Daensaekhwa figurehead Lee Ufan is presenting his solo exhibition Lee Ufan: Quiet Resonance at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Marking his first solo presentation in Sydney, the exhibition covers Lee’s artistic and experimental journey over the past sixty years of his practice. Specifically for the exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the artist has designed the exhibition space himself in addition to creating the eight new paintings and sculptures.

Lee’s sparing use of materials, including stone, steel, and canvas, has a quiet force that encourages contemplation of the physical and intellectual self in relation to the work or the object. The power of emptiness embodied in Lee’s works generate both harmony and tension between objects and people, based on his approach embracing Zen Buddhism and Confucianism alongside the ideas of classical and modern European philosophers. For him, the space around objects is as significant as the objects themselves; his conceptual and minimalist approach has been influential in design and philosophy beyond visual art. 

In this exhibition Lee presents four new paintings in addition to four new sculptures of the Relatum series, which he began in 1968. Also presented is the wall painting Drawing – open space (2024) inspired by his time in Sydney, as well as the stone installation work, Relatum – stone family (2024), located on the grass lawn outside the gallery.

Lee Ufan has previously exhibited his works at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as a participant in the 1976 Biennale of Sydney. Almost fifty years since, Lee Ufan: Quiet Resonance reflects on the history of the virtuoso through works representing his famed practice. The exhibition runs through September 7.

[Source: Art Gallery of New South Wales website]