ARTIST

Yanghee Lee (b. 1976) is an artist who works at the intersection of performance, theater, and exhibition spaces; using the language of performing arts to create temporary theaters and immersive experiences. Her practice is deeply rooted in traditional Korean dance, which she has trained in since childhood, yet she also draws inspiration from the underground club culture of Korea in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
By intertwining these seemingly disparate influences, Lee reframes Korean dance beyond the rigid confines of “tradition”, challenging its formal restrictions and deteriorated archetypes. Her work examines the ephemeral and immaterial nature of the body’s movement, seeking to redefine dance as an open-ended act rather than a fixed form.
Recently, Lee has centered her work around the body, pleasure, and form, using dance as a fluid and undefined medium expressed through video and performance. With the Limbo Project Performing Art Lab, she investigates the attitude, value, and ownership of performing arts, questioning who defines and controls artistic expression. Her workshops and performances take a horizontal manner, emphasizing shared experiences and collective exploration.

Lee was selected as an artist- in-residence at New York Live Arts (2011), Movement Research (2014- 2016) and received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council (2016). Her major works include Shimmering, Aficionado, Twixt, Twig, Hedonist, Hail, Gesamtkunstwerk, Dusk, and Unlearn: Form and Cliché. Lee’s major solo exhibitions include Axis and Feet (The Page Gallery, 2024), IN (Whistle, 2024), and Hail (d/p, 2020). Her major group exhibitions include the Busan Biennale 2024 Seeing in the Dark (Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024), Big Brother Blockchain (Nam June Paik Art Center, 2024), Theater Post Media and Site (Busan Museum of Art, 2023), Landscape of Life: How Are You Today? (Ulsan Art Museum, 2023), play, pause, repeat (Artspace Boan, 2023), Flesh Stone Oil (WESS, 2022), and 1920 Memory Theater The Gold Rush (Ilmin Museum of Art, 2020).