Anicka Yi: There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One

The Leeum Museum of Art proudly presents There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One, a solo exhibition by Korean-American artist Anicka Yi. The exhibition marks Yi's first and most extensive museum presentation in Asia. Offering rare insight into her most recent projects—including works being unveiled for the first time—the exhibition also features a selection of earlier pieces, providing a comprehensive introduction to her distinctive artistic universe.

For over a decade, Anicka Yi has been merging the technosphere with the biosphere in her art, creating works that are both provocative and deeply resonant. She has captivated the global art community not just through visual appeal, but through what she terms the "biopolitics of the senses"—an exploration of how sensory experiences are shaped by cultural and biological forces. Utilizing organic and ephemeral materials such as bacteria, scents, and tempura-fried flowers, Yi delicately captures the nuances of human emotion and sensation. By meditating on the fragile yet resilient interdependence of life, she underscores the shared stakes that connect all living forms, enlisting tenacious organisms like ants and soil microorganisms as co-creators and embedding existential questions of life, death, and decay into her work.

Building on her sensorial explorations, Yi’s practice also delves into the boundaries of intelligence and redefines the very concept of the human, challenging anthropocentric perspectives by instead centering the experiences and insights of non-human entities such as machines, fungi, and seaweeds. Grounded in rigorous research across biology, technology, philosophy, and environmental justice, the works on view at Leeum bring these explorations to life, manifesting in tangible, affective forms that pulse with vitality, inviting intimate encounters with the more-than-human world. Through collaborations with experts across various fields, including scientists, architects, and perfumers, Yi’s creations prompt us to reconsider our place within a broader, more interconnected planetary system.

The exhibition title There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One draws inspiration from the enigmatic nature of Zen Buddhist koans, signaling a meditative and spiritual evolution in Yi’s work. By engaging with material, ecological, and cosmological themes, Yi deepens her interrogation of concepts like individual identity and autonomy, ultimately dissolving the tenuous edges between self and others. Her new video work, Each Branch of Coral Holds Up the Light of the Moon, grapples with the provocative question of whether art can continue beyond the artist's biological death. This video is the inaugural piece of her ambitious project, Emptiness, where an algorithm, trained on years of artwork produced by Anicka Yi Studio, serves as a “digital twin” of her practice, mirroring the studio’s hybridized and collaborative approach to creativity.

As a diasporic Korean-American artist, Yi’s return to Korea holds profound significance. She highlights the prehistoric migration of Asiatic people to the Americas, alongside the planetary migrations of algae and fungi, reflecting on their role in evolution. This dual exploration, blending material, temporal, and emotional dimensions, mirrors Yi’s personal journey as a Korean-American and underscores the exhibition’s unique site-specificity, where history, environment, and identity converge to resonate with broader themes of migration and interconnectedness.

This exhibition is co-organized by Leeum Museum of Art and UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, where it will be presented in March 2025. It is organized by Gina Lee, Curator, Leeum Museum of Art, and Peter Eleey, Curator-at-Large, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. A catalog of the exhibition, co-published with UCCA, is scheduled for release next year, featuring texts by exhibition co-curators Peter Eleey and Gina Lee alongside contributions from Cathy Park Hong, Bogna Konior, Kriti Sharma, and Gary Zhexi Zhang.

Press inquiries: Miso Han (Communication Team, miso.han@samsung.com)