The Sea Art Festival was started in 1987 as a part of the pre-Olympics cultural events of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It continued every year with the aim of providing a distinctive outdoor exhibition using the spaces of Haeundae and Gwangalli to hold events from 1987 to 1996. The Sea Art Festival has grown into an independent and specialized exhibition of local art that reflects the natural environment and conditions of the region.

From 2000 to 2010, the Sea Art Festival was merged into a part of the Busan Biennale. It was separated from the biennale in 2011 and became an independent festival held every odd year on the beach in Busan in order to transform the Sea Art Festival into unique cultural brand.

The friendly public atmosphere and communicability that the Sea Art Festival has become naturally connected with is a driving force to build a more familiar and popular image. Also, we're proud of the fact that the Sea Art Festival as the earliest oceanic art festival is a pioneer in events of its kind.

The Sea Art Festival 2017 will be held from September 16th to October 15th at Dadaepo beach in Busan where the Sea Art Festival 2015 took place. In 2015, the exhibition was highly acclaimed by highlighting the western part of Busan which has not attracted attention from public with its distinctive style regarded as oceanic art festival. The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee officially entered into a system of preparing for the exhibition to promote it as the best natural environmental art festival.