"A photograph passes through many choices before it reaches a wall. What to shoot, which frames to keep, what paper to print on, what order to bind them in. In November, many of the exhibitions let that process show."
The November list opens with short shows in Seoul's Samcheong-dong and Yeonnam-dong. Both exhibitions at Gallery The Space Junghak and Choi Ma-tae's show at Gallery Etrium close in the second week of the month. In Gangnam, Piotr Zbierski continues at Space22 through the 21st. Outside Seoul, we have included shows in Busan, Taebaek, Cheongju, Yeoju, Jeonju and Suwon. On the 20th, a show of 20th-century photography masters opens at Art Chosun Space.
For shows we already covered last month, we repeat only the dates and venue and link back to the earlier article. This is not a review written after visiting. It is compiled from each exhibition's official announcements and press materials.
Exhibition Dates, Venues and Quick Links
These are the dates and venues given in the text. For opening hours, closing days, admission and reservations not listed here, check each venue's announcement before you go.
Four Shows to See First This Month
Choi Ma-tae, 〈WHILE IT LASTS〉
Gallery Etrium, 6th and 7th floors. 11.4 – 11.12. Free admission according to the poster.
A show of scenes recorded in Switzerland. The artist's note in the gallery's announcement is intriguing. The artist first chose which frames to keep from a set of digital photographs, then re-photographed them on Portra 160. These are not pictures shot on film from the start. Instead, scenes already selected were moved onto film a second time. What happened to the photographs along the way? The gallery is where you find out. At nine days, the run is short, so put it first on this month's Seoul route.
Lee Young-gu, 〈Millennium Afterimage〉
Gallery The Space Junghak, 2nd floor. 11.4 – 11.15. 94 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Landscapes shot in the early 2000s, shown as handmade gelatin silver prints. The artist coated watercolor paper with liquid emulsion by hand and printed on it. Rather than factory-made photographic paper, the prints sit on paper the artist sensitized personally. It is work that calls up scenes from more than 20 years ago on paper made by hand today. Anyone who has printed in a darkroom will want to look closely at these prints.
〈The Artist's Library 1: The Classifying Eye〉
Gallery The Space Junghak, 1st floor. 11.4 – 11.15. Free; Naver reservations are given priority, and walk-ins are also welcome.
Organized by the Space Junghak Photography Institute, this show places field guides beside photobooks. It draws about ten books on the theme from Lee Won-gyun's collection, and two works from Koo Bohnchang's 'Good-bye Paradise' hang alongside. A field guide sorts living things by type and lines them up in a uniform format. A photobook, too, begins with choosing photographs and fixing their order. What shows up when the two sit side by side? It runs on the same dates as Lee Young-gu's show on the 2nd floor of the same building, so you can see both in one day.
Piotr Zbierski, 〈SOLID MAZE〉
Space22. 11.3 – 11.21. 22nd floor, Mijin Plaza, 390 Gangnam-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Opening 11.7 at 4 p.m. Closed Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.
The show we covered in September at Art Space Lumos in Daegu has moved to Seoul. Drawing on more than 20 years of photo archive, negatives, contact sheets and photobooks, the Polish photographer Zbierski examines memory and time. Re-selecting and re-sequencing pictures already taken is the core of the exhibition. For film photographers who shoot by the roll and choose from contact sheets, it is a familiar process. The show opens on the 3rd, but the opening event is held separately on the 7th. See 2026 / 9, Photo Exhibitions of the Month, for the Daegu show →
Closing Before Mid-November
Kwon Hae-il and Son Eun-young, 〈Trace: Where Layers and Grain Dwell〉
Space Leeseen, Busan. 10.27 – 11.8.
The show explores houses in the city and dwellings in memory through the work of two photographers. Kwon Hae-il presents scenes of houses, and Son Eun-young presents images of the home. It closes on November 8, so if you are going to Busan, plan for the first week.
Park Jong-ho, 〈Time of Trees, Breath of the Forest〉
Taebaek Culture and Arts Center, Main Gallery. 11.6 – 11.10.
A landscape show of the four seasons in the Taebaek forests, printed on hanji. The Gangwon Ilbo report and the exhibition poster give the same dates. The run is only five days, so fix the date first. Just as Lee Young-gu chose watercolor paper, Park Jong-ho chose hanji. Change the paper, and the same forest looks different.
Yoo Byul-nam, 〈兪; So It Is〉
YART Gallery. 10.30 – 11.12.
A solo show in which photography, sculpture and installation share one space. According to Photo Art's introduction, it presents a documentary project on the Jeju April 3 Incident together with a moon jar series. Not every work is a photograph. You can see a photographer moving toward work made by hand.
Through the End of November
Lim An-na, 〈Behind the Camera, a Camera〉
Artgotgan, Cheongju. 11.7 – 11.19.
A Lim An-na solo show listed in the public exhibition schedule. We could not yet find detailed information from an official channel, so we give only the dates and venue. Check Artgotgan's official Instagram before you go.
Yeoju International Photo Festival 2026, 〈Earth Wanderers〉
Namhangang Riverside Plaza, Yeoju (33-26 Gangbyeonyuwonji-gil, Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do) and other sites. 10.24 – 11.23.
Several special exhibitions run alongside an outdoor main exhibition on environmental change and migration, each with its own dates. Kwon O-chul, Kim Jeong-dae and Lee Man-woo's 〈Three Views of the Earth〉 stays up on the outdoor plaza of Yeoju Museum through November 23, the same as the main exhibition. If you are interested in analog printing, look out for 〈Analog by Alternative〉 at Bin-jip Art Space, which closes on November 6. To see everything in one trip, go in the first week. Some press coverage carried an earlier poster giving October 21 as the opening, but we follow the current poster on the official website and give October 24.
Kim Gyu-ri, Kim Sung-ho and Lee Woo-jun, 〈2026 The Priming Water of Vision〉
Gallery AP9, 2nd floor, Jeonju. 11.5 – 11.26. Artist talk 11.7 (Sat.) at 3 p.m.
This is the third exhibition in the emerging-artist support program run by Baekinbaeksaek, the Photo Humanities Research Society. According to the poster, Kim Hye-won curated it. You can compare three artists with different ways of working in one place. Other shows seem to be running at AP9 over the same period, so confirm that you are going to the 2nd-floor exhibition.
8th Monthly Film Black-and-White Photo Exhibition, 〈Bit Nada (Shine)〉
Seobuk Gallery, 1st floor, Seobuk-gu Office Annex, Cheonan (76 Bongju-ro, Seonggeo-eup, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do). 11.24 – 11.29. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The eighth black-and-white photo exhibition held by the group Monthly Film (Wolgan Film). The participants developed their black-and-white film and made the prints themselves. Nine photographers take part: Kwon Soon-byung, Kim Yun-jung, Kim Hyung-wook, Maeng Chan-young, Park Mi-jung, Park Hye-kyung, Song Je-don, Eun Suk-hee and Han Je-hwan. Cho Hyun-kyung curated the show, with support from the Chungnam Culture and Tourism Foundation. Along with the Lee Young-gu and Park Jong-ho shows, it is one of this month's chances to see hand-made prints up close. It runs for only six days in the last week of November, so plan your date. Dates and participants follow the poster; the developing and printing details come from information sent to the editors.
Through December
Lee Myoung-ho, 〈Between or Beyond Act and Scene〉
Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, 2nd and 3rd floors. 10.21 – 12.13.
A solo show by Lee Myoung-ho, known for the 〈Tree〉 series, in which a white canvas is set up behind a tree before it is photographed. According to the museum, 47 works are on view, including pieces made in Kiribati. Some schedule sites list the closing date as December 23, but the museum's official table says December 13. We followed the official table.
Kim Young-gyung, 〈Photo Discovery Project: Machine Vision: A Tactile Way of Seeing〉
Photography Seoul Museum of Art, 1st-floor lobby. 10.28 – 12.20. Free. Closed Mondays.
This is not a film photography show. It presents 35 works in which the artist interprets LiDAR, a technology that measures space by firing lasers and reading the reflected signals, through a method the artist calls 'Lazography.' Unlike a camera, which receives light, it sweeps the surface of its subject directly with a laser. Can an image made without a camera still be called a photograph? This is a good show for pursuing that question. The exhibition is held only in the 1st-floor lobby; the 2nd and 3rd floors are closed while the next exhibition is prepared.
Min Byung-hun, 〈BETWEEN FORMS〉
Particle (landscapes), House of Photography Seoul (portraits). 9.18 – 12.20. Reservation required.
The two venues show different bodies of work, so check reservations for each separately. See the October article →
Lee In-mi, 〈FLUID SCAPE〉
GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan. 9.16 – 12.26.
This is the GoEun Museum of Photography's Busan Project 2026. See the October article →
Shows Running into the New Year
〈20th Century Masters of Photography: When Light Stops Time〉
Art Chosun Space (ACS), 1st floor. 11.20 – 2027.3.28. 30 Sejong-daero 21-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul.
A special exhibition opening on November 20. It is billed as presenting original and vintage prints by 20th-century photographers. It is a chance to see in print the photographs you have known only on screens or in books. The January 31, 2027 date at the top of the ticketing page is the expiration date for early-bird tickets. The exhibition runs through March 28.
〈Unknown Known: Ordinary and Strange〉
Gyeonggi Center for Photography, Suwon. 10.17 – 2027.2.14.
Five artists, Kim Min-jun, Song Jae-rang, Lee Jong-su, Lee Son and Jung Young-don, each take up the cities of Gyeonggi-do and their margins, and the traces left by development and movement. It is a group show where you can see the work of active Korean photographers all at once. It runs until February, so drop in when you have a reason to be in Suwon. See the Gyeonggi Center for Photography page →
Roger Ballen, 〈Roger Ballen. The Works: Drawing meets Photography〉
Museum Hanmi Samcheong. 10.16 – 2027.2.21.
The October article gave provisional dates because the museum had not yet released its detailed announcement. The museum's official run is now out, so we correct it here. See the 5ft.mag article "When Was the Line Drawn?" →
Deborah Turbeville, 〈Atmosphere〉
Piknic. 10.23 – 2027.2.28.
One announcement card listed a different closing date, so we checked again. Both Piknic's official announcement and the poster say it runs through February 28, 2027. See the October article →
Pyo Ki-sik, 〈Every Light Shines Differently〉
GROUNDSEESAW Central. 9.23 – 2027.3.1.
See the 5ft.mag article "Standing Before the Same Tree Again" →
Brad Walls, 〈Moving Life, Still Art〉
GROUNDSEESAW Yongsan. 9.11 – 2027.3.1.
A large-scale show whose poster uses an overhead photograph of ballet dancers. It runs through March, so there is no need to hurry.
Before You Go
Seoul is busiest in the second week of November. Choi Ma-tae's show closes on the 12th, and both exhibitions at Gallery The Space Junghak close together on the 15th. You could plan a day in Samcheong-dong: Lee Young-gu and 〈The Artist's Library 1〉, then on to Roger Ballen at Museum Hanmi Samcheong. Piotr Zbierski runs through the 21st, which leaves a little room, but the space is closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.
Some venues need attention to reservations and floors. Min Byung-hun's show requires a reservation at both venues. Photography Seoul Museum of Art has only its 1st-floor lobby open. Gallery AP9 and Gallery The Space Junghak hang different shows on each floor, so confirm which floor before you go in.
Regional shows run briefly. Trace in Busan closes on the 8th, Park Jong-ho in Taebaek on the 10th, and the Yeoju special exhibition 〈Analog by Alternative〉 on the 6th. If you are traveling outside Seoul in early November, line up the dates for these three first.
While compiling this month's shows, the same question kept coming back. After the shutter is pressed, how many more times is a photograph made again? It keeps changing as it is moved onto film, as paper is chosen, as the order is set. In November, many exhibitions let you see that process for yourself.
