LONDON.- As part of Frieze London’s West End Gallery Night, Michael Werner Gallery, London invites you to an exhibition walkthrough of Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee with curator of the exhibition, Allegra Pesenti. This exhibition, organised in collaboration with Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, presents works by American artist James Lee Byars (b. 1932, d. 1997) and Korean artist Seung-taek Lee (b. 1932) and marks the first time the works of these two artists are brought into dialogue, highlighting a like-mindedness of vision and spirit. The event takes place at the gallery on Thursday 12 October with a reception from 6:00 PM and an exhibition walkthrough from 6:45 PM through to 7:15 PM.

James Lee Byars has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions worldwide, including The Palace of Good Luck, Castello di Rivoli / Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (1989); The Perfect Moment, IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia (1994); The Palace of Perfect, Fundaçao de Serralves, Porto (1997); Life Love and Death, Schirn Kunsthalle and Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (2004); The Perfect Silence, Whitney Museum of American Art (2005); 1/2 an Autobiography, MoMA PS1, New York and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2013-2014); The Golden Tower, Campo San Vio, Venice (2017); The Perfect Kiss, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2018); and The Perfect Moment, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2021).

Upcoming exhibitions include a major survey that will open at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan and travel to Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid in April 2024.

A pioneer of the Korean Avant-Garde with a career spanning over a half century, Seung-taek Lee’s work is held in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Tate Modern, London; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul; the M+ Museum, Hong Kong; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; and the Seoul Museum of Art, among others. Lee’s work has been included in major recent group exhibitions at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); the MMCA, Seoul (2023); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2022); the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2019); and the National Gallery, Singapore (2019). In 2020, a major retrospective survey of Lee’s work was held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul. Concurrent exhibitions include Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s at the Guggenheim in New York.

Allegra Pesenti is an independent curator based in Rome. She previously held the posts of Associate Director and Senior Curator of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston. She has curated monographic exhibitions on Enrico David, Alina Szapocznikow, Rachel Whiteread, Zarina, amongst others, and thematic shows including Gouge: The Modern Woodcut, 1870 to Now, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Apparitions: Frottages and Rubbings from 1860 to Now, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and the Menil Collection, Houston. Most recently, she co-curated Picasso Cut Papers, the first museum survey of Picasso’s cut drawings and sculptures, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

Michael Werner Gallery
Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee
October 12th, 2023 - November 18th, 2023
Curated by Allegra Pesenti