Minouk Lim
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ABOUT
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MINOUK LIM
Minouk Lim is among the most critically acclaimed contemporary Korean artists on the international stage today. Over a career spanning nearly three decades, she has established a reputation as perhaps the most trenchant observer of the turbulent social, economic, and political dynamics of the contemporary Korean experience amid the sweep of globalization and accelerated modernity.
Drawing on personal experiences and expanding into wider societal fields, Lim’s work often delves into historic ruptures and traumas, undertaking a formal and conceptual excavation and recuperation of repressed collective memories beneath the shiny facade of the modernized Korean state.
Affirming the dynamics of aesthetics and politics posited by thinkers like Jacques Rancière, Lim addresses the contradictions of society while maintaining the subtle tension between social consciousness and aesthetic expression. Spanning a range of media—from drawing and assemblage to video and sculptural installation—and embracing diverse modes of expression, including text, music, and performance, her practice is distinguished by a provocative fusion of the poetic and the political.Minouk Lim has been the subject of solo exhibitions and projects at such important institutions as Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2025); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Portikus, Frankfurt (2015); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); and the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2011). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at museums throughout the world, including Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2022); MAXXI, Rome (2019); the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2015); and Kunsthalle Wien (2015). She has also participated in numerous international biennials, including Gwangju (2021, 2014, 2008, 2006), Lyon (2019), Sydney (2016), Liverpool (2010), and Istanbul (2007), as well as in the Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (2021) and the Paris Triennale (2012).
Her work is part of the collection of the Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Seoul Museum of Art; and Art Sonje Center, Seoul, among others.
Born in 1968, Minouk Lim holds a Diplôme National Supérieur d'Arts Plastiques (DNSAP) from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She is the recipient of the Obayashi Foundation Research Program grant in 2023. She was also honored with the 2024 Asia Arts Game Changer Award presented by Asia Society New York.
In May 2025, she will participate in Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits, the largest exhibition of contemporary Korean art in Abu Dhabi, organized by the Seoul Museum of Art.
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WORKS
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EXHIBITIONS
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NEWS
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MINOUK LIM, LEE BUL
Forms of the Shadow | Secession, ViennaSeptember 21, 2024READ IN KOREAN Forms of the Shadow | Secession, Vienna September 20 – November 17, 2024 Minouk Lim’s Currahee—Stand Alone and Lee Bul’s Aubade V are now showcased in Forms...MINOUK LIM
HOME AND THE WORLD | MUSEUM VAN LOON, AMSTERDAMMay 20, 2024READ IN KOREAN Home and the World | Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam April 5 – July 7, 2024 Minouk Lim’s It’s a name I gave myself and Mom are now...MINOUK LIM
AWARDED THE 2024 ASIA ARTS GAME CHANGER AWARD | ASIA SOCIETY, NEW YORKMay 16, 2024READ IN KOREAN Congratulations to Minouk Lim, who has received the Asia Arts Game Changer Award, presented by the Asia Society in New York on May 16, 2024. With a...MINOUK LIM
MINOUK LIM: HYPER YELLOW | OBAYASHI FOUNDATION RESEARCH PROGRAM, TOKYOMarch 11, 2024READ IN KOREAN Minouk Lim: Hyper Yellow | Komagome SOKO, Tokyo March 1 - 12, 2024 The culmination of a two-year project made possible by Visions of the City –...MINOUK LIM, SIKYUNG SUNG
DMZ Exhibition: Checkpoint | Camp Greaves, Paju, KoreaSeptember 5, 2023READ IN KOREAN DMZ Exhibition: Checkpoint | Camp Greaves, Paju, Korea August 31 – September 23, 2023 Minouk Lim’s Currahee — Stand Alone and Sikyung Sung’s Various Entrances and Othello...MINOUK LIM
Selected for Obayashi Foundation Research ProgramApril 20, 2023READ IN KOREAN Congratulations to Minouk Lim, who has been selected for the 2023 Obayashi Foundation Research Program. The prestigious grant is awarded biennially to support the activities of an...MINOUK LIM
BB&M NOW REPRESENTING MINOUK LIMMarch 14, 2023READ IN KOREAN BB&M is proud to announce that Minouk Lim has joined the gallery. Based in Seoul, Lim is among the most critically acclaimed contemporary Korean artists on the...
