Art Walk
Enjoy art through bite-sized stories
If contemporary art feels intimidating, that is rarely the viewer’s fault. The Art Walk section closes the distance with short pieces on how to look at a work, where it sits in art history, and how to get more out of a gallery visit.
Understanding a work is less about “getting the right answer” and more about asking small questions: why this color, why this size, why this medium? The articles here walk you through those questions slowly, with one work at a time.
We also map the broader currents of Korean contemporary art — from the 1980s minjung woodblock prints to the rise of Dansaekhwa, to the photography and media art of the 2000s — so you can see where today’s artists are coming from.
When something resonates, follow the link to the gallery and explore that style up close. Browsing by medium or price range is the easiest way to start.
Stories in this category
Reading the Night and Light in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One Night Changes with Woodblock, Lacquer, Oil and Photography
Set fourteen night pictures side by side and the night falls in fourteen different ways: a hard-edged white full moon beside one wrapped in a halo, a crescent set into a black band, a night left as the cream of the paper, a dark night lit by mist, a horse standing under a dust of stars. Fourteen works from the SAF online gallery show how material and gaze change a night.
Reading Series in SAF Artworks: Twenty Works by Five Artists Linked by Numbers, Roman Numerals, a Shared Title and Series Names
When one artist shows several works, rules appear between the pictures. Twenty works by five artists are set side by side: rooftops that stay put while the sky changes, whales and backgrounds that shift on same-sized canvases, one title shared without numbers, series named after places, and a horse under skies of different hours. The piece reads what stays fixed and what moves.
Same Title, Different Pictures: Twenty SAF Artworks Titled Untitled, Flower Garden, Rice, Figure and Rest, and How One Title Changes with Material and Gaze
Among SAF artworks, different artists share the titles Untitled, Flower Garden, Rice and Rest, and Figure once numbering is set aside. Fourteen works under those titles, plus six by artists who repeat a title themselves, are set side by side to see what one title becomes in collage, woodblock, cement, ink and watercolour.
Reading SAF Artists Through Museum Collection Records: Ten Artists Listed in the MMCA Collection Search and the Art Bank, and the Works They Entered
Ten SAF artists whose names appear in the MMCA collection search or the Art Bank collection search are read here. The MMCA’s own guides explain what a museum collection and the Art Bank are, and each artist’s record in the institutional lists is set beside the works entered in SAF. Collections listed in the artist biographies are kept apart from those found in the institutional lists.
Reading SAF Through the Artists’ Own Words: Fourteen Sentences from Artwork Descriptions, Set Beside the Images Under Memory, Care, Nature and Daily Life
The artist note on a SAF artwork page carries a description of the work, and some of these are written by the artists themselves. Fourteen works are grouped here under memory and mourning, care and relationship, nature and time, and daily life, and each sentence is read next to what the image shows.
Reading Thirteen SAF Artists Named in the Minjok Misulin Hyeophoe (Minmihyup): How Members of One Association Part Ways over Woodblock, Oil, Watercolour and Sheet Iron
Twenty SAF artists list the Minjok Misulin Hyeophoe (Minmihyup) in their biographies. Thirteen of them are read here through nineteen works, from former officers to chapter members, split across yellow, blue and red, and across knife, brush and sheet iron.
Reading SAF Artworks by Colour: Fifteen Ways One Blue, Red and Black Changes with Sunlight, Oil, Pigment Powder and Woodblock
Fifteen works in which colour, not subject, leads the picture: a blue that sunlight printed onto paper, a teal built up in oil, a red figure on a deep blue sea, a single head of kimchi on one red, a blue bowl on a wooden tray, black that is ink on a raised surface and white lines the knife cut away. Colour is read through the materials and processes of the SAF online gallery.
Reading Eleven Sungshin Women's University Printmakers in SAF: How Hands from One School Part Ways over the Knife, the Acid Bath, the Needle and the Screen
Eleven printmakers in SAF list Sungshin Women's University in their biographies. Their graduate printmaking programme opened in 1983 with four students, and the eleven works here part ways through woodcut, copper-plate etching, mezzotint, drypoint, silkscreen and collagraphy on a digital print.
Reading the SAF Artists Who Touch Jeju: Four Ways One Island Enters the Work, from Oreum and Jeju Horses to the Relics of April 3, Woodblock and Pencil
Twenty-eight SAF artists mention Jeju in their biographies. Eighteen works show four ways the island enters the work: a photographer born there who shoots oreum at dawn, two artists who photographed and carved the relics of April 3, people who stayed through migration and residencies, the late Park Saeng-kwang who drew waterfalls and a shore in pencil in January 1956, and painters of a cape and a harbour.
The Last Week of the Oh Yoon 40th Anniversary Special Print Exhibition: Eight Chapters, Before It Closes on October 12
Today is Sunday, October 4, and the Oh Yoon 40th Anniversary Special Print Exhibition closes at 18:00 on Monday, October 12. This guide lays out the nine remaining days, the three talks still ahead, the eight chapters that follow his life, and a few prints to keep in view along the way.
Reading the Sea, Rivers, Waterfalls and Snow in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One Water Changes with Oil, Woodblock, Pencil, Thread and Photography
Set fourteen paintings of water side by side and the water runs in fourteen ways: a sea built from horizontal strokes with no horizon, white foam raised from clusters of dots, a black harbour cut with a knife, a beach folded inside a sunflower, a waterfall in a few pencil lines, a snowfield laid down in cotton thread, a snowstorm painted over a photograph. Fourteen works in the SAF online gallery show how material and point of view change one subject.
Reading the Animals in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One Creature Changes in Woodblock, Watercolour, Ink, Acrylic and Pencil
Set fourteen animal pictures side by side and one creature stands in fourteen ways: a single hawk over black ridges, an egret beside reeds, two red roosters facing each other and a rooster in a flowered coat, a red horse in a fire of newspaper scraps, a fox lowered into a flower bed, a wolf hidden in abstraction, mandarin ducks annotated in pencil between their feathers. Fourteen works in the SAF online gallery show how material and point of view change an animal.
Reading the People in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One Subject Changes with Thick Paint, Line, Woodblock, Bronze and Dots of Colour
Set fourteen works that depict people side by side and the figure stands in fourteen ways: an old face built from thick paint on a dark ground, a head blurred into red and blue lines, a white form titled Portrait with no features, a psychological portrait covered with dots of colour, three anglers in the mist. Works in the SAF online gallery show how material and point of view change a person on the picture plane.
Reading the Cities, Alleys, Markets and Houses in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One City Changes in Oil, Ink, Watercolour and Photography
Set fourteen city pictures side by side and one city stands in fourteen ways: a daytime lane with the price of apples on a sign, a night alley reduced to a single lamp, a market that appears only as sunset over rooftops, market people left as tangled orange lines, a factory site with only its chimneys, a pattern folded from the interchanges of Seoul and Pyongyang. Fourteen works in the SAF online gallery show how material and point of view change a city.
Reading the Flowers in SAF Artworks: Fourteen Ways One Subject Changes with Ink, Mineral Pigment, Woodblock, Photography, Oil and Mixed Media
Set the flowers of fourteen artists side by side and the same subject blooms in fourteen ways: a plum branch tipped with red ink dots, butterflies and fireflies over a dark ground, a dandelion on a book-cover pattern, wildflowers on a snowy slope in a photograph, a letter built from blossoms. Works in the SAF online gallery show how material and point of view change a flower.
Reading Oh Yoon's Sword Song Closely: A Figure Raising a Blade Inside a Black Frame, and Two Sheets of One Composition
A figure lifts a blade overhead and raises one leg. Oh Yoon's woodcut Sword Song (1985) is read here in order: the black frame, the red field, the curve of the blade, the letter-like marks around the figure, and where the feet land. Two sheets from the same composition are set side by side, one printed in black on pale grey-brown taeji paper, the other coloured red on hanji.
Reading the Mountains in SAF Artworks: Twelve Ways One Subject Changes with Ink, Colour, Woodblock, Watercolour, Photography and Stone
Set twelve paintings of mountains side by side and the mountain stands in twelve different ways: a cliff drawn only in ink outline, five egg-round peaks, rock faces cut with a knife, clouds left as the white of the paper, a photograph titled after a peak that shows only a pine grove. Twelve works in the SAF online gallery show how material, point of view and era change one subject.
Seven Venues on Foot in Jongno — A One-Day Walk from Seochon Through Samcheong, Insadong and Gwanghwamun to Seosomun (October 2026)
In early October, twelve exhibitions at seven venues line up on a walking route from Seochon through Samcheong, Anguk and Gwanghwamun to Seosomun, from the Park Seo-Bo and Yoo Youngkuk retrospectives to Do Ho Suh and the Oh Yoon 40th Anniversary Print Exhibition. Dates, hours, closing days and admission follow each institution’s official notice.
A Map of Photography Techniques: Silver Gelatin, Pigment Prints, Cyanotypes and Photograms, Read by Label and by Eye
A photograph label packs paper, ink, a light-and-chemistry process, a finish and an edition number into one line. A guide to silver gelatin, colour and instant prints, pigment inkjet, cyanotype, photograms and Diasec, read through fourteen photographs in the SAF online gallery.
A Map of Western-Style Painting Materials: Telling Oil, Acrylic, Watercolour, Gouache, Pastel, Collage and Mixed Media by Eye
Before the name of a Western-style painting material, look at three things: what the work was painted on, whether the paint dries slowly in oil, quickly in synthetic resin or as a transparent wash in water, and whether the surface shows the path of a brush or pasted pieces. A guide to oil, acrylic, watercolour, gouache, pastel, collage and mixed media, read through nineteen works in the SAF online gallery.
A Map of Korean Painting Techniques: Telling Ink, Ink-and-Colour, Opaque Pigment, Powder Pigment and Janji Paper by Eye
Before the name of a Korean painting technique, look at three things: what it was painted on, whether the ink has bled or the colour has been built up, and whether the colour sits on the front or glows through from behind. A guide to ink, ink-and-colour, opaque pigment, powder pigment and back-colouring, read through thirteen works in the SAF online gallery.
A Map of Sculpture Materials: Bronze, Iron, Wood, Stone, Clay and Resin, Learned Through How They Are Made
Before the name of a sculpture material, look at how it was made: carved, modelled, cast or constructed. A guide to bronze casting, iron welding, wood and stone carving, and clay and plaster modelling, read through thirteen works in the SAF online gallery.
A Map of Ceramic Techniques: Telling Buncheong, White Porcelain, Onggi, Terracotta and Ceramic Painting by Eye
Before the name of a ceramic technique, look at three things: whether there is a glaze, what was laid over the clay body, and what colour the fire left. A guide to buncheong, white porcelain, onggi and terracotta, read through seven ceramic works in the SAF online gallery.
How Artworks Carry Collective Memory: Reading SAF Pieces on Jeju 4·3, May 18, Donghak and the Plaza
A red jacket with no one inside, an urn in a field of white paper, a skeleton and a protester sitting side by side in the snow. Nine works in the SAF online gallery that start from historical events, read from the image first.
Total 75 stories
Frequently asked questions
Q. Contemporary art feels intimidating — how should I approach it?
Don’t try to find the right answer; ask small questions. "Why this color?", "Why this size?" — those are the basics of looking. Pause for one minute in front of a work, and whatever answer comes to mind is your own valid response.
Q. What are the major movements in Korean contemporary art history?
1970s Dansaekhwa (monochrome abstraction in dialogue with Western minimalism); 1980s minjung art (Oh Yoon, Park Jae-dong, Min Jeong-gi — woodblock prints, social realism); 1990s media art (Nam June Paik lineage); 2000s onward photography, installation, and digital diversification. A single master’s work often reveals the texture of its era.
Q. How are prints made? Are they real artworks?
A print is a real artwork made from an artist’s original plate (woodblock, etching, silkscreen, etc.) in a limited edition. They split into "lifetime prints" (pulled by the artist) and "estate prints" (printed posthumously by family or foundation). Both come with the artist’s signature or edition number plus a certificate.
Q. How do I find exhibitions and visit them?
MMCA (4 branches), the Anguk-Samcheong gallery district, the Hannam-Itaewon global galleries, the Seongsu-Euljiro alternative spaces, Gwangju Biennale, Art Busan, KIAF — the museum and gallery guide series in this magazine maps routes and visit tips.
Q. Where can I view and buy works by Korean artists?
SAF Online gathers 213 contemporary Korean artists across painting, print, photography, sculpture, and digital art. Filter by price, browse by artist, and read magazine interviews — all on one page.
Ready to start your collection?
213 artists, artworks available online.