island.
 
 
Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum Jeju
 
Dedicated to the collection and study of Kim Tschang-Yeul’s paintings and archival materials, the museum offers a focused encounter with the artist’s work and another perspective on Jeju’s art institutions.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | 《Kim Tschangyeul: A Painter in Paris》
 
Dates: June 30–October 18, 2026
Venues: Galleries 2 and 3 and the screening room, Kim Tschang-Yeul Art Museum Jeju
On View: 28 works

The exhibition focuses on the painting practice Kim developed in Paris. A concurrent exhibition devoted to his newspaper works, 《Subtle Matter: Kim Tschang-Yeul’s Newspaper Works》, presents a further 24 paintings. Both exhibitions run through October 18.
 
 
 
4. Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026
 
《Earth Makes》
 
Dates: September 18–November 1, 2026
Venues: Icheon, Gwangju, and Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province
Artistic Director: Daehyung Lee
Website: Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026

Origins
 
The biennial began in 2001 as the World Ceramic Biennale, alongside the World Ceramic Exposition. It connects the ceramic traditions of Icheon, Gwangju, and Yeoju with contemporary ceramics internationally, helping establish the medium’s wider place in contemporary art. The 2026 event marks its 13th edition.
 
 
The 2026 Edition
 
《Earth Makes》 considers ceramic creation as a process in which human decisions interact with clay, water, fire, time, technology, and the environment. The main exhibition at the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Icheon is accompanied by the International Competition, special exhibitions, collection displays, and programs across Gwangju and Yeoju.
 
 
The Region and Its Art
 
Icheon, Gwangju, and Yeoju form one of Korea’s principal ceramic regions, with a heritage rooted in the traditions of the Joseon dynasty. Kilns and workshops coexist with museums and institutions supporting contemporary ceramics, giving the biennial a direct connection to local production and artistic practice.
 
Gwangju in this section is the city in Gyeonggi Province, distinct from the southwestern city that hosts the Gwangju Biennale.
 
 
Gyeonggi Museum of Ceramic Design
 
Located in Yeoju, the museum explores functional ceramics and craft, bringing traditional uses into dialogue with contemporary approaches to material and form.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | 《Original Essence, Unfamiliar Tradition》
 
Scheduled Dates: September 15, 2026–March 31, 2027, subject to confirmation
Venue: Second floor, Gyeonggi Museum of Ceramic Design

The exhibition broadens familiar accounts of Korean ceramics by examining traditions beyond celadon and undecorated white porcelain. These include earthenware, black-glazed wares, iron-painted porcelain, and buncheong, stoneware decorated with white slip. Artists from different generations reinterpret inherited materials and techniques through contemporary forms.
 
 
 
5. Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2026
 
《Resonance Field》
 
Dates: September 30–November 15, 2026
Venues: Sungsan Art Hall, the House of Changwon, Changwon History and Folklore Museum, the Jinhae Station area, and Masan Fish Market
Co-Artistic Directors: Cho Hyejeong and Jiang Jun
Participants: 74 artists and collectives from 14 countries, comprising 81 individuals; approximately 200 works
Website: Changwon Sculpture Biennale

Origins
 
The Changwon Sculpture Biennale grew out of the Moon Shin International Sculpture Symposium, launched in 2010 to honor the sculptor’s work and legacy. It adopted the biennial format in 2012 and has since been held every two years. The event draws on the region’s close connections to major figures in Korean sculpture, including Moon Shin and Kim Chong Yung.
 
 
The 2026 Edition
 
《Resonance Field》 asks how sculpture’s material presence and relationship to the body might renew connections between people, and between people and the world. Five venues across Changwon, Masan, and Jinhae form a route through the city. The program brings together the main exhibition, Sculpture Before Sculpture, and the digital archive 《Changwon Sculpture Atlas》.
 
 
The City and Its Art
 
Present-day Changwon brings together the formerly separate cities of Changwon, Masan, and Jinhae. The planned industrial city, the port, and the historic urban districts retain distinct identities within the unified municipality. Their different histories provide a varied setting for the biennial, alongside the region’s longstanding ties to Moon Shin, Kim Chong Yung, and modern Korean sculpture.
 
 
Changwon City Masan Moon Shin Art Museum
 
The museum grew out of the institution Moon Shin built in his hometown of Masan. Its sculptures, drawings, original plaster models, and archives offer a sustained view of his artistic development.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | 《The Origin》
 
Dates: February 24, 2026–August 29, 2027
Venue: Changwon City Masan Moon Shin Art Museum

《The Origin》 presents Moon Shin’s original plaster models as works in their own right. These objects reveal how his forms first took shape, allowing visitors to follow the development of an idea before its realization as a finished sculpture. The exhibition offers a close study of sculptural process alongside the biennial’s broader exploration of the medium.
 
 
 
6. The 12th Geumgang Nature Art Biennale
 
《Urban Nature Art: Let the Sunlight into My Window》

Dates: September 12–November 8, 2026
Venues: The former Gongju Brewery, Nature Art Museum Ko, and the Jemicheon stream area
Website: Geumgang Nature Art Biennale

Origins
 
The Geumgang Nature Art Biennale traces its roots to YATOO, the Korean Nature Artists’ Association, founded in Gongju in 1981. YATOO developed an approach to art based on working directly with natural surroundings and organized international nature art exchanges from the 1990s onward. These activities led to the first Geumgang Nature Art Biennale in 2004.
 
 
The 2026 Edition
 
This year’s theme, “Urban Nature Art,” brings the relationship between nature and the city into focus. Extending its activities into Gongju’s old downtown and along the Jemicheon stream, the biennial connects a main exhibition with a Nature Art Cube exhibition, an international symposium, and educational and exchange programs.
 
 
The City and Its Art
 
Gongju was a capital of the ancient kingdom of Baekje and has also been a center of Korea’s nature art movement since the 1980s. Its historic sites and natural surroundings provide a setting for an artistic tradition developed through decades of local practice and international exchange.
 
 
Gongju National Museum
 
The museum collects and researches the heritage of the Gongju region, with a particular focus on the Ungjin period of Baekje, when the city served as the kingdom’s capital. A visit provides a historical perspective on the region alongside the biennial’s contemporary work.
 
 
Exhibition to Visit | 《Gyeryongsan, Korea’s Sacred Mountain》
 
Dates: September 22, 2026–March 1, 2027
Venue: Special Exhibition Gallery, Gongju National Museum
Admission: Free

This special exhibition examines Gyeryongsan, a mountain closely associated with Gongju and the wider Chungcheong region. Cultural artifacts trace its historical significance and the beliefs and traditions that have formed around it. Digital presentations accompany the objects, offering further ways to explore the mountain’s place in Korean cultural history.
 
 
 
Discovering Korea Through Its Biennials
 
These six biennials offer distinct ways to encounter art in Korea this autumn. Gwangju and Busan connect international contemporary art with their cities’ historical experiences; Jeju brings island culture and ecology to the fore. Gyeonggi, Changwon, and Gongju build on sustained regional engagement with ceramics, sculpture, and nature art.
 
Visitors can follow these differences according to their interests. Gwangju and Busan offer a broad view of international contemporary practice, while Jeju invites closer attention to the relationship between art and local history. Gyeonggi and Changwon reward an interest in particular materials and forms, and Gongju opens up questions about how art engages with natural and urban environments.
 
Together, the biennials provide a reason to explore Korea through its art. Visiting the museums and exhibitions around them adds depth to that experience, revealing the traditions, institutions, and artists that continue to shape each region’s cultural life.