About Noa
Based between Seoul and Toronto, Noa Im is a multidisciplinary artist working across photography, video, and installation. Her practice explores how political and historical landscapes change over time, and how these changes shape our sense of place, memory, and history.
This approach has extended into her filmmaking practice, where she continues to explore the relationship between personal experience and broader narratives.
Her first feature documentary, The Joy Division, was commissioned by ARTE and TVO, supported by the Canada Media Fund, and selected for the Hot Docs Forum in 2026. She received the CBC Rogers Breakthrough Award through DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Lab.
She holds a BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York, an MA in Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Arts in London, and an MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019 Ryerson Artspace, CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto
'Beyond the Limits'
2015 Gallery E127, Iksan Cultural Foundation, Korea
'Yalu River Cafe'
2011 Gallery Art Sagan, Seoul
Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, Germany
‘Going Back Home’
2008 Bresson Gallery, Seoul
'His Room'
2004 Moonshin Museum, Light Gallery, Seoul
'System City'
Selected Group Exhibitions / Screenings
2025 Daedeok Culture Center, Daegue, 'Ghost Memory: A journey into Lost Time'
2024 Bucheon Art Bunker B39, 'Contingent Future Beginnings'
2022 PyeongChang International Peace Film Festival
2021 DocNow Festival Toronto
Toronto International Women Film Festival (Honorable Mention in Best Short Documentary)
Independent Shorts Awards International Film Festival (Bronze Award, Honorable Mention)
Experimental Forum (Honorable Mention), Video Art and Experimental Film Festival (Honorable Mention)
2019 Onground Gallery, Seoul
'The Gravity of Lines'
2017 Künstlerhaus FAKTOR, e.V, Hamburg, Germany, Film Screening, 'South East South West'
2016 Mein Blau e.V, Berlin, Germany, 'station Moves'
Buk Seoul Museum, 'Seoul New Arirang -Like Thousand Miles of Rivers'
Zaha Museum, 'station Moves'
2015 Frappant Galerie, Hamburg, Germany, ‘We Shape Clay into a Pot’
Iksan Creation Center, 'Liberation of Water'
KunstDoc, 'Time, Watered by Memories of the Other'
Zaha Museum, 'Your Memories Picture History'
2014 Seoul City Hall, 'Artwind'
Kimdaejung Convention Center, 'Art Kwangju'
2013 Opsan Gallery, The 6th Jeonju Photo Festival, ‘New Urbanscape’
BJN Gallery, ‘City, The Place of Reality and Fantasy’
2012 Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Photo Festival, ‘A Thousand Villages, A Thousand Memories’
2011 Korea International Art Fair, Coex
Alternative Space Chung Jeong Gak, ‘To View Things from the Standpoint of Objects’
Art Space Gallery Jungmiso, ‘Reconstruction of Events’
2009 Gallery Art Sagan, ‘Korean Contemporary Photography’
2008 Ancient Seoul Station, Seoul International Photography Festival, 'Humanscape'
2006 Space Hue Gallery, 'Time of Face, Face of Time'
Gallery 175, 'Landmarks of Seoul'
Bibi Space Gallery, Daejeon, 'Pull the Trigger'
Gallery Topo House, Seoul International Photography Festival, 'Ultra Sense'
2005 Seoul Olympic Museum, 'The Park'
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Photo Triennale, 'Transit'
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Exhibition of Young Artists, 'Portfolio 2005'
The National Assembly Building, ‘The 60th Anniversary of Independence Day’
2004 Project Space Zip, 'Now Something Completely Different'
2003 Century Gallery, London, 'Unidentified Femmes Oriental'
La Mer Gallery, 'The Next Generation'
2002 Alternative Space Pool, 'Simulacra of Reality'
Residencies
2014 Halle 14, Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2010 Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, Germany
2009-10 Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Awards/Grants
2024 CMF (Canada Media Fund)
2022 Research Grant, Canada Council for the Arts
Breakthrough Rogers CBC Award, The DOC Institute
2021 Visual Artists Creation Projects Grant - Mid Career, Ontario Arts Council
2009 The Samsung Foundation of Culture
Collection
Takt Kunstprojektraum, Seoul Olympic Museum, Moonshin Museum