《InsaArtWeek 2026》 will take place from June 15 to 23 in the Insa-dong area of Jongno-gu, Seoul. This year’s event brings together 38 galleries and art spaces in Insa-dong, presenting exhibitions, gallery tours, art walk programs, performances, and visitor events. The theme is “Art is everywhere — Art takes alive!”

InsaArtWeek is a locally based art event in which galleries across the Insa-dong area participate together. Since 2023, it has been operated under its current name, changed from the former “Insa Art Festival,” and is organized so that visitors can experience Insa-dong’s galleries and cultural spaces within a single route.
 
Amid growing international interest in K-culture, this year’s event may serve as an opportunity to reintroduce Insa-dong to overseas visitors and art lovers coming to Seoul. Today, Insa-dong is widely known as a street of traditional culture and tourism, but it is also a place where multiple layers of Korean art history overlap.
 
 
 
Insa-dong, Once a Center of Korean Art
 
Insa-dong has long functioned as an important site for Korean art and culture.
 
During the Joseon dynasty, the Dohwaseo was located around what is now the Anguk-dong intersection. The Dohwaseo was the state institution responsible for official painting production and court painters, making the Insa-dong area historically connected to visual culture. Later, through the modern and contemporary periods, Insa-dong became a street where antique art, antiques, old books, calligraphy and painting, crafts, and mounting culture gathered.

From the 1970s to the 1990s in particular, Insa-dong occupied an important position within the Korean art scene. In addition to spaces dealing with Korean painting, calligraphy, crafts, and antique art, galleries introducing contemporary art were also located here. Artists, critics, collectors, and dealers naturally came and went, and exhibitions, transactions, and many conversations within the art world took place on this street.

At the time, Insa-dong was not merely a place to exhibit or sell works. It was an everyday gathering place for people in the art world to meet and exchange information. The scene of people gathering in teahouses after viewing exhibitions to discuss artworks, artists, and the direction of the art world was also part of Insa-dong.
 
Such layers of time still remain within the atmosphere of Insa-dong today. The signs of old galleries, antique art shops, mounting stores, craft spaces, teahouses, and alleyway scenery all reveal the time through which Insa-dong has passed.
 
 
 
The Changing Art Geography of Seoul
 
Since the 2000s, the art geography of Seoul has changed significantly.
 
Major galleries and museums have settled in Samcheong-dong and Sogyeok-dong, while international galleries and large commercial galleries have entered Cheongdam-dong and Hannam-dong. Seongsu-dong and Euljiro have also drawn attention as areas where young culture and new exhibition spaces have emerged. Seoul’s art ecosystem has expanded across several districts rather than remaining concentrated in one area.
 
In this process, the character of Insa-dong also changed. Once a central site of the Korean art world, Insa-dong gradually came to be recognized as a street where traditional culture and tourism converge. Hanok buildings, teahouses, craft shops, souvenir stores, and restaurants increased, and the area became a place frequently visited by both domestic and international tourists.

Recently, along with growing interest in K-culture, the number of overseas visitors to Insa-dong has also increased. For them, Insa-dong is understood as a street where one can experience a Korean atmosphere, and as a place where traditional culture and urban tourism meet. In fact, Insa-dong is among the areas frequently visited by foreign tourists coming to Seoul.

However, amid these changes, Insa-dong’s art spaces have come to receive less attention than before. Some galleries have relocated or closed, and the central image of the street has shifted from art toward tourism and traditional culture. Today, Insa-dong can no longer be explained solely as the front line of Korean contemporary art.
 
 
 
Art Spaces That Still Remain
 
Nevertheless, many art spaces still remain in Insa-dong.
 
Galleries, antique art dealers, craft-specialized spaces, mounting shops, and spaces related to traditional arts still occupy the alleys and streets of Insa-dong. Although its former centrality has diminished, Insa-dong continues to carry forward one current of Korean art.
 
What characterizes the area is that tradition and modernity, antique art and contemporary art, craft and painting coexist within a relatively close distance. If other art districts in Seoul are more directly connected to the international and contemporary art market, Insa-dong can be described as a place where the older foundations of Korean art and the current character of cultural tourism exist together.

This point may also be interesting for overseas art lovers. In Insa-dong, Korean art can be encountered not only as part of the current contemporary art scene, but also alongside traces of earlier art distribution, traditional culture, crafts, and antique art. This is the distinctive sense of place that Insa-dong possesses.
 
 
 
InsaArtWeek 2026
 
《InsaArtWeek 2026》 is an event that shows the present state of Insa-dong.
 
This year’s event features 38 galleries and art spaces across the Insa-dong area. A wide range of exhibitions will be held, including a special exhibition by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation (KCDF), Korean painting, traditional crafts, Buddhist art, French modern and contemporary painting, and international exchange exhibitions.

Gallery MEME presents Jung Jung Yeob’s solo exhibition《Woman in Solitary Encounter with the Earth》. Kote Gallery hosts《Three Ways of Translating Boundaries》, featuring three New York–based women artists: Ran Hwang, Sungmin Ahn, and Heejung Kim.

Topohaus presents《Ink Light Variations》, a two-person exhibition by Heo Jun and Park Cheong Yong, as well as《Onggi Jonggi》, which explores local culture through the perspectives of foreign artists living in Korea.

Representative Insa-dong spaces such as Tong-In Gallery, Moowoosoo Gallery, and Sun Gallery are also participating. On the opening day, a special performance of Park Jeong-ja’s play《Yeongyeong Ibyeol, Yeong Ibyeol》 will be held. The title may be understood as an expression of final, irreversible parting, with a poetic repetition of farewell. During the event period, a visitor event will also take place for those who visit more than 10 participating galleries.
 
InsaArtWeek is not an event that newly defines Insa-dong. Rather, through this event, visitors can once again confirm that within Insa-dong, now familiar as a tourist destination, galleries, antique art dealers, craft spaces, and spaces related to traditional arts still remain.
 
Recent international interest in Korean culture has expanded beyond K-pop, film, drama, food, and fashion to include art, crafts, design, and traditional culture. Within this context, Insa-dong has established itself as one of the representative places where overseas visitors can experience Korean culture.
 
Today’s Insa-dong is different from the place it once was as the center of the Korean art world. Seoul’s art geography has also expanded into various districts such as Samcheong-dong, Cheongdam-dong, Hannam-dong, and Seongsu-dong. Yet in Insa-dong, traces of the time during which Korean art and traditional culture were formed and circulated still remain.
 
《InsaArtWeek 2026》is an event that allows visitors to walk through and look again at those traces from the perspective of the present. Within Insa-dong, now a space of tourism and cultural consumption, the event is meaningful in that it calmly confirms the continued presence of art spaces that still carry on.
 
 
 
Event Information
 
《InsaArtWeek 2026》
Dates: June 15 – June 23, 2026
Venue: Insa-dong area, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Participants: 38 galleries and art spaces in Insa-dong
Theme: Art is everywhere — Art takes alive!
Programs: Special exhibitions, gallery tours, art walk programs, performances, visitor events, and more