Anicka Yi
Anicka Yi (b. 1971)
Born in Seoul and raised in the U.S., Anicka Yi frequently collaborates with scientists to create sculpture incorporating cutting-edge technology, scents, and references to biology, completing a residency at MIT in 2015. Her meditations on microbial life often cut into the relationship between odors, misogyny, and racism. Yi reached international familiarity with her inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial and the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. She is represented by 47 Canal and Gladstone Gallery, which presented a solo exhibition of her work in Seoul in June. Yi also received a retrospective, titled “Metaspore,” this summer at Milan’s Pirelli Hangarbicocca, and also just released a TED talk.
Anicka Yi, In Love With The World, 2021, at the Tate
Haegue Yang
Haegue Yang (b. 1971)
Considered to be one of Korea’s contemporary breakout stars, Yang’s experiential environments incorporate recontextualizations of the everyday while capturing the ineffable. Her works are strange yet accessible, familiar yet intangible. Her work has rolled into international consciousness through the 2009 Venice Biennale, 2012 Documenta, and 2014 Taipei Biennial; and since she’s picked up representation with Kurimanzutto, Kukje, Greene Naftali, and Barbara Wien. Currently, she has shows at Kukje in Busan, the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark, and SFMoMA, and will be included in the upcoming Singapore Biennial (Oct. 16).
Haegue Yang, Lingering Nous, 2016, at the Centre Pompidou
Suki Seokyeong Kang
Suki Seokyeong Kang (b. 1977)
Kang combines painting, sculpture, and architecture in her performance-based practice that’s both deeply personal and draws from traditional Korean dance and musical notation. At Art Basel 2018, she was awarded the Baloise Art Prize, and in the same year, presented her first U.S. museum performance and installation, “Black Mat Oriole” at the ICA in Philadelphia. In 2019, she had a solo exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art and showed her geometric construction, “Grandmother Tower,” at the 58th Venice Biennale. She is represented by Tina Kim, Kukje, and Pace.
Suki Seokyeong Kang at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019
Ha Chong-Hyun
Ha Chong-Hyun (b. 1935)
A Dansaekhwa leader, Ha’s works are familiarly registered by his meditative gesture of pushing thick paint through plain hemp canvas from the backside. His Conjunction series ties both minimalist aesthetics and political commentary as the works’ meditative production are rendered in materials acquired from U.S. rations following the Korean War. Ha is represented by Kukje, the organizer behind an official collateral survey at this year’s Venice Biennale, as well as Almine Rech and Blum & Poe.
Ha Chong-Hyun, Conjunction 21-38, 2021
Park Seo-Bo
Park Seo-Bo (b. 1931)
Credited as the father of the Dansaekhwa movement, Park’s use of repeated strokes reflects a meditative practice, making room for deep introspection by emptying the mind. He first began his signature Écriture series of paintings in the 1960s, laying the groundwork for Dansaekhwa. Last spring, the Pompidou Center announced a major acquisition of his work, and he himself just opened his Gizi Foundation as an artist incubator, partnering with the Gwangju Biennial for a $100,000 prize. He is represented by Kukje, Tina Kim, White Cube, and Perrotin galleries.
Park Seo-Bo, Ecriture No.100915, 2010
Lee Kang-So
Lee Kang-So (b. 1943)
An iconic figure in the Korean art world working since the 1970s, Lee Kang-So is known for his abstract works that reflect the Korean philosophy of “pungryu,” or harmony between all things in the flow of nature, a practice separating himself apart from other painters of his generation. Since his MoMA PS1 residency in 1991-92, he has had nearly 30 solo exhibitions internationally. Recently, Hyundai staged a retrospective of his work as a collateral event to the Venice Biennale in 2019 and the solo exhibition, “From a Dream,” to coincide with last year’s Kiaf Seoul.
Lee Kang-So, Serenity-20092, 2020
Lee Bul
Lee Bul (b. 1964)
Lee Bul works mainly in large-scale sculptural installations, often accompanied by performances. She uses metallic, futuristic constructions as a mirror for the aspirations and failures of contemporary society, especially critiquing misogyny and politics surrounding women’s bodies. For Lee Bul, technological obsessions tend to reveal the human desire to escape or modify the body in pursuit of immortality. She was included in the 1999 Venice Biennale and was honored with major solo exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2015 and at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2021. Lehman Maupin is showing her work at Frieze Seoul.
Lee Bull, Civitas Solis II, 2014, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Lee Ufan
Lee Ufan (b. 1936)
Lee Ufan’s practice focuses not on creating something new, but revealing the hidden nature of the existing world. In his long-running “Relatum” series, he examines the relationship between art object, viewer, and space by placing large stones in relation to mirrors, iron plates, or monochrome canvases. His signature paintings, though seemingly simple rows of individual strokes, require meditative breathing to achieve the effect of smooth, consistent gestures. In April, Lee Ufan opened a museum dedicated to his art in the old quarter of Arles across three floors of the Hôtel Vernon, his third museum alongside those in Naoshima, Japan, and Busan, South Korea. Elsewhere in Arles, his “Requiem” of 13 “Relatum” stone installations at the Alyscamps Roman necropolis runs through Sept. 30. He is included in the group exhibition, “On my way to the museum,” at the Busan Museum through Oct. 16, and in Tokyo, a retrospective of his work opened this month to commemorate the National Art Center’s 15th anniversary. He is jointly represented by Pace and Lisson galleries.
Lee Ufan, Requiem, 2022, at Les Alyscamps, Arles
Minjung Kim
Minjung Kim (b. 1962)
Kim is known for her delicate ink paintings that layer dozens if not hundreds of sheets of traditional mulberry Hanji paper. She often twists the paper or burns its edges to create a natural, jagged surface. Her work has featured in over 50 solo exhibitions since 1991 and in the Gwangju Biennale in 2004 and 2018. She is represented by Hyundai and Volker Diehl, and in 2021 the Hill Art Foundation presented her first career survey. Simon de Pury, too, just tapped Kim to submit a work of her choosing for inclusion in his inaugural online exhibition and auction.
Minjung Kim, Red Mountain, 2021
