With a sensibility that is closely aligned with science fiction, Lee Bul's work investigates the ways that modern art, architecture and technology have shaped both our real and imagined worlds. The artist draws inspiration from diverse sources – including film, literature and modern architecture, as well as European and South Korean history – to create hybrid forms that convey a fantastical and often disconcerting dystopian vision. Made from deliberately contradictory materials that range from organic silk and mother of pearl to manufactured fibreglass and silicone, her work explores the utopian potentials but also the darker undercurrents of an increasingly technological culture.
Born in 1964 to dissident parents under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-Hee in South Korea, Lee Bul began her career with public performances that positioned her own body as both subject and object of the work. These performances channelled the personal and emotional impact of political persecution and restrictive gender roles into visual form. Composed of sexualised and anatomically amorphous robotic figures, her Cyborg series (1997–2011) encapsulates the desires and anxieties surrounding genetic engineering, cloning and cosmetic surgery. At the core of her more recent immersive installations is an investigation of landscape, which for the artist includes the intimate topography of the body, idealised or fictional settings and the physical world that surrounds us.
Lee Bul lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. Her 1997 installation Majestic Splendor at The Museum of Modern Art, New York used rotting fish encrusted in sequins as a commentary on the ephemeral nature of beauty and the powerlessness of women, causing a furore and establishing her international reputation as an emerging artist. In 1999, she was selected by curator Harald Szeemann to participate in the International Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale, where her work was also shown in the Korean Pavilion. She has had solo exhibitions at the New Museum, New York (2002); Le Consortium Contemporary Art Center, Dijon (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2004); Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris (2007); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); Musée d'Art Moderne Grand Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2013); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2014); and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2014). She has also been the subject of multiple exhibitions at Art Sonje, Seoul in 1998, 2012 and 2016. Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, the retrospective Lee Bul: Crashing opened at the Hayward Gallery, London and travelled to the Gropius Bau, Berlin in 2018–19, followed by Utopia Saved at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg in 2020, and Beginning at Seoul Museum of Art in 2021. In 2023, solo exhibitions were held at Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, and Gothenburg Museum of Art. Lee Bul received the Ho-Am Prize for The Arts in 2019, awarded to people of Korean heritage who have contributed to the enrichment of culture and arts for humankind.
2023
Lee Bul: Prints, STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore
Lee Bul, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
Lee Bul, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
Lee Bul, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
2022
Lee Bul, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Marais, France
2021
Lee Bul: Beginning, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2020
Utopia Saved, Manege Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia
2019
Interlude: Perdu, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY, USA
City of the Sun, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, USA
2018
Lee Bul: Crashing, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, UK; Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
2017
After Bruno Taut, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
Lee Bul, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY, USA
2016
Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Lee Bul, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
2015
Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne, France
PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Aubade III, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Chambers of Wonder, Swarovski Crystal Worlds, Kristallwelten Wattens, Innsbruck, Austria
2014
Lee Bul, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES 2014: LEE BUL, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea
2013
Pure Invisible Sun, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Mudam-Musée d'art moderne, Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
Inaugural Hong Kong Exhibition, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Hong Kong
2012
From me, belongs to you only, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
2010
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2009
Paintings and Drawings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2008
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2007
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Domus Artium 02, Salamanca, Spain
2005
SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
2004
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Deitch Projects, New York, NY, USA
2003
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan
Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
2002
The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Marseille, Marseille, France
Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Life Forever, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA
Le Consortium centre d'art contemporain, Dijon, France
PKM Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, USA
2001
Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA
BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, Austria
2000
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
1999
Korean Pavilion, 48th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
1998
Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
1997
Projects, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1994
Unforgiven, A Space, Toronto, Canada
1988
IL Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2023
Dans l’air, les machines volantes, Hangar Y, Meudon, France
2022
Les Portes du possible. Art & science fiction, Centre Pompidou–Metz, Metz, France
Kaleidoscope Eyes, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo
Face-à-Face, The Grant Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (Mudam), Luxembourg
13 Women, Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), CA, USA
2021
Quand la matière devient Art, Maison Guerlain, Paris, France
Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
Supernatural – In the Same World, Oulu Museum of Art, Oulu, Finland
Mandy El-Sayegh & Lee Bul: Recombinance, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY, USA
2020
30 Years in Paris, Thaddeaus Ropac, Paris Pantin, France
MMCA Permanent Collection 2020+, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today, CaixaForum Barcelona, Barcelona; CaixaForum Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Inside Out: The Body Politic – McArthur Binion, Mandy El-Sayegh, Lee Bul and Tony Oursler, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, South Korea
DMZ Project, Korean Culture Centre, Paris, France
2019
May You Live in Interesting Times, cur. Ralph Rugoff, 58th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
The Nature Rules - Dreaming of Earth Project, directed by Jae-Eun Choi, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Desire in Art from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, cur. Rachel Thomas & Yuko Hasegawa, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
Cosmologic Arrows, Bonnier Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Phantom Plane, Cyberpunk in the Year of the Future, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
Negotiating Boundaries, Korean Culture Centre, London, UK
Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Utopian Imagination, Ford Foundation, New York, NY, USA
PRISM FANTASY: New Ways to View Light, Paradise Art Space, Incheon, South Korea
APMA CHAPTER ONE, Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2018
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2018, Echigo-Tsumari, Japan
2015
Space Age, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA
Esprit Dior – Miss Dior, Beijing, China
Esprit Dior Seoul, Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park, Seoul, South Korea
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2015, Echigo-Tsumari, Japan
SÉOUL, VITE, VITE!, Renaissance, Le Tri Postal, Lille, France
2012
Bios – Konzepte des Lebens in der zeitgenössischen Skulptur, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany
Invisible Cities, Mass MoCA | Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA, USA
Lehmann Maupin at Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
Nostalgia is an Extended Feedback, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, South Korea
2011
Countdown, cur. Sungwon Kim, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, South Korea
Space Study, PLATEAU (formerly Rodin Gallery), Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Contemporary Craft, Now & Here, cur. Chung Joonmo, Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2011, Cheongju, South Korea
2010
Transformation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Fantasmagoria, le monde mythique, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
New Décor, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Morality, Act VI: Remember Humanity, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Flower of May, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea
New Art for a New Century: Contemporary Acquisitions, 2000-2010, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, USA
Itinéraires de l'élégance, entre l'Orient et l'Occident, Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
A Fragmentary Anatomy of Every Setting Sun, permanent installation, Hara Museum ARC, Gunma, Japan
2009
Void of Memory, cur. Mami Kataoka & Sunjung Kim, Platform Seoul 2009, Kimusa (Former Defence Security Command Site), Seoul, South Korea
2008
Prospect.1, cur. Dan Cameron, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
Life? Biomorphic Forms in Sculpture, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
Fluid Street - Alone, Together, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Fragile Beauty, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Mobile Art: Chanel Contemporary Art Container, Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; New York, NY, USA
Art is for the Spirit: Works from the UBS Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2007
Tomorrow, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
Views from the Bosphorus, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Turkey
10th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
2006
Real Utopia, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Dirty Yoga, Taipei Biennial, Taiwan
The Past Made Present: Contemporary Art and Memory, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
100 Years of Korean Art - Part 2, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Uneasy Nature, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC, USA
2005
Baroque and Neo-Baroque: The Hell of the Beautiful, Domus Artium 02, Salamanca, Spain
Gorgeous Isn't Good Enough, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy
California Modern, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, USA
Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Visions of the Body, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
IDYL, Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim, Antwerp, Belgium
Encounters with Modernism, National Museum of Art, Deoksugung Palace, Seoul, South Korea
(My private) HEROES, MARTa, Herford, Germany
New Acquisitions 2004, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2004
The Nature Machine, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Encounters in the 21st Century: Polyphony - Emerging Resonances, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Inaugural exhibition, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul, South Korea
Why Not Live For Art?, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Standing on a Bridge, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea
Andererseits: Die Phantastik, Landesgalerie Linz, Linz, Austria
Artes Mundi Prize, National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff, UK
2003
world rush_4 artists, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Five: The Artsonje Collection, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
Girls Don't Cry, Parco Museum, Tokyo, Japan
The Uncanny, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada
2002
Shape, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
BINGO, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Fusion Cuisine, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
Walk Around Time: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA
The Uncanny, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
My Reality: The Culture of Anime, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
2001
Record All Over, 9th Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
ARS 01: Third Space, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Egofugal, 7th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Connivence, cur. Laurence Hazout-Dreyfus, 6th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
The Collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2001
Body as Byte, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland
01.01.01: Art in Technological Times, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
My Reality: The Culture of Anime, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA; Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, USA
Let's Entertain, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany; Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
2000
Au-delà du Spectacle, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
media_city seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Lust Warande, De Oude Warande, Tilburg, Netherlands
Air Air, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, selected by Nancy Spector, Echigo-Tsumari, Japan
Zeitwenden, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, Austria; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria
Tourlou, tourlou, Melina Mercouri Art Space, Hydra, Greece
Der anagrammatische Körper, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
La casa, il corpo, il cuore, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
Continuum 001, cur. Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK
Let's Entertain, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, USA
Slowness of Speed, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
1999
International Pavilion, cur. Harald Szeemann, and Korean Pavilion, 48th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Zeitwenden, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Cities on the Move 7, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Der anagrammatische Körper, Kunsthaus Muerz with Neue Galerie Graz, Austria
La casa, il corpo, il cuore, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria
dAPERTutto, 48th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Hot Air, Granship Center, Shizuoka, Japan
Slowness of Speed, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Cities on the Move 5, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark
Cities on the Move 4, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
1998
Sarajevo 2000, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria
Slowness of Speed, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
The Natural World, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Hugo Boss Prize 1998, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, NY, USA
Cities on the Move 3, capc Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Cities on the Move 2, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY, USA
Traffic Jam, Büro Friedrich, Berlin, Germany
1997
Cities on the Move, Secession, Vienna, Austria
Fast Forward, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
L'autre, cur. Harald Szeemann, 4th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
619 KBB 75, installation project with Pipilotti Rist, Georgina Starr and others, Paris, France; Berlin, Germany
1996
Join Me!, Spiral/Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
Arcos da Lapa, public projection, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1995
Information and Reality, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
6th Triennale Kleinplastik, Südwest LandesBank Forum, Stuttgart, Germany
Korean Contemporary Art, 1st Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
1995
New Asian Art, Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Ssack, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
Body and Recognition, Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
1994
Technology, Environment & Information, Recycling Art Pavilion, Expo Science Park, Daejeon, South Korea
Untitled installation and performance, Before Building, Myeong-dong, Seoul, South Korea
This Kind of Art-Dish Washing, Kumho Museum, Seoul, South korea
Woman: The Difference and the Power, Hankuk Museum, Seoul and Yongin, South Korea
The Vision of the Next Generation, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea
1993
1st Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Plastic Spring, Duk Won Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Conversation, performance, Proto Theater, Tokyo, Japan
Impromptu Amusement, performance, Kunitachi Art Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1992
Diet: Diagramming III, performance, Sagak Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Year of Ears: Diagramming II, performance, Live House Nanjang, Seoul, South Korea
1991
At the Forest of Chaos, Jahamoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
DMZ: Art and Cultural Movement, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea
Dish Washing, Sonamu Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
BIO, Space Ozone, Seoul, South Korea
Interaction, 5-day performance with Chino Shuichi, Suwon Castle, South Korea
1990
Tokyo-Seoul Traffic, K Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Sunday Seoul, Sonamu Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Artoilet II, performance, Space Theater, Seoul, South Korea
Song of the Fish, performance, Dong Soong Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
Sorry for Suffering-You Think I'm a Puppy on a Picnic?, 12-day performance beginning in Gimpo Airport, Korea, and continuing in various sites in Tokyo, Japan
1989
Cravings, performance, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Abortion, performance, Dong Soong Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
Korean Installation Art Festival, Total Art Museum and Sculpture Park, Jang Heung, South Korea
1988
U. A. O., Renoir Art Hall, Seoul, South Korea
Anti-Idea, Total Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea
Point of View and Point in Time II, Batang Gol Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Hong Ik Sculpture Association Annual, Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
1987
Museum III, Soo Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Print of Concept, P&P Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Point of View and Point in Time, Batang Gol Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Museum, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Australia
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Austria
Bawag Contemporary - Bawag Foundation, Vienna
China
Start Museum, Shanghai
Italy
Trevi Flash Art Museum Of Contemporary Art, Trevi
Japan
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art - Kanazawa, Kanazawa
South Korea
Leeum - Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul
Amore Pacific Museum, Yongin-si
United Arab Emirates
Sharjah Art Foundation
UK
Tate, London
USA
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2019
Ho-Am Prize, Seoul, South Korea
2014
Noon Award, Gwangju Biennale, South Korea