haegue yang
1971, Seoul, South Korea
Haegue Yang seeks to communicate without language in a primordial and visual way: often complementing her vocabulary of visual abstraction with sensory experiences that include scent, sound, light and tactility. Combining industrial fabrication and folk craftsmanship, Yang explores the affective power of materials in destabilizing the distinction between the modern and pre-modern. Yang’s unique visual language extends across various media (from paper collage to staged theatre pieces and performative sculptures), and materials (Venetian blinds, clothing racks, synthetic straw, bells and graph paper) that are torn, lacquered, woven, lit and hung. Her artistic explorations stem from material-based concerns, accompanied by philosophical, political and emotionally charged readings of historical events and figures. Her ongoing research is empowered by underlying references to art history, literature and political history, through which she re-interprets some of her recurrent themes: migration, postcolonial diasporas, enforced exile and social mobility. As a result, these pieces link various geopolitical contexts and histories in an attempt to understand and comment on our own time. Yang’s translation from the political and historical into the formal and abstract, demonstrates her conviction that historical narratives can be made comprehensible without being linguistically explanatory or didactic.
Haegue Yang lives and works in Berlin.
drifting weave formation – mesmerizing mesh #158, 2022, hanji on alu-dibond, framed, 24.41 x 24.41 in
swaying flaring blooming formation – mesmerizing mesh #135, 2022, hanji on alu-dibond, framed, 24.41 x 24.41 in
non-foldings–cosmic explosion #6, 2012, spray paint on paper, framed
48.43 x 34.45 in each
50.16 x 36.14 in each framed
seven dircksenstraße moisture – ks24022, 2022, aluminum venetian blind, powder-coated aluminum frame, stainless steel kitchen sink, led light bar, cable, cable clamp, terminal strip, 31 1/2 x 18 1/8 x 8 5/8 in
garnished parachuting – garlic, 100 g; peaches, 1 kg; and organic zucchini, 500 g, 2018, chipboard, wood varnish, seeds, leaf particles, mesh produce bag, dust, hair
19.69 x 13.78 x 1.18 in
quasi-pagan serial, 2016
installation view at hamburger kunsthalle, hamburg, 2016
photo: kay riechers, 2016
mesmerizing lantern – four guardians in crimson mesh, 2022, powder-coated stainless steel frame, steel wire rope, led bulb, cable, hanji, black brass-plated bells, powder-coated stainless steel and pvd-coated stainless steel bells, stainless steel bells, split rings, plastic raffia string, jute twine, 140 x 90 x 90 cm
photo: Studio Haegue Yang
mesmerizing pagoda – overgrown ultramundane flowers, 2022, birch plywood, wood stain, stainless steel fully threaded bolt, stainless steel components, steel wire rope, hanji, powder-coated stainless steel and stainless steel bells, split rings, jute twine.
158 x 60 x 60 cm
photo: studio haegue yang
sonic celestial rope – Iridescent dodecagon tight curl, 2021, pvd-coated stainless steel bells, stainless steel chains, quick links, split rings, 157.48 x 3.94 x 3.94 in
the malady of death – monodrama with irene azuela, 2016
documentation of performance in cenote tza-ujun-kat, homún, yucatán, mexico; adapted from marguerite duras' novella la maladie de la mort, 1982
42 min
photo: heinz peter knes, 2016
the malady of death – monodrama with irene azuela, 2016
documentation of performance in cenote tza-ujun-kat, homún, yucatán, mexico; adapted from marguerite duras' novella la maladie de la mort, 1982
42 min
photo: heinz peter knes, 2016
the malady of death – monodrama with irene azuela, 2016
documentation of performance in cenote tza-ujun-kat, homún, yucatán, mexico; adapted from marguerite duras' novella la maladie de la mort, 1982
42 min
photo: heinz peter knes, 2016
sonic rotating geometry type d – copper and nickel plated #51, 2015
steel sheet, powder coating, ball bearings, metal grid, copper plated bells, nickel plated bells, metal rings
39.37 x 30.71 x 3.15 in.
sonic rotating geometry type f – copper and nickel plated #47, 2015
steel sheet, powder coating, ball bearings, metal grid, copper plated bells, nickel plated bells, metal rings
39.37 x 39.37 x 3.15 in.
sonic rotating geometry type d – copper and nickel plated #45, 2015, steel sheet, powder coating, ball bearings, metal grid, copper plated bells, nickel plated bells, metal rings, 39.37 x 30.71 x 3.15 in.
ceremonial fanfare in dual tones, 2015
clothing rack, jute twine, knitting yarn, lampshade frames, brass plated bells, nickel plated bells, metal rings, light bulbs, cord, cable, cable ties, casters
81.89 x 39.76 x 44.09 in.
ceremonial fanfare in dual tones, 2015
clothing rack, jute twine, knitting yarn, lampshade frames, brass plated bells, nickel plated bells, metal rings, light bulbs, cord, cable, cable ties, casters
81.89 x 39.76 x 44.09 in.
rainbow out of the water, 2012, clothing rack, casters light bulbs, cable, zip ties, terminal strips, nylon cord, knitting yarn, seashells, metal chains, metal rings, bells, papier-mâché, watercolor, varnish, 70.87 x 40.16 x 40.16 in
kaleidoscopic tipping over in asymmetry – trustworthy #241, 2015
various envelope security patterns, graph paper, framed, 2 pieces
40.24 x 40.24 in. each
tender radiant flow–trustworthy #249, 2015, set of 8. various envelope security patterns, graph paper, framed either, 28.43 x 28.43 in or 40.24 x 40.24 in each
kaleidoscopic tipping over – trustworthy #243, 2015
various envelope security patterns, graph paper, framed, 2 pieces
28.43 x 28.43 in. each
sonic intermediates – triad walker trinity (sonic intermediate – tripodal venting walker, sonic intermediate – spinning mask on parasol walker, sonic intermediate – botanical bi-headed creeping walker), 2020
set of 3 pieces. powder-coated steel frame, powder-coated mesh, powder-coated handles, casters, brass plated bells, black brass plated bells, metal rings, plastic twine, turbine vents, artificial plants, pine cones. powder-coated steel frame, powder-coated mesh, powder-coated handles, ball bearing, casters, nickel plated bells, brass plated bells, black brass plated bells, metal rings. powder-coated steel frame, powder-coated mesh, powder-coated handles, ball bearings, casters, brass plated bells, black brass plated bells, metal rings, plastic twine, artificial plants, multilayer foam
83.46 x 47.64 x 47.24 in
75.98 x 47.24 x 43.7 in
59.06 x 53.15 x 71.65 in
the intermediate – uhhhhh creature w, 2017, artificial straw, stainless steel frame, powder coating, artificial vegetables, artificial block of fermented soybeans, gourd, steel wire
61.02 x 86.61 x 23.62 in
the intermediate – rolling bushy nosy, 2016
artificial straw, steel stand, powder coating, artificial plants, artificial vegetables, casters
2.44 x 41.34 x 48.43 in.
sonic half moon type I – tiny regular #5, 2016
63.7 x 13.3 x 13.3 in.
powder-coated steel frame, powder-coated metal grid, steel wire rope, brass and nickel plated bells, metal rings
installation view of quasi-pagan serial,hamburger kunsthalle, hamburg, 2016
photo: kay riechers, 2016
sonic dance – arrayed on gradation, 2015
steel stand, metal grid, powder coating, casters, nickel plated bells, copper plated bells, metal rings, jute twine
5.98 x 42.91 x 42.52 in.
sonic sphere – two worlds in golden ocean, 2015
steel stand, metal grid, powder coating, casters, brass plated bells, nickel plated bells, copper plated bells, metal rings
33.86 x 31.89 x 32.68 in.
installation view haegue yang: lost lands and sunken fields, nasher sculpture center, 2025. photo: kevin todora
installation view haegue yang: lost lands and sunken fields, nasher sculpture center, 2025. photo: kevin todora
installation view haegue yang: lost lands and sunken fields, nasher sculpture center, 2025. photo: kevin todora
installation view haegue yang: leap year, hayward gallery, london 2024. photo: mark blower
installation view haegue yang: leap year, hayward gallery, london 2024. photo: mark blower
installation view haegue yang: leap year, hayward gallery, london 2024. photo: mark blower
installation view spring sailors – six synecologies aloft, lahore biennale foundation, pakistan, 2024. courtesy of lahore biennale foundation
installation view spring sailors – six synecologies aloft, lahore biennale foundation, pakistan, 2024. courtesy of lahore biennale foundation
installation view spring sailors – six synecologies aloft, lahore biennale foundation, pakistan, 2024. courtesy of lahore biennale foundation
installation view continuous reenactments, ham helsinki art museum, finland, 2023. photo: kirsi halkola
installation view continuous reenactments, ham helsinki art museum, finland, 2023. photo: kirsi halkola
installation view continuous reenactments, ham helsinki art museum, finland, 2023. photo: kirsi halkola
installation view haegue yang: handles, moma, new york, 2019. photo: dawn blackman
installation view haegue yang: handles, moma, new york, 2019. photo: dawn blackman
installation view haegue yang: handles, moma, new york, 2019. photo: dawn blackman
installation view approaching: choreography engineered in never-past tense, kassel, germany, 2012. photo: nils klinger
installation view approaching: choreography engineered in never-past tense, kassel, germany, 2012. photo: nils klinger
installation view approaching: choreography engineered in never-past tense, kassel, germany, 2012. photo: nils klinger
Some of Haegue Yang’s most recent individual exhibitions include: Haegue Yang: Arcane Abstractions, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2025); Lost Lands and Sunken Fields, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX (2025); Flat Works 2004–2024, The Arts Club of Chicago, IL (2024); Haegue Yang: Leap Year, Hayward Gallery, London (2024); Continuous Reenactments, Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), Finland (2023); Latent Dweling, Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2023); Haegue Yang: Several Reenactments, S. M. A. K., Ghent, Belgium (2023); Haegue Yang: Changing From From To From, National Gallery of Australia, Camberra (2023); Haegue Yang: Double Soul, National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhague, Denmark (2022); Haegue Yang: Strange Attractors, Tate St Ives, UK (2020); MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang - O2 & H2O, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul (2020); Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines (2020); In the Cone of Uncertainty, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami (2019); Kunst_Handwerk. Zwischen Politik und Digitalisierung. Kunsthaus Graz, Switzerland (2019); Handles, The Museum of Modern Art – MoMA, New York (2019); Tracing Movements, South London Gallery (2019); Chronotopic Traversées, La Panacée, Montpellier, France (2019); Tightrope Walking and its Wordless Shadow, Fondazione Furla, Milan, Italy (2018); Triple Vita Nestings, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2018); Silo of Silence – Clicked Core, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017-18); Lingering Nous, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2016); An Opaque Wind Park in Six Folds, Serralves Foundation – Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal (2016); Shooting the Elephant 象 Thinking the Elephant, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Uneven Arrivals, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China (2015); Équivoques (Family of Equivocations), Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS) and Aubette 1928, Strasbourg, France (2013); Honesty Printed on Modesty, STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore (2013); Accommodating the Epic Dispersion, Haus der Kunst, Münich, Germany (2012); Arrivals, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2011); Voice and Wind, New Museum, New York (2010); Symmetric Inequality, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain (2008); Asymmetric Equality, REDCAT CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, Los Angeles (2008), among many others.
Haegue Yang has also participated in group exhibitions such as: Undo PLANET: Memory (Im) Material Flow, Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2024); The collection: dialogues II (Volume 2), Collegium, Arévalo, Spain (2023); Dialogues as part of Collection Exhibition of Saastamoinen Foundation, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Finland (2023); Social Assembly: Welcome to the Museum, The Bass Museum, Miami (2023); On the Value of Time: New Presentation of the Collection of Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2023); Portals and Omens: New Works from the Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand (2023); Colección Jumex: Todo se vuelve más ligero, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2023); COMPORTA 2023, Fortes de Aloia, Portugal; A Story of a Merchant, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2023); Vielheit [multiplicity]. Stories of post-migrant society, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Italy (2023); Aranya Plein Air Art Project (APA), Aranya Art Center, Jin Shan Ling, China (2023); WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subject, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2023); After all, a collection is only human, Villa Vandenbussche, Tielt, Belgium (2021); The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2021); Dress Vehicle / Eclectic Totemic, as part of Siembra, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2020); Pine's Eye, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2020); Arts, Crafs. Between tradition, discourse and technologies, Kusthaus Graz, Austria and Museum Joanneum, Switzerland (2019); Outbound, National Gallery Singapore (2019); Work, Work, Work, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2019); Give and Take: Highlighting Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); Beyond the Box. Sammlung Dohmen, Leopold-Hösch-Museum, Düren, Germany (2018); among others.
Her work has also been included in the following biennials: Thailand Biennale 2023; Performa Biennale 2023, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum/Peter B. Lewis Theater, New York (2023); Natasha, 7th Singapore Biennale (2022); 21st Sydney Biennial, Australia (2018); Liverpool Biennial 2017, United Kingdom; 13e Biennale de Lyon, France (2015); Sharjah Biennial 12, United Arab Emirates (2015); 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Australia (2015); Western China International Biennale (2012); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012); 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010); 53rd Venice Biennial (2009); 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); Prague Biennale 3, Czech Republic (2007); 5th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2004); Busan Biennale 2006, South Korea; Manifesta 4, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Frankfurt, Germany (2004); 4th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2002); 1st edition of the T.I.C.A.B – Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual, Albania (2001).
read the full article on south china morning post
read the full article from art asia pacific
read the full article of haegue yang on the new york times
smk national gallery of denmark presents haegue yang double soul
Read the full review on Dubai's long-awaited Expo 2020 artist line-up, including Haegue Yang, at the art newspaper.
Read the full review on Haegue Yang's reflection over Sophie Taeuber-Arp's Art Legacy in Wallpaper Magazine.
Jimmie Durham & Haegue Yang talk in an all in-conversation exclusively for kurimanzutto's Art Basel: Pioneers Online Viewing Room.
Haegue Yang selects a number of works by the artist, poet, author, essayist and political activist, Jimmie Durham.
Jimmie Durham & Haegue Yang participate in Tate Modern's Room 6 and 9 Displays: Materials and Objects.
kurimanzutto is proud to participate in Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach 2020 featuring a selection of works by: Gabriel Orozco, Nairy Baghramian, Haegue Yang, Jimmie Durham, Damián Ortega, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Carlos Amorales, Roberto Gil de Montes, Wilfredo Prieto, Miguel Calderón.
Haegue Yang and Nairy Baghramian take part in The Clark Institute's first outdoor exhibition of site-specific comissioned works.
The Cone of Concern at the MCAD centers around the idea of the ‘tropical depression’, a weather disturbance characterized by strong winds that take place mostly in the region of the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean.
In MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang - O2 & H2O, the artist attempts another leap toward "the abstraction of reality."
The Willfulness of Objects presents a selection of works from The Bass’ collection, many newly acquired, by artists who utilize found, altered, recycled, or transformed everyday objects as their materials to explore facets of human nature, history, and the surrounding environment.
The artist discusses her work, identity, and the inspiration behind her new commission, Handles, with curator Stuart Comer.
Read full article about Haegue Yang's exhibition In the Cone of Uncertainty at The Bass Museum of Art, Miami.
Read about Haegue Yang's work and her reflections on solitude and belonging.
The Istanbul Biennial has served as a dynamic plane of interaction, a meeting point, and a critical site for the development of new aesthetic and political visions.
In the Cone of Uncertainty foregrounds Haegue Yang’s (b. 1971, Seoul) consistent curiosity about the world and tireless experimentation with materializing the complexity of identities in flux.
Handles, Yang's installation comissioned for MOMA's Marron Atrium, features six sculptures that are activated daily, dazzling geometries and the play of light and sound, to create a ritualized and complex environment with both personal and political resonance.
The exhibition is part of a long-term collaboration between the two institutions and the institutional exchange will see another exhibition at Para Site, Hong Kong in September 2020.
On the walls, large-scale works from Yang’s Trustworthies series (ongoing since 2011) are shown alongside new Hardware Store Collages (2012- ) and Lacquer Paintings (1994- ), creating a visual dialogue between familiar household objects and abstraction.
This publication is printed on the occasion of Haegue Yang’s solo exhibition of the same title at La Panacée – MoCo in Montpellier. Chronotopic Traverses brings together unexpected arrangements of Yang’s versatile sculptures of various materials against a backdrop of a panoramic and dramatic wallpaper titled Incubation and Exhaustion (2018, in collaboration with Manuel Raeder).
Haegue Yang receives the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (Presidential Commendation) in the visual arts sector by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Do Jonghwan). This year, the MCST announced a total of 31 recipients for the Citation of the Person for Merit, the Development of Culture and the Arts in 2018, which is classified into three divisions: the Order of Cultural Merit, the Culture Award and the Arts of the Republic of Korea and today's Young Artist Award. Yang has been awarded the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award, awarded to an outstanding person in each of the following five sectors: general culture, literature, visual arts, music, and theater / dance.
This exhibtion it points to her deep engagement with the unspoken: the urge to create a language as subtle and delicate as a tightrope walk, where movement becomes powerfully dynamic and charged with both emotional and perceptual tension.
Yang’s practice spans a wide range of media, from paper collage to performative sculpture and large-scale multi-sensorial installation, often featuring everyday objects, in addition to labour-intensive woven sculptures.
Works from the museum’s holdings of international contemporary art are brought into oftentimes surprising and unconventional situations of dialogue: Sigmar Polke/Haegue Yang, Maria Lassnig/Georg Baselitz, Neo Rauch/Tony Cragg, Georg Baselitz/Mike Kelley, Vajiko Chachkhiani/Peter Doig among others.
Triple Vita Nestings uses formal strategies—such as layering, doubling, splitting, and merging— to reveal how individual subjects are embedded in the lives, stories, and contexts of others.
The exhibition will begin with Yang’s first venetian blind installation from her 2006 Series of Vulnerable Arrangements - the 2006 Version Utrecht, an immersive and sensorial experience unfolding from a composition of various materials and the simultaneous use of wind, scents, light, and heat. Within this arrangement, video essays document the artist’s travels through cities around the world and convey feelings of home, isolation, and dislocation associated with her itineracy in quite personal commentaries.
SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium and Engagement will examine the state of ‘superposition’ by examining how it might operate in the world today. We are surrounded by conflicting ideas across all levels of humanity: different cultures; readings of nature and the universe; political ideologies and systems of government; interpretations of human history, the history of art and definitions of contemporary art.
Haegue Yang’s mobile sculptures, Dress Vehicles, are displayed in the Tanks. The wheeled structures are constructed from aluminium frames, blinds and intricate knotted textile macramé. They have been given titles Bulky Lacoste Birdy, Zig Zag and Yin Yang and are inspired by the choreographed geometry of Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadisches Ballett 1922.
