This exhibition marks this first and most extensive presentation in Asia of the acclaimed Korean-American artist Anicka Yi. For over a decade, Anicka Yi has captivated the global art community through what she terms the “biopolitics of the senses”—an exploration of how sensory experiences are shaped by cultural and biological forces. The exhibition features newly commissioned works alongside a selection of the artist’s earlier pieces, providing a comprehensive introduction to her distinctive artistic universe.

Utilizing organic and ephemeral materials such as bacteria, scents, and tempura-fried flowers, Yi delicately captures the nuances of human emotion and sensation. By meditating on the fragile yet resilient interdependence of life, the artist underscores the shared stakes that connect all living forms, enlisting tenacious organisms like ants and soil microorganisms as co-creators and embedding existential questions of life, death, and decay into her work. Building on her sensorial explorations, Yi challenges anthropocentric perspectives by centering the experiences and insights of non-human entities such as machines, fungi, and seaweed. Grounded in rigorous research across biology, technology, and philosophy, the works in the exhibition bring these explorations to life, manifesting in tangible, affective forms that pulse with vitality, inviting intimate encounters with the more-than-human world. Through collaborations with experts across various fields, including scientists, architects, and perfumers, Yi’s creations prompt us to reconsider our place within a broader, more interconnected planetary system.

Co-organized with Leeum Museum of Art, this exhibition is curated by UCCA Curator-at-Large Peter Eleey, and Gina Lee, Curator, Leeum Museum of Art.

About the Artist

Anicka Yi (b. 1971, Seoul; lives and works in New York City) has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions around the world, including “Metaspore” (Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2022); “Hyundai Commission: Anicka Yi: In Love With the World” (Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, 2021); “Life Is Cheap” (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2017); “Jungle Stripe” (Fridericianum, Kassel, 2016); “7,070,430K of Digital Spit” (Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, 2015), “You Can Call Me F” (The Kitchen, New York, 2015).

Group exhibition highlights include “New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century” (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2019), the 58th Venice Biennale “May You Live In Interesting Times” (Venice, 2019), “The Body Electric” (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2019), “The Dream of Forms” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2017), 2017 Whitney Biennial (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2017), “The Eighth Climate (What does art do?)” (11th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, 2016), and “Meanwhile... Suddenly and Then” (12th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, 2013). She is the recipient of the Guggenheim Hugo Boss Prize (2016) and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2011). Yi’s works are included in several public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Julia Stoscheck Collection, Dusseldorf; the Rubell Family Collection; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.