South Korean Artist Lee Bae’s Debut Exhibition In Australasia

Gow Langsford is delighted to announce an upcoming solo exhibition celebrating works by acclaimed South Korean artist Lee Bae, opening January 31st 2026. Marking the artist’s first presentation in Australasia, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience Lee Bae’s immersive monochromatic explorations of materiality, time and gesture.

For more than thirty years, Lee Bae has explored the elemental, symbolic and material potential of charcoal. As an elemental substance forged in fire, charcoal is imbued with cultural memory, ritual and transformational properties. Subtly blurring the lines between drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation, Lee Bae transforms charcoal into large-scale sculptures, wall-mounted surfaces akin to paintings, and ink drawings that capture the physicality of the artist’s brushwork.

Lee Bae’s practice is grounded in repetition, patience, and physical engagement. Each mark and surface holds evidence of time spent, decisions made, and the meditative process of building presence through the simplest of materials. At once intimate and monumental, these works affirm Lee Bae’s position as a leading figure in contemporary abstraction as he creates an immersive environment that foregrounds stillness, depth and the elemental power of the colour black.

Born in Cheong-do, South Korea in 1956, Lee Bae studied at Hongik University. He has lived and worked between Paris and Seoul since 1990. His work has been exhibited widely across Europe, Asia and North America including at the Phi Foundation (Canada), Wilmotte Foundation (Italy), Musée des Beaux-Arts (France), Indang Museum (Korea), and Musée Guimet (France), and belongs to major public collections such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul Museum of Art (SEMA), and Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2018). In 2024, Lee Bae presented his exhibition La Maison de la Lune Brûlée as an official collateral event of the 60th Venice Biennale.

Exhibition Details:

Lee Bae
31 January - 28 February 2026
Opening Event: Saturday 31 January 2026, 2-4pm

Gow Langsford Onehunga
4 Princes Street, Onehunga, Auckland 1061, NZ

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