Lee Bae: Artist Talk
June 15, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Fondation
EXHIBITION
Lee Bae: UNION
- Exhibition
- Contemporary Art
Look up to address on google map
PHI Foundation
451 & 465 Saint-Jean Street
Montréal, Québec H2Y 2R5
Wednesday to Sunday:
11 AM to 6 PM
Free admission Reservations required
Please note our preventive measures. In order to ensure the safety and comfort of our community, we have carefully followed the health guidelines developed by the public health authorities.
Curated by
The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION.
Born in South Korea, artist Lee Bae uprooted himself and relocated to Paris in 1989. The displacement from the familiar surroundings of his home country activated an engagement with memory, which would become his main matière. This deeper union with the Self would ultimately reacquaint the artist with charcoal as a physical, mental, and spiritual extension of memory.
Dissatisfied with the conventional slender sticks typically used in drawing, one day Lee Bae bought a simple bag of charcoal briquettes. Drawing with these compressed lumps of fuel brought him back to the very first time he started painting. He reconnected with the significance of the colour black in Asian civilization—the colour that expresses all colour. He was reminded of the soot-based India ink used in Korean calligraphy and recalled charcoal’s use as a purifying agent in Korean homes. Furthermore, he recognized charcoal as a powerful metaphor for the cycle of life and death.
For nearly thirty years, Lee Bae has engaged with the formal and conceptual properties of charcoal to create paintings, drawing, sculpture, and installation. This major solo exhibition, his first in Canada, features more than 40 recent works that employ a range of approaches. The exhibition also features a large-scale installation that calls attention to the corporeality of his work and its ability to connect us to a soulful place. Lee Bae’s dedication to presence requires our own, offering a moment of respite and contemplation.
Special thanks to Carlotta Battistini and Peggy Leboeuf at Galerie Perrotin
Biography
Lee Bae, Atelier, Paris, 2016
Lee Bae
Lee Bae (b. 1956, Cheongdo, South Korea) has had more than 40 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows in museums and biennials in Europe, Asia, and the United States, including the 2016 Gwangju Biennale. In 2013, he received the National Association Prize of Art Critics (Korea), and in 2019, he was named a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. He works and lives between Paris and Seoul.
Events
Launch: COMM_UNION – Lee Bae’s artwork interpreted through dance
June 3, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Severing the Impact on Memory – Online Video Program
May 19, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Workshop: Drawn to Fire: Charcoal Rubbings and Sowing Seeds
May 2, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
A Call with the Curator – Lee Bae: UNION
Apr. 14—June 16, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Absence à main levée/Freehand Absence/Ausencia a mano alzada
Apr. 6, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Nico Williams – aandaabikinigan
Feb. 24—June 20, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
A Presentation of Lee Bae: UNION with Cheryl Sim
Feb. 17, 2021
→ Learn more
→ Learn more
Education Program
Group Visits and Online Discussions
Lee Bae: UNION
Our online educational programming is available for the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION, and can be adapted to your situation and needs. These online presentations are tailored for elementary, high school, CEGEPs, university and community groups.
→ Book now
Our online educational programming is available for the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION, and can be adapted to your situation and needs. These online presentations are tailored for elementary, high school, CEGEPs, university and community groups.
→ Book now
Public Engagement Project
Incandescences
The Foundation will invite Marjolaine Bourdua, Emma Haraké, Kama La Mackerel, and Helena Martin Franco to use its education room as a work space and to reactivate our archives through different interventions. The public will be able to gradually discover these projects during the four months of the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION.
→ Learn more
The Foundation will invite Marjolaine Bourdua, Emma Haraké, Kama La Mackerel, and Helena Martin Franco to use its education room as a work space and to reactivate our archives through different interventions. The public will be able to gradually discover these projects during the four months of the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION.
→ Learn more
Activity Kit
Lee Bae: UNION
This kit for children aged 6 to 11 includes reproductions of Lee Bae’s artwork for your children to look at, along with art activities you can do with them at home. These activities will allow you to explore gesture, transformation, the five senses, the colour black and contemplation.
→ Learn more
Movements Series
Lee Bae: UNION
Through these essays and short videos, explore the following key concepts of the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION: process, ecology, mind and body, as well as heritage/ritual. This section will be updated throughout the duration of the exhibition.
→ Learn more
Creating at Home Series
Lee Bae: UNION
The Creating at Home series offers three video vignettes where the PHI Foundation’s educators present art activities proposed in the Activity Kit — Lee Bae: UNION.
→ Learn more
The Creating at Home series offers three video vignettes where the PHI Foundation’s educators present art activities proposed in the Activity Kit — Lee Bae: UNION.
→ Learn more
Installation Views
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Installation view, Lee Bae: UNION, 2021, PHI Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin Gallery © PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, photo: Richard-Max Tremblay
Related Videos
Related Articles
Audio Guide
-
Lee Bae – Introduction
-
Lee Bae – G1: Charcoal
-
Lee Bae – G1: Issu du feu (sculpture)
-
Lee Bae – G1: Issu du feu (canvas)
-
Lee Bae – G2: Untitled (installation)
-
Lee Bae – G3: Brushstroke Series
-
Lee Bae – G3: Dessin
-
Lee Bae – G4: Burning a house of moon
-
Lee Bae – G6: Issu du feu (installation)
-
Lee Bae – G6: Untitled (painting)
-
Lee Bae – G5: Issu du feu (charcoal forest)
-
Lee Bae – G5: Landscape Series
-
Lee Bae – Conclusion
» View Audio Guide transcripts
The PHI Foundation wishes to thank the David Zwirner Gallery for their descriptive texts of the series Penn Station’s Half Century which were used in the audio guide for this exhibition.
Installation
Public Art
Free
Water Road
Nov 24 → May 24
The PHI Centre building comes to life with an interactive multimedia installation of a motion-activated river on its four-story windows on Saint-Pierre Street
Installation
Music
Living Sound presents: The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski
Feb 17 → May 29
As an extension of your Lashing Skies experience, PHI has retrofitted the popular Living Sound space housed at the PHI Centre to welcome the sounds of artist and composer William Basinski
Experience
Poetry
Lashing Skies
Feb 17 → May 29
Lashing Skies, is a captivating 45-minute immersive audio journey of 5 imagined stories on the edges of disaster during the events of September 11th, 2001 designed and directed by multidisciplinary artist Brigitte Poupart
Experience
Immersion
ETERNAL
Feb 17 → May 29
Presented for the first time in Canada, ETERNAL is a 20 minute immersive audio experience for one person, alone in a bed
Exhibition
Community
Collaboration
Pouvoir
Mar 16 → Jun 5
A multi-faceted project consisting of drawings, texts, posters and the powerful and moving short documentary film Pouvoir, directed by Paul Tom
Event
Contemporary Art
Collaboration
Marguerite: la pierre
May 7 → Jun 5
The PHI Foundation, in collaboration with Onishka Productions and the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui (CTD’A), presents the sound walk Marguerite: la pierre.
Exhibition
Music
TECHNO WORLDS
May 13 → Jun 19
An exhibition at the intersection of music, art, pop, media and technology in relation to the multifaceted techno scene, genres and political projects stemming from the subcultures of the 1980s to today and traces the processes of cultural and economic appropriation
Performance
Music
At the SAT
Techno Party With Lena Willikens ↗
May 27
Presented by PHI, the Society for Arts and Technology and the Goethe-Institut Montreal in conjunction with the TECHNO WORLDS exhibition