Do Ho Suh
Speculations
Art Sonje Center, Seoul
Aug 17–Nov 3

For London-based Korean artist Do Ho Suh, “speculation” encapsulates contemplation, displacement, memory, and the interplay between individuals, communities, and the environment. Framed as a “process of speculation,” Suh’s retrospective opens with mixed-media installations from his eponymous Speculations series (2005– ), showcasing imaginative architectural diagrams, animations, and models that are realistically constrained by physical and logistical barriers. The section “Bridge Project” highlights Suh’s architectural imagination, connecting the cities he has lived in with the concept of home. The exhibition concludes with the chapter “Architectural Films,” exploring themes of time, spatiality, and belonging through the eyes of disappearing communal housing complexes in London and Daegu.

Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists Today
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Sep 3–Mar 3, 2025

Curated by Bae Myungji, “Connecting Bodies” showcases nearly 120 works by 60 Asian women artists from the 1960s to now, including Japanese avant-garde artist Atsuko Tanaka, Filipina painter and printmaker Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Chinese sculptor Yin Xiuzhen, and Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo. Embracing the concept of “transcorporeality,” the exhibition explores the inherent interconnectedness within transnational experiences of womanhood, with an interest in questions of feminine sexuality and female bodies as sites of resistance. Expressive and diverse, yet marked by unanimous resilience, the thematic display seeks to rejuvenate perceptions of Asian female artistry in a bold, contemporary light.

Anicka Yi
There Exists Another Evolution, But in This One
Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul
Sep 5–Dec 29

Anicka Yi’s “There Exists Another Evolution, But in This One” marks the first major solo exhibition at an Asian museum by the Korean American artist. Yi has gained international renown for her experimental works that link technology and biology to explore complex issues relating to racism, the ecology, and machine learning. Yi asks us to contemplate our place in the world as humans as well as the ecosystems we inhabit. The exhibition features around 40 works along with newly commissioned ones supported by the museum. The show is co-organized with Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and will travel there in early 2025.

15th Gwangju Biennale
Pansori: A Soundscape of the 21st Century
Gwangju Biennale Hall and other locations
Sep 7–Dec 1

Pansori, a genre of musical storytelling, emerged from 17th-century shamanism and folk culture in Korea. Inspired by its epic narratives and communal spirit, the 15th Gwangju Biennale, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, connects musical and visual forms to present something at once “operatic” and democratic. The exhibition engages with our contemporary landscape, beckoning viewers to “rethink the space shared between humans, machines, animals, spirits, and organic life.” Organized into three thematic clusters, the biennale envisions our planet as a claustrophobic echo chamber, explores our polyphonic cultural histories, and surveys the nonhuman world—from the vastness of the cosmos to our smallest molecular realms. 

Mire Lee
Tate Modern, London
Oct 8–Mar 16, 2025

For the ninth Hyundai Commission at London’s Tate Modern, Seoul-born artist Mire Lee presents a new site-specific installation in the Tate’s 3,300-square-meter Turbine Hall. Known for combining mechanical objects with visceral materials—including silicone and clay—to create sprawling kinetic installations, Lee reflects on notions of psychology, the body, and human desire. Her works are frequently compared to the grotesque or the monstrous as well as to ideas of theorist Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection. This major showcase is Lee’s first solo presentation in the United Kingdom and will be a major debut for the artist during the week of Frieze London.

Haegue Yang
Leap Year
Hayward Gallery, London
Oct 9–Jan 5, 2025

Berlin-and Seoul-based artist Haegue Yang’s first major career survey in London showcases her expansive practice of creating installations that engage the senses. Along with reimagining her breakthrough project with origami and household objects, Sadong 30 (2006), Yang is newly producing Sonic Droplets in Gradation – Water Veil (2024), a curtain of cool-hued steel bells that visitors walk through, generating sound. Known for references to modernist figures, the artist also reprises her iconic venetian blinds and stage lights in Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun (2024), incorporating a musical score inspired by the late Korean composer and political dissident Isang Yun’s Double Concerto (1977).