About

About the artist

Yuri Lee (b. Seoul) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans installation, robotics, games and performance. She studied and conducted research in Korea and abroad, developing an interdisciplinary practice that merges engineering tools with artistic inquiry.

Yuri Lee’s practice investigates the entanglements between natural systems, technological processes, and narrative structures. Working across installation, performance, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and moving image, Lee explores how flows of energy, matter, and information shape both ecological and cultural realities. Her projects often draw on scientific methodologies—ranging from soft robotics and mycelial ecologies to microbial fuel cells—while extending them through speculative and science-fictional imagination. Central to her work is a sustained inquiry into perception, mediation, and storytelling. Whether through the drift of digital debris, the growth patterns of fungi, or the unpredictable rhythms of air and light, Lee’s works destabilize fixed categories of human and nonhuman, organic and technological, real and virtual. Audiences are frequently invited into active roles, whether through interaction with algorithms, games, or kinetic structures, positioning participation as a generative force that reshapes narrative and form. Her practice is guided by the belief that systems—biological, technological, and cultural—are not closed circuits but porous networks, where energy and meaning continually transform. By staging these transformations in immersive installations and performances, Lee reimagines humanity’s position within the wider ecologies of matter and imagination.

Artistic background

Origins of Practice

Between reason and wildness, Yuri Lee’s background bridges mathematics and sculpture—two seemingly distant fields that converge within her practice. This dual foundation informs an approach that merges analytical precision with material and imaginative openness. By working with advanced technologies and speculative experimentation, Lee brings together what is often kept apart: the rigor of reasoning and the generative unpredictability of organic processes. In this convergence, her works unfold as new forms that extend beyond conventional boundaries of art, science, and storytelling.

Professional Engagements

Alongside her artistic practice, Yuri Lee has developed community programs, products, and socially engaged design initiatives that address urgent issues and expand cultural accessibility. Collaborations with the National Science Museum Gwacheon, People for Earth (NGO), an independent bookshop, and the National Trust of Korea extend her work beyond the studio, linking artistic inquiry to public dialogue and shared responsibility.

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Education

MFA in Sculpture, The Slade School of Fine Art, 2005
BA in Fine Art Sculpture, Seoul National University, 2002
BSc in Mathematics, Ewha Womans University, 1997

Exhibitions, Screenings, and Performances

Solo Exhibitions

Sun Diorama, Stereo Exchange, Copenhagen (2025)
Gameroom_Moon Drive, The Reference, Seoul (2024)
Electric Forest, Post Territory Ujeonguk, Seoul (2022)
Today is Boring and Tomorrow Will Be Boring Too, Garage Gallery, Seoul (2012)
Ashes to Ashes, Mullae2ga 14-12, Mullae Art Village, Seoul (2010)

Group Exhibitions, Screenings, and Performances

Your Name Is…, MMCA Changdong, Seoul (2023)
The Shining Things, MMCA Changdong, Seoul (2023)
Open X, Yonsei University Baekyang Nuri, Seoul (2022)
Beyond Biophilia, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2022)*
Art Change Up, Art Council Korea Online Exhibition (2021-2022)
Unfolding Text, Ujae PeopleForEarth, Seoul (2021)
Artience Daejeon: Back to Basic, Daejeon Artist House, Daejeon (2020)*
South Sour Water, Performance and Visual Art Festival, WaleyArt, Taiwan (2019)
Practice on RGB, SpaceCell, Seoul (2019)
A Voyage to the dark, Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen (2019)*
The Equator System, Media Wall, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2018)*
The Phantom of Matter, Seogyo Arts and Experiment Center, Seoul (2018)
A Murder of Crows, Ambient M.O.O.O, Mudaeryuk, Seoul (2017)
Resonance, Ambient M.O.O.O, Mudaeryuk, Seoul (2017)
Collision, Miari Arts Theater, Seoul (2016)
Song, Sand, Pot (or Flame), Seoul International Experimental Film Festival, Korea Film Archive, Seoul (2016)*
Workplace/Walkplace (Two-Person Show), Ilsan East Borough Office, Goyang (2013)
The Edge (Curated by Sookkyung Lee), King’s Lynn Arts Centre Offsite Project, King’s Lynn, UK (2007)
Funiculus Atrocities (Curated by Charlotte Shinerock), Carter Presents, London (2006)
Twenty to One (Curated by Ann Elliott), One Canada Square, London (2005)*
ARTNOW, Milton Gallery, London (2005)

(*Catalog Available)

Residencies

NEWINC of NEW MUSEUM, Y12 Incubator Members in Creative Science (2025-2026)
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Chandong Residency (2023)*
ACC_R Creators Residency, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2021-2022)*

(*Catalog Available)

Awards and Grants

Arts Council Korea, International Exchange Grant for NEWINC of NEW MUSEUM (2025-2026)
Seoul Arts Foundation Grant (2024)
Residency Grant, Asia Culture Center (2021)
Arts Council Korea Reboot Grant (2021)
Arts Council Korea Art Change Up Grant (2021)
Artience Daejeon, Collaborating Artist for the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (2019-2020)
ACC Media Wall Project 4 Walls Award (2018)
Gyeonggi Culture Foundation International Exchange Program Fund, A Voyage to the Dark (2018)
Slade Project Awards (2005)

Publications

Sculpture at Canary Wharf: A Decade of Exhibition, CANARY WHARF Group PLC, UK (2011)
Monthly Magazine ‘Dance’, Issue June 2013, Seoul
A Murder of Crows, Fog Press, Seoul (2017)
Reading Fungi, Interactive Fiction (2021)
Fungal Fiction, Unity 3D Game (2021)
Fiction3.0, Customized AI Chatbot Web (2024)