Lee Kang Wook Solo Exhibition《1mm Border》, Held at PLACE C, Gyeongju – The Tremor Between the Micro and the Macro

Lee Kang Wook’s solo exhibition will be held at PLACE C from March 8 to July 31, 2025. Known for exploring the mysteries of the universe through geometric forms and vibrant color palettes, Lee presents a total of 140 works in this exhibition, including the newly introduced ‘White Gesture’ series and a monumental 20-meter-long painting. The exhibition is composed of five major series—‘Geometric’, ‘Invisible Space’, ‘Gesture’, ‘White Gesture’, and ‘Invisible Space-Image’—and focuses particularly on the role of ‘white’, a key element in the artist’s practice, and the way it orchestrates light and form.

The ‘Geometric’ series visually investigates cosmic order and harmony by rendering fundamental elements of painting—points, lines, planes, and color—through organic movement. The ‘Invisible Space’ series expresses unseen relationships and spatial depth through the flow and connection of lines. In the ‘Gesture’ series, Lee creates paintings formed by traces left through countless repetitive gestures, such as rubbing paint with sponges, blowing paint with the mouth to create blurs, or producing airbrush-like effects.

The ‘White Gesture’ series, newly presented in this exhibition, centers on ‘white’ as a critical element in the artist’s work, experimenting with the harmony between light and form. The ‘Invisible Space-Image’ series explores the concept of minute particles gathering to form vast structures, visualizing the order of the universe as it emerges from its smallest units.

Lee Kang Wook has maintained an active exhibition practice both in Korea and internationally, exploring cosmic order and balance through precise geometric structures and refined color sensibilities. His representative works, including ‘Another World-The Body’ and ‘Invisible Space’, are characterized by the interaction of color and form, generating distinctive visual rhythms.

Over a long period of time, the artist has constructed his artistic world through an inquiry into the micro and the macro. His works, which take the similarity between these two perspectives as a central theme, reveal that polar opposites are paradoxically alike and may ultimately be understood as one. This line of thought is drawn from concepts found in the ‘Upanishad’, an ancient Hindu philosophical text that the artist has continuously studied with deep interest. Within the paradoxical spatial world articulated by Lee—where restraint and insight, contemplation and inner resonance, painterliness and ornamentation coexist—gesture undulates as a form of imagination that exceeds meaning itself.

Lee Kang Wook graduated from the Department of Painting at Hongik University and its graduate school. In his mid-twenties, he began to gain prominence by sweeping top prizes at major Korean art competitions such as the JoongAng Fine Arts Exhibition and the Dong-A Art Awards. Each exhibition he participated in received strong public attention, and he quickly rose to stardom as a young abstract painter, a rare achievement at the time. However, in pursuit of a broader world, he abruptly departed for the United Kingdom, where he spent seven years based in London, earning a Master’s degree from Chelsea College of Art and Design and a PhD from the University of East London.

Since then, he has continued to expand his international presence through exhibitions in Japan—including a solo exhibition at the historically renowned Tokyo Gallery—Singapore, Indonesia, and beyond. Currently, after leaving his former exclusive representation with Arario Gallery, he is devoted to his independent artistic practice while also serving as a professor in the Department of Painting at Hongik University, nurturing the next generation of artists. This trajectory demonstrates the solidity and sincerity with which Lee has built his career. His works are widely collected by major institutions and private collectors, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ho-Am Art Museum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Samsung Medical Center, and Hyundai Motor Company.


The exhibition《1mm Border》 presents works that explore the tension and harmony generated by the minute difference of 1mm, and the meanings newly discovered within that boundary. Capturing sculptural experiments born from the process of recognizing and expanding boundaries, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to visually experience the delicate balance of the universe.

References

• 《1mm의 경계 (1mm Border)》