Artist Biography

Coming from a long lineage of monochrome painting that rests at the heart of his native South Korea, Lee Bae’s esoteric black and white charcoal works are redolent of his Dansaekhwa forebears. Having moved to Paris in the nineties and beginning his career as assistant to the Mono-ha and Dansaekhwa master Lee Ufan for almost a decade, Lee Bae’s gracefully minimalistic practice are unique interpretations to his forbears’ mode of abstraction. First experimenting solely with charcoal until the early 2000s and then moving onto carbon black, Lee’s mosaic of chunky wooden remains is an allegory of life, since burnt wood creates charcoal and is used to reignite fire. His most recent creations apply charcoal ink on paper and canvas to enable the noncolour with intense depth, blending sculpture with painting and cementing the movements of his practice.

Lee Bae’s works have been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Phi Foundation, Canada; Indang Museum, Korea; Wilmotte Foundation, Italy; Musée des Beaux-Arts, France; and Musée Guimet, France. His pieces are also within institutional collectionals including the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea; Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art, Korea; Fondation Maeght, France; Musée Cernuschi, France; Baruj Foundation Spain, among others. His current show, La Maison de La Lune Brûlée which ends this November, is showing within the 60th International Art Exhibition of 2024
edition of the Venice Biennale.