Currently based in Seoul, Kimsooja (b. 1957) is an international conceptual artist whose practice explores the totality of life and art, transcending distinctions of medium and form through works of painting, by sewing, installation, performance, video, light and sound. In the 1980s, she began to experiment with alternative modes of expression while contemplating the two-dimensional structure of painting, leading to a series of sewing works that revealed a dualistic order of vertical and horizontal as the foundation of the world, thus expanding the object of her artistic inquiry from the material to the non-material. Kimsooja’s resolute pursuit of the latter and adoption of “non-doing, non-making” as an aesthetic framework inform her longstanding engagement with various media and methodologies, driving her persistent questioning of art and humanity in conceptual, contemplative aesthetics and humanism.
Her work has been subject of numerous solo exhibitions in major international museums as well as site-specific installations, for example at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2025), Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2024), Humboldt Forum (2024), Cisternerne/ Frederiksbergmuseerne (2023), Cathédrale Saint-Etienne de Metz (2022), Wanas Konst(2020), Traversées/Kimsooja in Poitiers (2019), Peabody Essex Museum (2019), Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Chapel (2019), Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (2017), Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2015), Centre Pompidou Metz (2015), Vancouver Art Gallery (2013), Crystal Palace of Reina Sofia Museum (2006), EMST, Athens (2005), Kunstpalast Dusseldorf (2004), MACLyon (2003), PAC Milan (2003), Kunsthalle Wien (2002), Kunsthalle Bern (2001) and MoMA PS1(2001). She has been part of numerous biennials and triennials like BienalSUR (2021, 2023),Documenta14 (2017), Venice Biennale (2013, 2007, 2005, 2001, 1999), Gwangju Biennale (2012,2000, 1995), Lyon biennale (2000), Sao Paulo Biennale (1998), Istanbul Biennale (1997), and Manifesta 1 (1996).. The Fenix Museum of Migration in Rotterdam recently acquired her key work Bottari Truck–Migrateurs (2007–2009).
(as of 2026)
