Haegue Yang

Haegue Yang (; born December 12, 1971) is a South Korean artist primarily working in sculpture and installation. After receiving her B.F.A from Seoul National University in 1994, Yang received an M.A. from Städelschule where she now teaches as a professor of Fine Arts. She currently lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Haegue Yang, Four Times Sol LeWitt UpsideDown, Version Point to Point, 2016–2017. Remai Modern, Saskatoon. With the statement “I believe that out of the alienation one can mobilize the unusual strength to sympathize with the others,” Yang seeks to embrace vulnerability, thus exploring themes that may include “individual and national identity, displacement, isolation, and community,” while also avoiding “tying herself to one [identity] based on gender, race or geography.” By using disparate household objects, including yarn, light fixtures, and fans, into alternative configurations, Yang explores meanings for these objects outside of their typical functional uses. Some of her installations incorporate venetian blinds that filter the light in the gallery, and segment the space, creating multiple viewpoints. Some installation incorporate bells, moving theater lights, and scent diffusers to engage multiple senses of the viewer's perception.

In 2018 a catalogue raisonné of over 1,400 works was published in conjunction with her solo show "ETA" at Museum Ludwig. In the same year she received the Republic of Korea Cultural and Art Award (Presidential Citation). Her work is included in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea, Museum of Modern Art, and Museum Ludwig.

Early life and education Yang was born in South Korea in 1971. Her father, Hansoo Yang (born 1945, Seoul), is a journalist and her mother, Misoon Kim (born 1945, Incheon), is a writer. Hansoo Yang worked for an international construction company Both Hansoo Yang and Misoon Kim were active in the Minjung Movement. .

Career After receiving her B.F.A., Yang moved to Germany. Her first solo exhibition was held in 2000 at Barbara Wien gallery in Berlin.

Yang is based in Berlin and Seoul. She has been a professor of Fine Arts at the Städelschule since 2017. She works in sculpture, installation, collage, photography, video, and performance from her studio in Kreutzberg. Curator and art critic Nicholas Bourriaud considers her work as sculptural means to deal with the presence of the body in space.

Her sculptures often feature household objects and mundane materials such as racks, lightbulbs, yarn, electrical cables, and Venetian blinds. She sometimes pairs these objects with sensorial components, such as steam from a humidifier, temperature changes using a heater and air conditioner, and diffused smells, for example in her "Series of Vulnerable Arrangements" (2006-8). Yang also believes that, abstraction does not negate the possibility for narrative in her work, but instead "allows a narrative to be achieved without constituting its own limits." Art historian Joan Kee states that Yang's interest in formalism "is marked by a sustained attention to morphology, to structure."

Yang believes sculptures like Sallim (shown at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009) addressed feminism and issues around gender in references to housework, which can have multiple meanings that can extend into religion, immigration, and class.

Selected exhibitions Dynamic Spaces, 2025 Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany Moved by Schlemmer, 2022, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany Haegue Yang: Emergence, 2020, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang - O₂ & H₂O, 2020, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea Uncharted Territory, 2016, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Open Modular Cubes (Small), Expanded 958 Times, 2016, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Haegue Yang: Four Times Sol LeWitt UpsideDown, Version Point to Point, 2016, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada An Opaque Wind Park in Six Folds, 2016, Serralves Foundation, Contemporary Art Museum, Porto, Portugal Shooting the Elephant 象 Thinking the Elephant, 2015, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea

Collections Bristol's Museums, Galleries & Archives, Bristol, UK Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA M+, Hong Kong, China SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Tate Collection, London, UK The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA