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Korea's largest museum exhibition on queer art to date to open at Art Sonje Center

Published: 18 Mar. 2026, 18:19

LEE JIAN
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Patrick Sun, founder of the Sunpride Foundation, speaks to reporters about the upcoming queer art exhibit ″X″ at Art Sonje Center in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Wednesday. [LEE JIAN]

Korea's largest museum exhibit on queer art to date is set to open at the Art Sonje Center in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Friday, the museum announced on Wednesday.

Featuring 74 Korean and international artists and artist collectives, “Spectrosynthesis Seoul” is the fourth edition of the “Spectrosynthesis” series, organized by the Sunpride Foundation, which is a nonprofit founded by Hong Kong art collector Patrick Sun in 2014 to support LGBTQIA+ rights through art. Previous iterations of the exhibition took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei in 2017, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in 2019 and Tai Kwun in Hong Kong in 2022.

The term “spectrosynthesis” combines the words “spectrum” — evoking the visual phenomenon of light dispersing into a rainbow of colors — and “synthesis,” referring to the process of blending contrasting elements into one, per the exhibit’s press release.

“People ask, 'You’ve done this show many times, so why choose Seoul?' But I say, no — Sonje and Seoul chose me. Seoul is a dynamic city, and it has [an] institution that has and continues to support queer art. So I’m truly honored to be able to hold this exhibition here,” Sun told reporters at the museum on Wednesday.

Art Sonje Center, a private museum founded in 1998, was the venue for the first Korea Queer Film Festival and has held various solo and group shows by queer artists, including a solo exhibition by Oh In-hwan titled “TRAnS” in 2009.

“We’d never explicitly labeled exhibitions as ‘by queer artists,’” said the center’s Artistic Director Kim Sun-jung. “But about three or four years ago, we began discussing this exhibition together with Patrick Sun’s foundation, and that’s when we decided to begin our research.”

Sun pointed to the strong presence of local artists — nearly 50 of the total 74 — as validation for the queer community in Korea. At the same time, the curators leveraged global connections to bring in non-Asian voices for the exhibition.

As a result, the upcoming exhibition presents a diverse range of works, including those by Mark Bradford, the highest-selling artist at Frieze Seoul 2025; Kim A-young, winner of the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award; and British Canadian artist Sin Wai Kin, a nominee for the Turner Prize in 2022.

“We made significant efforts to ensure that this show represents a wide spectrum of queer identities, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, as well as nonbinary and other queer identities,” said Lee Yong-woo, one of the curators of the show. He is also a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a researcher of media culture and history and organized a separate section in “Spectrosynthesis Seoul” that explores queer spatiality and temporality within Korean society.

Compared to countries such as Taiwan and Thailand, where same-sex marriage has been legalized, Korea remains relatively conservative. Sun said it was important to him to bring “Spectrosynthesis” to cities where queer voices are less easily heard.

“I see that [struggle] in Korea, I see that in Hong Kong and I also see that in other Asian cities. Ultimately, I hope we will bring the show to every city in Asia,” he said. “I’m very glad that we brought the show to Seoul, but it is only one chapter in this struggle toward a better world. And I certainly believe that the work does not stop here.”

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]