Curator’s Perspective: Sooyon Lee

The presentation will then consider the transformation of MMCA following the opening of its Seoul branch in 2013, highlighting key exhibitions and institutional initiatives that have contributed to redefining the museum's position within both the Korean and international contemporary art landscapes.

Sooyon Lee’s curatorial talk is part of her research visit to Almaty, organised within the long-term collaboration between the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and Almaty Museum of Arts.

Sooyon Lee (b. 1979, lives and works in Seoul) is a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). She studied linguistics at Seoul National University and received an M.A. in Art History from the same university. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Cornell University.

Her research focuses on visual languages emerging from digital and electronic media in East Asian contemporary art, particularly in relation to the sociopolitical transformations of the 1990s and 2000s. She is interested in the social and historical conditions in which artists work, and how new technologies and media contribute to the development of new visual languages within a globalized context.

Since joining MMCA in 2008, she has curated numerous exhibitions and projects, including Out of the Silent Planet (2010), Public Project Cheonggye (2011), Art of Communication: Anri Sala, Yang Ah Ham, Philippe Parreno, Jorge Pardo (2011), Move (2012, Hayward Gallery, London), Project Hashtag (2021), Paik Nam June Effect (2022), Korea Artist Prize (2023), Lee Kang So: Where the Wind Meets the Water (2024), and Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art (2025, Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art and the Art Institute of Chicago). She also served as a guest curator for Jeune création internationale 2026 at 2026 Lyon Biennale.