Bae Young-whan
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ABOUT
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BAE YOUNG-WHAN
Bae Young-whan’s artistic practice encompasses sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and public projects that affect mediation in society. Born in 1969 and sometimes identified with a generation of Korean artists grappling with the legacies of Minjung art—a politically charged genre that emerged amid the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s—he is more interested in devising a poetics of lived experience than in a program of politics.
Bae’s work combines a keen awareness of vernacular beauty with neo-conceptual strategies. Often making use of humble, mundane elements—discarded wood from construction sites, broken bottles, and sentimental song lyrics—his art is attuned to the ephemeral surfaces as well as the deeper structures of feeling that underlie Korean society. Academically trained in traditional Asian painting (BFA, Hongik University, Seoul), he also draws upon the conceptual tenets of that discipline to undertake a distinctly contemporary engagement with timeless questions surrounding the individual’s relationship to nature, culture, and society in the collective Korean consciousness.
Bae Young-whan has held institutional exhibitions at Seoul Museum of Art (2018); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea (2016); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2013); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2012); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009); among others. He has participated in various international biennials, including Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennial, and Venice Biennale. He is the recipient of the Grand Prize, Korea Public Design Award (2015) and Today’s Young Artist Award (2004), both from the Ministry of Culture, Korea; and Gwangju Biennale Site Award (2002). He was a finalist for the APB Signature Art Prize (2018) and Hermès Foundation Missulsang (2007).
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WORKS
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EXHIBITIONS
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NEWS
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BAE YOUNG-WHAN, LEE BUL
Korean Modern and Contemporary Art II | National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea April 22, 2026READ IN KOREAN Korean Modern and Contemporary Art II | National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea April 22, 2026 – June 27, 2027 Bae Young-whan’s Youth (1999)... -
BAE YOUNG-WHAN, LEE BUL
What Flows What Remains | Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea March 26, 2026READ IN KOREAN What Flows What Remains | Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea March 26 – June 14, 2026 Bae Young-whan’s Luxurious Miserable Insomnia (2008) and Lee Bul’s Untitled... -
BB&M PUBLICATION
BAE YOUNG-WHAN: SO NEAR SO FAR March 25, 2026READ IN KOREAN This monograph traces the full scope and development of Bae Young-whan’s practice, from his early works through to his 2024 solo exhibition at BB&M, So Near So... -
BAE YOUNG-WHAN, LEE BUL
SeMA Omnibus: At the End of the Wolrd Split Endlessly | Seoul Museum of Art October 1, 2024READ IN KOREAN SeMA Omnibus: At the End of the World Split Endlessly | Seoul Museum of Art August 22 – November 17, 2024 Bae Young-whan’s Autonumina—Ten Thousand Years' Sleep... -
BAE YOUNG-WHAN
30TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION CELEBRATING THE KOREAN PAVILION AT THE VENICE ART BIENNALE May 2, 2024READ IN KOREAN Every Island is a Mountain | Palazzo Malta — Ordine di Malta, Venice April 19 – September 8, 2024 Bae Young-whan's Anxiety— Seoul 5:30 P.M. (2012/2024) is... -
MAGNETIC FIELDS
5 Shows to See During Frieze Seoul | ARTnews August 30, 20225 Shows to See During Frieze Seoul | ARTnews August 30, 2022 by Andrew Russeth 'The four swirling, undulating abstractions that Lee Bul has forged from acrylic paint and mother...
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