Pace Gallery will present《Body as Thought》, a solo exhibition by Lee Kun-Yong, a central figure in Korean experimental art, at its Seoul gallery from February 5 to March 28, 2026.
 
Organized in celebration of the artist’s fifty-year career, the exhibition brings together key historical archives from the mid-1970s—including early performance videos, photographs, and working notes—alongside paintings. Rather than functioning as a conventional retrospective, the presentation reexamines Lee’s sustained inquiry into “the body and logic” and reconsiders the significance of his work within the broader development of Korean avant-garde art.
 
 
 
Logic as Strategy under Conditions of Control
 
In 1970s Korea, artistic meaning and intent were frequently reduced to political interpretation amid strict control and censorship. Within this climate, Lee deliberately avoided approaches grounded in emotion, expressive subjectivity, or overt messaging. Instead, he established logical structures based on conditions and rules, which he then enacted through the body. As the artist has stated, subverting mechanisms of control was the only way he could express, represent, and inscribe himself within spaces of life where systems and authority had appropriated and invalidated public discursive capabilities. His practice thus emerged as a strategic reconfiguration of the body—not as a vehicle of expression, but as a site where thought could be structured and executed.

Event and Logical Event
 
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Lee referred to his actions not as “performances” but as “Events,” later refining the term to “Logical Event,” and eventually inverting it to “Event-Logical” to emphasize the primacy of the event itself. Everyday activities—walking, eating, moving one’s hands—were not spontaneous gestures but carefully constructed executions designed to test how relationships between body, space, and time operate. Repetition and simple physical actions unfolded within predetermined parameters, producing marks and outcomes that reflected the interaction between artist and environment. Through these works, Lee sought to use the body as a medium for perceiving and articulating the world.

The exhibition foregrounds early works that mark the inception of this inquiry. Videos of the premieres of Same Area (1975) and Indoor Measurement (1975), first presented at Baekrok Gallery in Seoul on April 19, 1975, are on view alongside photographs and artist notes documenting their execution. These seminal performances begin with straightforward rules—measuring the length and area of a given space—and unfold through repetitive actions such as folding and unfolding paper or cutting and connecting tape. Through these procedures, Lee logically articulated relationships between space, the body, and objects.
 
Also included are photographs documenting performances such as The Biscuit Eating (1977), Fence Inside a Gallery (1977), and Logic of the Hand 3 (1975), presented publicly for the first time at Pace.

Archival Re-readings
 
For Lee, documentation constitutes a crucial phase of the work; it is through photographs, video, and notes that the established logic may be reread and reconfigured. His performances do not remain fixed events of the past but continue to generate new questions for the present through their structures and records. During the exhibition, Lee will present two live performances at the gallery, further extending the temporal dimension of these inquiries.

Bodyscape and the Extension into Painting
 
Lee’s exploration of the body as medium also expanded into drawing and painting. Beginning in 1976, his ongoing ‘Bodyscape’ series challenged conventional modes of art-making. Approaching the canvas from varying angles—sometimes without directly facing it—Lee recorded the motions of his limbs in paint. The resulting abstract compositions are not representations but traces of bodily movement. They foreground the physicality and temporality of painting, revealing process rather than pictorial illusion. In these works, the body remains the operative structure through which thought materializes on the surface.

Lee Kun-Yong (b. 1942) is widely recognized as a key figure in Korean experimental art. He was an important member of the Korean Avant-Garde Association (AG) and a founding member of the ST (Space & Time) group. He earned a BFA from Hongik University in Seoul in 1967 and an MA in art education from Keimyung University in Daegu in 1982. Developing his highly experimental practice during the 1970s—when martial law and authoritarianism significantly curtailed civil rights and freedom of expression in South Korea—Lee established the conceptual and structural foundations of his “Event” and “Event-Logical works”.
 
Recent solo exhibitions include《Lee Kun-Yong: Bodyscape》, Palazzo Cabotto, Venice (2022); 《Lee Kun-Yong: Reborn》, Leeahn Gallery, Seoul (2022); 《Lee Kun-Yong: Bodyscape Since 1973》, 313 Art Project, Paris (2022–23); 《Lee Kun-Yong: Snail’s Gallop》, Pace Gallery, New York (2023); 《Lee Kun-Yong: Archival Rhythm》, Gyeongnam Art Museum (2023); and exhibitions at Kunsan National University Art Museum (2024), Leeahn Gallery, Daegu (2024), and Dugaheon House, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (2024–25). He has participated in the Paris Biennale (1973), the Bienal de São Paulo (1979), the Gwangju Biennale (2000, 2023), and the Busan Biennale (2014, 2016).
 
His work is held in major international collections, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Long Museum, Shanghai; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, among others.

Pace Gallery Seoul

Founded in 1960, Pace Gallery operates internationally with spaces in New York, London, Geneva, Hong Kong, and Seoul. The Seoul gallery serves as a significant platform connecting Korean contemporary art with global audiences, presenting historically significant figures alongside leading international artists.
 


Exhibition Information

Exhibition title:《Lee Kun-Yong: Body as Thought》
Dates: February 5 – March 28, 2026
Venue: Pace Gallery Seoul, 267 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
Pace Gallery Seoul Website: https://www.pacegallery.com/galleries/seoul/