Press Release

Haegue Yang’s work spans a vast range of media – from paper collage to performative sculpture and immense sensorial installations.

Equally as wide-ranging, her inspiration draws on diverse histories and customs, including East Asian traditions and folklore, modernism, contemporary art history and nature.

Yang uses a variety of crafts, techniques and materials in her work, tapping into the cultural connotations they carry. Her works often feature a variety of household and industrial objects, including drying racks, light bulbs, metal-plated bells, nylon pom-poms, hand-knitted yarn and hanji (Korean paper).

Leap Year is the first major survey of the internationally celebrated artist in the UK. It presents a comprehensive study of Yang’s work from the early 2000s to today, highlighting how her artworks resonate on a personal and sensory level while also speaking to social, political and spiritual ideas.

The exhibition features key works from some of her most notable series, including Light Sculptures and Sonic Sculptures, complemented by three new major commissions and a number of new productions.

These works bring together a wide spectrum of visual and sensory experiences through the mediums of installation, sculpture, collage, text, video, wallpaper, sound.

Yang (born 1971, Seoul) lives and works in both Berlin and Seoul. Her multisensory environments encourage perception beyond the visual, creating immersive experiences that highlight issues such as labour, migration, and displacement.

She has had recent solo exhibitions at Helsinki Art Museum (2024); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2023); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2023); and Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2023).

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Haegue Yang Survey Coming to London's Hayward Gallery News Haegue Yang Survey Coming to London's Hayward Gallery For her first major U.K. retrospective, the artist revisits a project conceived for her very first exhibition in Korea. Read the story
About the Artist

Haegue Yang is an artist known for her subtle use of mundane objects within sensory installations. Yang graduated with a BFA from Seoul National University, then attended Städelschule Frankfurt am Main, Germany, receiving an MFA in 1999. Today, she lives and works in Seoul and Berlin.

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About the Gallery

Hayward Gallery is a world-renowned contemporary art space in central London, housed within the Southbank Centre and known for its striking Brutalist architecture. Opened in 1968, it was designed under chief architect Norman Engleback with key contributions from Ron Herron, Warren Chalk, and John Attenborough of the Greater London Council’s Architecture Department. Today, it remains a dynamic venue for bold, large‑scale exhibitions of contemporary visual art, both inside the gallery and across the wider Southbank Centre site.

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London Belvedere Road
Hayward Gallery
Belvedere Road, London, United Kingdom

Opening hours
Wednesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm
Saturday, 10am – 8pm
Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Closed Monday & Tuesday
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