Lee Kang So: Dwelling in Mist and Glow Review of the exhibition in Paris

By Patrick Javault

In 1975, for his participation in the Paris Biennale, Lee Kang So entrusted the role of artist to a chicken which, tied to a stake, covered the ground with chalk powder from its footprints. This performance was repeated on the opening day in September 2025, and the result of this human-animal collaboration remains on display alongside a series of photographs of the event from fifty years ago. During the 1970s, Lee Kang So engaged in performances, or events, centred on the act of painting. In one of them, he covered his naked body with paint and wiped himself against the white canvas as if coming out of a bath. It is a double reference to Yves Klein and the shroud, but the result is left on the floor, in all humility. At the same time, he borrowed the technique of painting on a glass plate in front of the camera, but what he painted was a monochrome behind which he disappeared. In his paintings, too, the artist continues his dialogue with Western artists, sometimes seeming to respond to the way in which they have appropriated Asian calligraphy and concepts. A very large painting from 2016 shows two broad black lines, each starting at one edge of the canvas and, after forming a loop, meeting explosively in the centre. Momentum and energy prevail over writing and composition. In other paintings, he revisits painting clichés, such as the image of the stag, and confronts them with networks of lines that are clearly reminiscent of the gestures of a performer.

(Translated)