Kang Seung Lee, Untitled (Constellation), 2024, Installation view, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, 2024, Courtesy the artist, Alexander Gray Associates, New York; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; Gallery Hyundai, Seoul. Photo: Mark Blower
The Main Gallery and Fire Station are open: Wed 12-9pm and Thu-Sun 12-6pm
Kang Seung Lee (b. 1978, Seoul) is an artist whose work engages with the lives and legacies of transnational queer figures. Drawing on overlooked histories, his practice explores themes of memory, identity and belonging, reimagining the past through acts of care and reinvention.
For Weeds of Cultivation, Lee’s first UK solo exhibition, he presents a major site-responsive installation, as well as new drawings and embroideries in the Main Gallery. The Fire Station galleries bring together new and recent embroideries, drawings and video works alongside archival materials. The show foregrounds the networks of kinship, activism and artistic work that have sustained queer communities in the face of significant stigma, discrimination and loss.
Taking London’s queer networks as a starting point, Kang draws from both people and place. The work references artists Hamad Butt (1962–1994) and Derek Jarman (1942–1994) and incorporates foraged items from the gardens at Prospect Cottage and London Lighthouse, as well as cruising sites including Hampstead Heath and Burgess Park. Lee has also created new drawings after Gideon Mendel’s The Ward (1993), a photographic series focusing on John, Steven, Ian and Andre, four men who were patients in the dedicated AIDS wards at London’s Middlesex Hospital.
In this exhibition, these London-based references sit alongside wider international histories. Lee continues his practice of paying tribute to queer artists and activists, including Chinese American painter Martin Wong (1946–1999) and Brazilian artist José Leonilson (1957–1993), both of whom were affected by the AIDS crisis and died from AIDS-related complications.
Weeds of Cultivation is curated by the 2026 New Curators fellows: Bijal Manoj Daialal (UK), chris d. reeder (USA), Dulce Ariadna Ardila (Colombia), Juan Felipe Paredes (Ecuador), Mark Mingu Cho (South Korea), Nana Ama Yeboawaa Ampofo (USA), Ruchika Dhillon (India), Runnie Exuma (USA), Sadie Barnett (UK), Seth Kriger (South Africa) and Vy Tsan (Australia).
ABOUT KANG SEUNG LEE
Born in South Korea in 1978, Kang Seung Lee studied at the California Institute of the Arts and is based in Los Angeles. He has exhibited widely internationally, including at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), New Museum Triennial (2021) and Gwangju Biennale (2021) and has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2024) and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (2023).
Weeds of Cultivation is his first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.
ABOUT NEW CURATORS
New Curators is a paid year-long curatorial training programme based in London for aspiring curators from structurally disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Led by Kerryn Greenberg and Mark Godfrey, this unique programme is designed to equip the next generation of curators with the knowledge, practical skills, networks, and confidence needed to thrive in the contemporary art world and transform it from within. The programme comprises academic seminars, skills training sessions, extensive networking opportunities, coaching and mentorship, and practical experience working collaboratively on a major exhibition.
Exhibition donors: Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, and Korea Focus Support Program; Samsung Foundation of Culture; The Ampersand Foundation
Additional support: Dr Daniel S. Berger; Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins; Will Palley; YS Kim Foundation
Kang Seung Lee’s research for the exhibition was supported by the Korea Artist Prize Promotion Fund, from SBS Foundation and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.
