The Artist © Geumhyung Jeong

Artists Geumhyung Jeong (42) and Mire Lee (34), both known for their distinctive and provocative artistic languages centered on themes such as the body and machinery, have been invited to the main exhibition of this year’s Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious international biennial art exhibition.

Last week, Cecilia Alemani, artistic director of the 59th Venice Biennale, which will run from April to November under the theme 《The Milk of Dreams》, announced at a local press conference the list of 213 invited artists participating in the main exhibition, including Jeong and Lee.

Alongside internationally renowned female artists such as Barbara Kruger, Nan Goldin, and Rebecca Horn, the two Korean artists will present new works at exhibition venues including the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and the Arsenale, the former Venetian shipyard near the biennale grounds.

The Venice Biennale is broadly divided into the central exhibition organized by the artistic director and the national pavilions independently organized by participating countries, with the main exhibition serving as the core event representing the biennale’s overarching theme and identity.

Geumhyung Jeong and Mire Lee are regarded within the Korean art scene as stylists possessing uniquely individual approaches in both working method and form.

Originally trained as a dancer, Jeong has developed an expansive practice spanning theatre, performance, and exhibition-making, using body-related apparatuses and machines such as dolls, medical mannequins, and fitness equipment to reflect on and extend the language of the body.

Lee, who works between the Netherlands and Korea, has focused on embodying violence, desire, and sensation through writhing sculptural forms made from inorganic materials such as hoses and wires, often producing images that ooze, spill water, or appear viscous and organic.

Separately, international media outlets including Artnews reported that Park Seo-Bo, widely recognized as a master of Korean monochrome abstraction, will present a collaborative exhibition during the biennale period at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice.

Organized by Vietnamese artist Danh Vo, the exhibition will juxtapose Park’s works with those of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, a leading figure of twentieth-century sculpture.


Poster image of 《The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia》 © La Biennale di Venezia

Originally postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of the biennale reflects artistic director Cecilia Alemani’s focus on the transformation and mutability of the human body within a surrealist context, as suggested by the exhibition title.

Breaking from the long-standing convention of selecting fewer than 100 artists for the central exhibition, Alemani invited more than 200 artists—the largest number in the biennale’s history—while also setting an unprecedented record with women artists comprising over 80 percent of participants.

Organized around three thematic directions—the transformation of the body, the relationship between individuals and technology, and the connection between the body and the earth—the exhibition has drawn significant attention for its ambitious attempt to traverse art histories centered on women and queer artists from the late nineteenth century to the present, filling the exhibition spaces with works and time capsule-like archival displays.

References