As a pioneer of avant-garde art, 80-year-old Lee Kun-yong, the father of Korean performance art, has always injected a powerful spiritual force into the contemporary art scene with his critical multimedia works. Recently, the Pace Gallery in Hong Kong presented a solo exhibition for this innovative artist, showcasing a series of abstract paintings and video works documenting his body painting, providing audiences with a truly eye-opening experience!
右：Bodyscape 76-2-2021, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 162 cm × 130 cm × 4 cm
Lee Jeong-yong’s creative practice covers performance art, sculpture, installations, and video. In the repressive authoritarianism of 1970s Korea, which stifled freedom of expression, civil rights, and freedom of speech, Lee Jeong-yong began his highly experimental creative practice. As a leading figure in Korean avant-garde art, he emerged in this context. He was once one of the founding members of the artist group “Space and Time,” widely regarded as a pioneer of Korean performance art.
This exhibition will showcase the artist’s work since 1976, including one of his most representative series, “Body Portraits.” In this series, Lee Kin-yung approaches the canvas from different angles to create a physical relationship between himself and the chosen medium, documenting it through painting or video. The experimental results capture abstract paintings of his body performance, with each process in the creation or presentation of the artwork becoming part of experimental performance art. The artist is known for his ongoing performance art pieces like “Body Portraits.”
The exhibition will also feature video works of Lee Geon-yong’s performance pieces “Transmitting Life” and “Five Steps.” In 1975, he first performed “Five Steps” at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, where he took five steps in different directions from a starting point while directly marking his movements on the ground with charcoal. The artist counted the steps in Korean as he marked them. This piece reflects his interest in “marking” and serves as a record of his body’s movements and experiences.
“Transmission of Life” first appeared at the 1979 Sao Paulo Biennale, where the artist laid out personal items on the ground in a line and ended the performance by lying face down at the end of the objects. As American art curator John Souza puts it, Lee Kang-yong’s performances and installations are composed of premeditated actions, but he proves his existence with his physical body, capturing the essence of “body” and “space” in each performance through his work.
Li Jianyong has created a new artistic mode in the contemporary art world, and continues to explore the relationship between his body, the artistic medium he chooses, and the audience through various performances. You are welcome to visit the exhibition and appreciate how this father of performance art speaks through his body.
Lee Kin Yung Solo Exhibition
Date: From now until March 3, 2022 (Closed on Sundays and Mondays)
Time: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Address: Pace Gallery, 12th Floor, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
Image source and learn more: Pace Gallery
