From 1998 to Now
November 13, 2026–March 7, 2027
Antwerp 2000
Belgium
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now is the most comprehensive survey to date devoted to one of Asia’s most influential contemporary artists. Spanning more than three decades, the exhibition offers deep insight into Lee Bul’s radical and visionary practice, presented across both floors at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.
Emerging in the late 1980s, Lee Bul developed her work in close dialogue with South Korea’s shifting social and political realities. Working with diverse media, including sculpture, installation and performance, she has consistently explored the relationship between the body and society, humanity and technology, nature and civilisation. Her work probes the promises and failures of modernity, as well as the political forces that shape our collective imagination.
Featuring more than 150 key works, Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now traces the artist’s sustained engagement with utopian thought, modernist architecture and the historical avant-garde. For this reason, Lee Bul's exhibition at M HKA resonates with Antwerp’s history as the birthplace of utopia. From early iconoclastic performances to immersive, multi-sensory installations, the exhibition reveals an artist who combines material experimentation with philosophical depth.
Today, Lee Bul is widely recognised as a pioneering figure for younger generations of artists worldwide. Made possible through a major international museum partnership, M HKA is hosting the first and only presentation of this exhibition in Europe. Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now is co-organised by Leeum Museum of Art and M+ in collaboration with M HKA. Following its presentation at M HKA, the exhibition will travel to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, where the tour will conclude in late 2027.
Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now is co-curated by June Young Kwak, Head of Modern and Contemporary Art Department II, Leeum Museum of Art and Hoam Museum of Art, and Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator at M+, with Heyeon Kim, Curator at Leeum Museum of Art and Hoam Museum of Art and Sunny Cheung, Curator of Design and Architecture at M+. The presentation at M HKA is led by Nav Haq, Associate Director at M HKA.
