This summer, Ikon Gallery in Birmingham unveils聽SPAN, the first UK solo exhibition by Korean-French artist Seulgi Lee. Lee offers a multifaceted exploration of form, language and storytelling. She is known for her deft integration of conceptual art with traditional craft practices, and her vibrant, participatory works encourage viewers to consider the span of human experience – measured not only in distance but in metaphor, culture and touch. Born in Seoul in 1972, Lee has lived in Paris since 1992. After graduating from the 脡cole Nationale Sup茅rieure des Beaux-Arts, she founded the collaborative platform PARIS PROJECT ROOM and has since built a distinctive international practice. Her work has featured in significant exhibitions including聽La Triennale 鈥 Intense Proximit茅聽at Palais de Tokyo (2012), the 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014), and most recently, the 17th Lyon Biennale (2024). Notable solo shows include聽SLOW WATER聽at Incheon Art Platform (2021) 补苍诲听SAMSAM聽at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (2024), reflecting her continous dialogue between inherited materials and contemporary concerns.
At Ikon, Lee brings together several of her signature series, as well as new commissions that draw on Birmingham鈥檚 own histories of craft and trade. The exhibition鈥檚 title,聽SPAN, references the ancient measure – the distance between thumb and little finger – and becomes a metaphor for the relational: 鈥淭o shift the point of view from me to you, from you to them, while extending our thumb and baby finger. A SPAN,鈥 the artist says. Amongst the new works is聽SIX PENCE聽(2025), developed in collaboration with the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University. This intimate wall installation references the Victorian-era mother-of-pearl button trade, a delicate local craft that made beauty accessible to all. For Lee, these tiny objects are more than historical curios; they become poetic fragments, 鈥渟tars walking on clothes.鈥
罢丑别听Blanket Project U聽(2014鈥搊ngoing) exemplifies Lee鈥檚 practice of blending oral tradition with material form. Working with聽Nubi聽artisans from Tongyeong, South Korea, Lee transforms hand-sewn, line-by-line quilted blankets into abstract visual proverbs. These geometric compositions are more than textiles; they are tactile idioms, each embedded with linguistic nuance. Two new additions –聽U: A Piece of Cake = Easy to Get Rid Of补苍诲听U:聽臧愳臧欕嫟聽Like a Kaki = As If By Magic聽(both 2025) – reflect Lee鈥檚 translation of British idioms into Korean quilt forms, highlighting her ongoing interest in how meaning shifts across languages.
Furthering this exploration of vernacular knowledge is聽W聽(2017鈥18), a series of woven palm-leaf baskets created in collaboration with female artisans in Santa Mar铆a Ixcatl谩n, Mexico. These anthropomorphic objects sit atop slender armatures, embodying both the regional landscape and fragments of oral storytelling. One basket,聽W / Sala si tundu tsude chitji农 ju wa, The madman has a broken blue (green) nose聽(2017), evokes a torso with an absent base, a poetic reflection on memory. Another,聽Young girl with neat hair, suggests tightly bound buns, a gesture toward tradition and femininity. Lee鈥檚 project is an act of preservation, as there are only four remaining speakers of the village鈥檚 native Ixcatec language.
The exhibition鈥檚 namesake work,聽SPAN聽(2025), is realised through collaboration with Suyeon Kim, a master of聽dancheong聽– the traditional Korean art of architectural painting. Here, the ornate patterns are distilled into a contemporary composition, reimagined as a series of brightly coloured lines. In聽SLOW WATER聽(2022), this chromatic language extends into an elevated floor installation made from interlocking wooden slats, inspired by聽Munsal, the latticework found in Korean architecture. The vivid palette and shifting perspectives invite movement, echoing the layered rhythms of oral storytelling and communal labour.
Sound weaves through the exhibition as well.聽NANANI GONG-AL聽(2021), an audio work created with聽gagok聽singer Minhee Park, brings together women鈥檚 songs from Korea and Japan. The piece fuses the Gong-Al song, which playfully describes the body after intimacy, with the Akita Ondo from Japan鈥檚 Akita Prefecture. Originally sung while rope-making before sea work, the piece reveals the transformation of language through song, repetition, and time.
Lee鈥檚 presence at Ikon extends beyond the gallery walls. As part of聽Thread the Loom, a concurrent residency programme, she will work on-site with Midlands-based artists using an AVL Studio Dobby loom. This initiative opens a space for live conversation and shared making, bridging geographies and practices. Throughout聽SPAN, Seulgi Lee guides us through a choreography of touch, form, and meaning. Her works move fluidly between cultures – from the idioms of the UK and Korea to the vanishing languages of rural Mexico – always returning to the intimate: a hand鈥檚 width, a thread鈥檚 direction, a remembered story. 鈥淲ith this new exhibition,鈥 Lee says, 鈥淚鈥檓 focusing on figuring out a methodology for measuring between things, ways of working with them, histories and collective stories.鈥澛
Lee expands the notion of connection through her attention to material and metaphor, bridging the spaces between past and present, here and elsewhere. In an era where craft risks being reduced to fetishism or nostalgia,聽SPAN聽offers a living, breathing continuum. The span is not a fixed length but an invitation: to reach, relate and remember. This exhibition stands as a testament to Ikon Gallery鈥檚 ongoing commitment to presenting exhibitions that are both intellectually rigorous and deeply attuned to the poetics of material and place. Through thoughtful curatorial decisions, Lee鈥檚 practice unfolds with clarity and resonance – each work not only meant to be seen but to be felt, traced and interpreted. The exhibition鈥檚 strength lies in the calibration of context and form, aligning global narratives with the local histories of Birmingham. By bringing together these layered articulations of language, craft and memory, SPAN embodies the kind of vision that continues to define Ikon鈥檚 programme – one that values the slow unfolding of meaning.
Seulgi Lee: SPAN is at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 25 June – 7 September:
Words: Anna M眉ller
Image credits:
1.Seulgi Lee SLOW WATER Exhibition view, Incheon Art Platform (2021) Image courtesy the artist and Incheon Art Platform.
2.Seulgi Lee SLOW WATER(2022)6 meters, in Fraxinus, alias ash, and gouach Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Jousse Entreprise Paris (Seulgi Lee 漏 ADAGP Paris 2025)
3.Seulgi Lee View of the exhibition Born A Woman at Suwon Museum of Art(2020). (Seulgi Lee 漏 ADAGP Paris 2025)From left to right U:A pile pf eggs = A tricky situation(2018) Courtesy Gallery Hyundai U:Alone in bed = Waiting for her husband for long (2018) Courtesy Gallery Hyundai U:My three-foot nose = I鈥檓 too ground down to help anyone else (2018) Courtesy Gallery Hyundai U:A perfect spear and a perfect shield = Contradiction(2020) Courtesy Gallery Hyundai U:Sheep鈥檚 intestines folded nine times = A hard time (2020) Production by Suwon Museum Courtesy Gallery Hyundai.
4.Seulgi Lee SLOW WATER(2022) 6 meters, in Fraxinus, alias ash, and gouach Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Jousse Entreprise Paris(Seulgi Lee 漏 ADAGP Paris 2025)
