Seongbuk Painting Research Institute, a studio founded by painter Lee Qoede, opened in 1946. Sculptor Kwon Jin-kyu and Kim Tschang-yeul, the painter known for his water-drop canvases, studied painting there. Kim Whanki, who called his Seongbuk-dong home "Suhyangsanbang," went on to form the New Realism Group the following year with Yoo Young-kuk, Lee Kyu-sang and Chang Ucchin. After Han Yong-un, the Buddhist poet known by his pen name Manhae, along with writers Lee Tae-jun and Kim Yong-jun began living there in the 1930s, Seongbuk-dong became an artists' quarter where writers and painters gathered.
Historic and cultural spaces across Seongbuk District have been turned into exhibition venues. The 1st 2026 Seongbuk Art Week, organized for the first time this year by Seongbuk District, the Seongbuk Culture Foundation and the Seongbuk Museum of Art, opened on the 20th. Its theme is "House: Connected Breath." The program consists of five special exhibitions, space projects at 11 historic and cultural heritage sites, and network exhibitions at 22 institutions.
The space projects pair each storied location with a contemporary artist. Sculptures and drawings by Choi In-soo, who encountered cultural artifacts from an early age through the influence of Choi Sunu, the former director of the National Museum of Korea and author of "Leaning Against the Entasis Pillar of Muryangsujeon," are placed throughout Choi Sunu's former residence. Lee Yeon-sook has arranged forms evoking the gesture of a drawing hand at the site of the Seongbuk Painting Research Institute. At the site of Seungseoram, once a gathering place for writers and artists, and at the site of the final home of painter Jang Seung-eop (1843-1897), hologram film has been applied to the windows. Artist Shin Ye-sun wrapped silk thread between the two red spiked gates at the Seonjamdan ritual site.
Seongbuk-dong Byeolseo, a scenic site normally closed to the public, will also open by reservation. The garden was created by Hwang Yun-myeong, a late Joseon writer, and Han Sung-pil has recreated Songseokjeong, a pavilion partly destroyed by fire in 2025, as an ink-and-color painting on a screen covering the structure. Below the walls of Hanyangdoseong, the Seoul city wall first built in 1396, stand seven pieces from Jung Hyun's "Standing Person," made from railroad ties, as if they had always been there. At the Lee Jong-seok Villa, Kim Dong-hae has installed works made of stone and metal wire. At the entrance and on the stone pillars, the pieces sway almost imperceptibly with the light and the movement of air. At Simujang, where Han Yong-un spent his final years, artist Lee Woo-sung has presented an installation reinterpreting the "Simudo" ox-herding paintings along with a mural titled "With a Singing Heart." At Samcheonggak, which hosted state banquets and political talks in the 1970s and 1980s, Yoo Na-eul has shown collage and installation work, while the Kwon Jin-kyu Atelier features pieces by Kim Jung-eun, Seo Ye-seok, Jeon Ji-in and Heo Na-young, all former residents of the studio's residency program.
The centerpiece of the special exhibitions is "Se Ok Suh and Do Ho Suh: Caress" at the Seongbuk Museum of Art. Se Ok Suh built a hanok, a traditional Korean house, in Seongbuk-dong out of concern that traditional culture was disappearing, and his son Do Ho Suh grew up there. Se Ok Suh's ink paintings of pagodas stacked tier upon tier and Do Ho Suh's thread drawings of layered human profiles are different yet alike. Do Ho Suh's work, made by taking rubbings of every corner of the house as if caressing it, hangs alongside his father's drawings, in which Se Ok Suh designed each stone ornament himself. Korea University Museum is holding "Where Do We Come From, Where Are We Going," marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of painter Byun Shi-ji (1926-2013). A native of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Byun worked for 18 years in Donam-dong in Seongbuk District. The district-run Choi Man-lin Museum of Art starts from "Jeongneung House," which the two sculptors shared, and presents sculptures, drawings and archival material by Choi Man-lin and Park Byung-wook centered on 1980. At the Kim Chung-up Architecture Museum, "Lee Jung-yoon: Singing House" is under way. "Walk," a new work by sculptor Jung Bo-won, and "Was That Mountain Really There?," a video by Han Seung-hoon, are on permanent view at the Seongbuk-dong Street Gallery.
Twenty-two museums, galleries and alternative spaces also joined as network exhibitions, including "Sangseo: Reading the Collection" at Kansong Art Museum, a longtime fixture of Seongbuk-dong, and "Suseon" at the Han Sang-soo Embroidery Museum. From the 22nd to the 25th, the Seongbuk Art Fair will be held at the shared library Saseogosaeng, offering 60 works by 21 artists recommended by exhibition spaces in Seongbuk.
The space projects, which run through Nov. 1, are free of charge. Seongbuk-dong Byeolseo can be visited only by reservation, limited to 15 people a day between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. From the 20th to the 24th, a loop bus connecting major venues across 11 stops can be used without limit for 5,000 won. Kim Bo-ra, director of the Seongbuk Museum of Art, said 2026 Seongbuk Art Week is "an occasion to look anew at the historical and cultural assets accumulated in Seongbuk through the lens of contemporary art and to share the value of the district." The director added, "I hope visitors will go beyond exhibition halls to actually walk through the houses, gardens and historic sites of Seongbuk and have a special experience where past and present, art and daily life meet."