Six Exhibitions on Foot in Jongno

Museums are usually scattered, making it hard to see more than one in a day. Jongno is the exception: six exhibitions run simultaneously within walking distance, from Seochon through Samcheong and Gwanghwamun to Seosomun.

Seeing more than one exhibition in a day is harder in Seoul than it sounds. Museums are scattered from the north end of the city to the south, and once you start moving between them by subway, you spend more time in transit than in front of the work.

Jongno is the exception. From Seochon through Samcheong-dong, past Anguk and Gwanghwamun, down to Seosomun, museums and galleries follow one another within walking distance. As of late September, six exhibitions run here at the same time. Joseon palaces, colonial-era offices and present-day galleries overlap in the same few blocks, so the walking between them is not dull either.

We have ordered them west to east, then south. If you plan to give the whole day to it, this sequence walks best.

1. Jongno Park No-soo Art Museum — Scent, Staining the Landscape

Deep in Seochon, the house where the painter Park No-soo lived is now the museum itself. People come for the exhibition and end up lingering longer in the garden and on the stairs. This year the collaboration exhibition Scent, Staining the Landscape runs through December 6.

Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:30. Adults 3,000 won, youth 1,800 won, children 1,200 won.

→ Jongno Culture Foundation

2. Art Sonje Center — Yang Ah Ham Undefined Panorama · Muyeong Kim Pig

Sogyeok-dong, east of Gyeongbokgung. Two exhibitions in one building. Yang Ah Ham's Undefined Panorama opened on July 31; Muyeong Kim's Pig opens August 28. Both close together on October 4, so September is the safer window.

Tue–Sun 12:00–18:00, closed Mondays.

→ Yang Ah Ham: Undefined Panorama · Muyeong Kim: Pig

3. Dongduk Art Gallery — Oh Yoon 40th Anniversary Print Exhibition

Ujeongguk-ro, beside Jogyesa Temple. This is our own exhibition, which we should say up front. It marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Oh Yoon (1946–1986), the printmaker who came to stand for Korean Minjung art, and it puts his woodcuts on the wall as physical objects. September 23 to October 12.

Oh Yoon, Song of the Blade, 1985, woodcut — a figure raising a blade twists as if mid-dance against a red ground

Oh Yoon's prints have become far easier to encounter as reproductions and on screens. They entered the collection of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, their prices rose at auction, several catalogues were published. But a woodcut loses the depth of the cut and the press of the paper the moment it is reproduced. This exhibition tries to give that back.

10:00–18:00, closed on Chuseok and the following day (September 25–26). General admission 12,000 won; 6,000 won for visitors aged 24 or under, 65 or over, and holders of the Artist Pass or Culture Voucher card.

→ Exhibition details and tickets

4. Ilmin Museum of Art — Off the White: Pattern and Information

Gwanghwamun intersection, in the old Dong-A Ilbo building. Off the White: Pattern and Information runs through October 18. It sits right at the subway exit, so it costs you nothing to add.

Tue–Sun 11:00–19:00, closed Mondays.

→ Ilmin Museum of Art

5. Seoul Museum of Art, Seosomun Main Branch — Yu Youngkuk: The Mountain Is Within Me

Follow the Deoksugung wall a little further from Gwanghwamun and you reach the Seosomun branch. The Yu Youngkuk retrospective, part of the museum's modern masters series, runs through October 25. Admission is free.

A painter who found the beginning of Korean abstraction in mountains, and a painter who was carving human faces with a knife in the same years. Seeing the two in one day stays with you longer than you expect.

Tue–Thu 10:00–20:00, Fri 10:00–21:00. Check the museum's own listing for full hours.

→ Seoul Museum of Art

Before you set out

This walk does not work on a Monday. Art Sonje Center, Ilmin Museum of Art, Park No-soo Art Museum and Seoul Museum of Art all close on Mondays. Our print exhibition stays open, but then you would be making the trip to Jongno for one show.
Art Sonje Center closes first, on October 4. If you cannot fit them all into one day, start there.
The Chuseok holiday falls in late September. Holiday hours differ by institution, so check each listing before you go.
Admission is listed only where we could confirm it. Art Sonje Center and Ilmin Museum of Art publish their own rates — see the links above.
Information is current as of August 2026. Dates and prices can change at the organizers' discretion.

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