Lee Kang-So (b.1943, Daegu) is one of Korea’s foremost contemporary artists. Since the 1970s he has worked across photography, painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and performance to develop a highly experimental practice that has profoundly shaped the evolution of Korean contemporary art. He began his career staging avant-garde performances and installations, and his international reputation was cemented at the 9th Paris Biennale in 1975 when he tethered a live chicken to a wooden feeder surrounded by powdered chalk. The traces of its white dusty footprints were conceived as a form of mark-making that transcended the autonomy of the artist to express the transience of our human presence in an ever-changing world. Such attentiveness to the distribution of creative energy between the artist and their materials underpins Lee Kang-So’s subsequent interrogation of the very praxes of painting and sculpture, which continues to this day. Drawing upon traditional East Asian philosophical and aesthetic principles, he has developed an intuitive and embodied approach to artmaking. Liberated from set intent or meaning, his works are instead conceived as sites of creative participation between artist, object and audience.
‘Painting has always been my main interest,’ says Lee Kang-So. ‘Endless cultivation and training conveys my spirit precisely in the interactions between body and brush, paint and canvas.’ Early experiments with painting were rooted in the artist’s interrogation of the canvas itself as he pulled at individual threads to create small openings and puckers in the rough hemp surfaces. Since the 1980s, he has directed his attention to the brushstroke. Fusing traditional and modern techniques, he works on canvas instead of rice paper and with paint instead of ink. Densely layered horizontal and vertical daubs of paint give way to the sparse articulations of birds, deer, boats, mountains and houses – their stylistic reduction a means to convey the vitality that runs through the world, rather than realistic representations of their forms. Elsewhere, expressive, pared-back monochromatic compositions of enlarged strokes evoke calligraphy and East Asian literati landscape traditions, while simultaneously gesturing to the aesthetics of Western minimalism. Favouring a long-handled East Asian ink brush for its ability to react more closely to the subtleties of his bodily movements, he works fast on wet ground to achieve a state of union between brush and hand, body and emotion.
Intuition guides Lee Kang-So’s practice. Fundamentally driven by a deep sitivensity to his materials, he responds to their physical qualities to facilitate ‘coincidences’ rather than fixed, predetermined forms. Lumps of clay are thrown into the air and shaped by gravitational force, while ceramic sculptures find their form through processes of stacking and collapse. From 2010, the artist embarked on his ongoing series of Serenity paintings. In these works on canvas, the artist’s brushstrokes are directed by the rhythms of his own breathing patterns, bodily sensations and qi,or flow of vital energy, as it is conceived in East Asian philosophy. Across his present sculpture and painting practices, Lee Kang-So elucidates the interconnections between the human and the non-human, material process and perceptual reception, artist and audience. ‘For me, canvas or paper are not simply objects or materials,’ he says. ‘They exist along with me as particles and waves at one time, laying out before me as an energy repeating creation and extinction at an unimaginable speed.’
Lee Kang-So lives and works in Anseong (Gyeonggi Province, Korea). He graduated from the Painting Department of Seoul National University in 1965, subsequently participating in a number of avant-garde artistic initiatives in the following decades. In 1970 he was a founding member of the artist collective Shincheje (The New System), which stood in provocative opposition to the existing art circle dominant in Seoul. In 1974 he was instrumental in the founding of Daegu Contemporary Art Festival and championed the fostering of regional artistic practices outside of the country’s urban centres. From 1985 to 1986 he was a visiting artist at the State University of New York in Albany, NY whilst working as a professor at Gyeongsang National University, Jinju. He then participated in the MoMA PS1 Studio Artists Program from 1991–92. These international encounters speak to the wide reach of Lee Kang-So’s work from the early decades of his career, as he formulated an idiosyncratic practice that developed alongside the legacies of other avant-garde movements, including Mono-ha in Japan, Korean Experimental Art, Minimalism in the United States and Arte Povera in Italy.
Lee Kang-So has exhibited widely in Korea and beyond. Between 2023 and 2024, his work was shown alongside that of his contemporaries in a major institutional touring exhibition, Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, which travelled to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. In the five decades of his artistic career, the artist has shown work in countless other institutional exhibitions, including at the Daegu Art Museum (2021; 2020; 2018; 2011); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole (MAMC+) (2016); Tate Modern, London (2012–13); Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice (2006); Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju (2003); National Art Museum of China, Beijing (1995); Tate Liverpool (1992); Barbican, London (1992); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1981); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1976); and Musée national d’art moderne, Paris (1975).
Lee Kang-So is represented in important collections internationally, including that of Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju; Daegu Art Museum; Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon; V&A Museum, London; and Written Art Foundation, Frankfurt, among others.
2024
Lee Kang-So: Where the Wind Meets the Water, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (forthcoming)
Lee Kang-So, Tokyo Gallery +BTAP, Tokyo, Japan
2023
Wind/Flow, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
The Wind Blows – about Sculpture, Leeahn Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Lee Kang-So, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique Paris, France
2021
From a Dream, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
2019
Becoming, Palazzo Caboto, Venice, Italy
2018
Disappearance, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
2017
Becoming, Wooson Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2016
Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne Métropole, Saint-Etienne, France
2015
Space of Shadow, Wooson Gallery, Daegu, Korea
Haeden Museum of Art, Incheon, Korea
Finding Enlightenment in Everyday Life, Ilwoo Space, Seoul, Korea
2012
Gallery Shilla, Daegu, Korea
2011
Opening Special Exhibition 1. 虛 Emptiness, DAEGU ART MUSEUM, Daegu, Korea
Natural, PKM Trinity Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2010
Joy Art Gallery, Beijing, China
2009
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
The River is Moving, Pyo gallery LA, Los Angeles, USA
2008
Gallery Yeh, Seoul, Korea
2006
Paysage vu par le Coeur, Musée des Arts Asiatique, Nice, France
2005
White Box, New York, USA
2003
The River is Moving, Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju, Korea
Gallery Shilla, Daegu, Korea
2002
Le Palais des Congrés de Paris, Paris, France
Galerie Ehdes Sevira, Paris, France
Gallery Leehyun, Daegu, Korea
2001
CAIS Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2000
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gallery Robert Y.Carat, Paris, France
1999
Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, France
CAIS Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1997
Gallery Arario, Cheonan, Korea
1996
Gallery Park Ryu-Sook, Seoul, Korea
1995
Gallery Johyun, Busan, Korea
1993
Bergen Museum of Art and Science, New Jersey, USA
Haenah-Kent Gallery, New York, USA
1992
Salama-Caro Gallery, London, UK
Haenah-Kent Gallery, New York, USA
1990
Haenah-Kent Gallery, New York, USA
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gallery Seomi, Seoul, Korea
1989
Gallery In Gong, Daegu, Korea
1988
Gallery In Gong, Daegu, Korea
1986
Gallery Korea, New York, USA
1985
Gallery Duson, Seoul, Korea
1979
Gallery Muramatsu, Tokyo, Japan
1973
Disappearance, Gallery Myungdong, Seoul, Korea
2024–23
Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Colorful Korean Painting – From Harmony to Purification, Artspace3, Seoul, Korea
2022
A Dream – Enchantment, Changseong-dong Laboratory, Seoul, Korea
Now and Then: 1922-Present: Park Seo Bo, Lee Kang So, Lee U Fan, Kim Tschang Yeul, Yun Hyong Keun, Gallery Shilla, Daegu, Korea
2021
Daegu Forum I: Playground for Poetry, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
Gongmyeong: Resonance, Horim Museum, Seoul, Korea
2020
The Modern and Contemporary Korean Writing, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Deoksugung, Seoul, Korea
Gallery HYUNDAI 50 Part II, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
The Moment of Gieok (Korean Alphabet ㄱ), Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum; Hangaram Museum, Seoul, Korea
The LEE In-sung Art Prize 20th Anniversary Exhibition (The Great Epic), Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
Leeum Video Project, Leeum Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2019
Beyond Line: The Art of Korean Writing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
2018–19
Awakening: Art in Society in Asia 1960s - 1990s, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
2018
Grasp the tiger’s tail, Pohang Steel Art Festival, Pohang, Korea
Gyeonggi Archive_Now, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi, Korea
Contemporary Art Dictionary: 7 Keywords, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonbuk, Korea
Renegades in Resistance and Challenge, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
2017
Contemplative Space and Artist Note, Whanki Museum, Seoul, Korea
Rehearsals from the Korean Avant-Garde Performance Archive, Korean Culture Centre UK, London, UK
Water That Remembers All, Kim Tschangyeul Art Museum, Jeju Island, Korea
2016
KM9346: Korea Morbihan 9,345km, Kerguehennec Museum, Bignan, France
30 Years 1968–2016: As the Moon Waxes and Wanes, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Busan Biennale 2016 Project 1: an/other avant-garde china-japan-korea, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
Korea Tomorrow 2016: 威風堂堂,Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2015
Wall: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea Collection Highlights, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Korean Painting, Beyond the Borders, Cultural Station 284, Seoul, Korea
Untitled, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2014
Korean Beauty: Two Kinds of Nature, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Time of Resonance, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju Island, Korea
Between the Lines: Korean Contemporary Art since 1970, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, Korea
2013
At the Nexus of Painting and Writing, Seoul Calligraphy Museum, Seoul Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2012–13
A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance, Tate Modern, London, UK
Thought in Korean Modernism Art, POMA Pohang Museum of Steel Art, Pohang, Korea
2012
Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Korean Painting Now, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan
2011
Tell me Tell me: Australian and Korean Art 1976–2011, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Qu is Full, Daegu Art Museum Opening Exhibition, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
2010
Non-natural: Quac In-Sik, Lee UFan, Lee Kang-so, Gonggan Purple, Heiri, Korea
Korean Avant-Garde Drawing 1970–2000, SOMA Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2008
Platform Seoul 2008: I have nothing to say and I am saying it, Seoul Station Old Bldg, Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea
Oriental Visual: Contemporary Art of Korea-China, Museum of Joongwhasegidan, Beijing, China
48th October Salon, Urban Crossroad: New York – Seoul – Paris, Museum of Yugoslav, Belgrade, Serbia
2004–5
The Development of Korean Modernism, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2003
Drawing: Its New Horizons, National Museum of Art Deoksugung, Seoul, Korea
Korean-Japan Contemporary Art 2003, Jin Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2001
Korea Contemporary Art: from mid-1960s and mid-1970s A Decade of Transition and Dynamics, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2000
Art Beyond Border, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, USA
A Land of Spirits, Gallery M, Daegu, Korea
Plane as Spirits, Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, Korea
Kwangju Biennale 2000, The Special Exhibition: The Facet of Korean and Japan Contemporary Art, Kwangju Municipal Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
1999
Coreé Fays de Matin Calms, Museé Des Arts Asiatiques, Nice, France
Korea-Japan Paintings Exchange Exhibition, Seoul Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1998
Lee, Peintres de Silence, Museé Montbéliard, Monteliard, France
1997
A Point of Contact–Korean, Chinese, Japanese Contemporary Art, Daegu Art & Culture Hall, Daegu, Korea
1996
Development of Korean Modernism: 1970-1990 Conquest of Modern, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Grafica Massima Giorgio Upiglio Grandi Stampe Original, Galleria Darte, Milano, Italy
The 21th Ecole de Seoul, Gallery Kwanhoon, Seoul, Korea
1995
Korean Contemporary Art, China National Museum of Art, Beijing, China
1994
The Faces of Contemporary Art 40 Years, Ho-Am Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Seoul International Art Festival, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
1993
12 Contemporary Artists from Korea, The Miyaji Museum of Art, Miyagigen, Japan
1992
Working with Nature, Traditional Thought in Contemporary Art from Korea, Tate Modern Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Flow from the Far East–Recent Korean Art Scene, Barbican Centre Concourse Gallery, London, UK
Encounters with Diversity, The 1992 International Studio Artists Exhibition, P.S.1, New York, USA
1991
Contemporary Korean Painting, National Museum of Modern Art, Yugoslavia
Triangle Artists Workshop 1991, 10th Anniversary, Bennington College Usdan Gallery, Vermont, USA
1990
1990 Korean Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Ho-Am Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Autumn, Maramatsu, Maramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1988
Commemorative Exhibition of the 24th Seoul Olympic Games, Korean Contemporary Art Festival, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
1984
Human Documents 84/85, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
‘84 Busan-Tokyo, Asai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1983
Korean Contemporary Art Exhibition: The Latter half of the 70’s An Aspect, Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan, The National Museum of International Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
1982
New Paper Works: Korea & Japan, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, Tokyo Municipal Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Saitama, Japan, Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, Kumamoto, Japan
1981
Korean Drawing Now, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Seoul 10 Artist’s Works, Gallery Kwanhoon, Seoul, Korea
1980
Exhibition of Korean Contemporary Prints by 9 Artists, Komai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Asian Artists Exhibition Part II, Festival: Contemporary Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
1978
Korea-The Trend for the Past 20 Years of Contemporary Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Exhibition of Seoul International Prints, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Iran International Culture & Arts Festival, Teheran, Iran
1977
The 14th Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Korea: Facet of Contemporary Art, Central Museum of Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
1976
The 1976 Biennale of Sydney - Recent International Forms of Art, Gallery New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The 10th International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
1975-99
The 1st-24th Ecole de Seoul, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gallery Kwanhoon, Seoul, Korea
1975-84
The 1st-10th Seoul Contemporary Art Festival, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Fine Art Center, Seoul, Korea
1975
The 9th Biennale de Paris 1975, Museé National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
1974-79
The 1st-5th Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, The Art Museum of Keimyung University, Daegu Cultural Center Gallery, Daegu, Korea
1974
Exhibition of Korean Experimental Artists, Daebaek Gallery, Daegu, Korea
Biennale of Seoul, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
1973
Korean Contemporary Art 1957-1972: Plastique & Anti-PlastiqueI, Myundong Gallery, Seoul, Korea
The Invitational Exhibition of Korean Contemporary Artist, Daebaek Gallery, Daegu, Korea
1972-79
The 1st-7th Independent, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
1971
71 Exhibition of A.G, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Korea
1970-76
The 1st-11th Exhibition of Shincheje Group, Press Center Gallery, Shinsegae Gallery, Myundong Gallery, National Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2002
The 3rd Lee In-Sung Art Prize, Daegu, Korea
1991
TRIANGLE Artist Workshop, New York, USA
MOMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
1985
Guest Artist, University at Albany, SUNY, New York, USA
1983
The 4th Seoul International Print Biennale, Superior Class Prize, Organized by Dong-A Ilbo and MMCA, MMCA, Seoul, Korea
Japan
Mie Museum of Art, Miegen, Japan
Korea
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Ho Am Museum of Art, Yongin, Korea
Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju, Korea
Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Han Lim Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
Busan Metropolitan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
Daegu Art & Culture Hall, Daegu, Korea
Museum of Hongik University, Seoul, Korea
Museum of Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea
Busan City Hall, Busan, Korea
Daegu City Hall, Daegu, Korea
Gyeongnam Provincial Museum of Art, Changwon, Korea
Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
Clayarch Kimhae Museum, Kimhae, Korea
Haeden Museum of Art, Kanghwa, Korea
Kimdaljin Art Archives and Museum, Seoul, Korea
Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea
Jeonnam Museum of Art, Gwangyang, Korea
Museum SAN | Hansol Cultural Foundation, Wonju, Korea
Open Air Sculpture Garden Asadal, Gyeongju, Korea
Germany
Written Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany
UK
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, U.K.
USA
Lexon Co. Ltd., New Jersey, USA
The International Museum of 20th Century Arts & Cultural Centre, Laguna Beach, California, USA