December 2025
Kukje Gallery’s Chairperson Hyun-Sook Lee and Artist Haegue Yang Ranked on ArtReview’s 2025 Power 100
Kukje Gallery is pleased to announce that Hyun-Sook Lee, founder and chairperson of the gallery, has been named to this year’s ArtReview Power 100. Since her debut on the list in 2015, this marks her eleventh consecutive nomination, making her the only Korean figure to have achieved this distinction. This recognition underscores Lee’s unparalleled influence across both the Korean and international art landscapes.
First launched in 2002, ArtReview’s annual Power 100, published every December, presents a roster of the one hundred most influential figures in contemporary art. The list is compiled through a rigorous evaluation of candidates’ recent activities and impact. The selected figures span a broad spectrum of roles, including artists and artist collectives, collectors, curators, fair directors, gallerists, museum directors, thinkers, and social activists, reflecting the diverse forces shaping the art world today.
Regarding Lee’s inclusion, ArtReview published the following statement on its official website, highlighting her enduring prominence and contributions to the ever-evolving international art scene:
“Lee has steered Seoul- and Busan-based Kukje Gallery for 43 years now. For a long time, hers was an import business, introducing the likes of Bill Viola and Louise Bourgeois to a South Korean audience. She still shows them (with exhibitions in January and September respectively) and exhibited Gala Porras-Kim for the first time in September, but with international dealers – and collectors – flocking to Seoul, Lee says she is refocusing. ‘[Since foreign artists are receiving greater attention in Korea compared to before] The need to heavily promote foreign artists as we once did has diminished,’ she told The Korea Times. Consequently, the 2025 programme was packed with the likes of Yeondoo Jung, Ahn Kyuchul and a group show of young Korean painters. Not that Lee has ever neglected the domestic scene: she was instrumental in introducing Dansaekhwa globally and she also hung the monochrome paintings of key figure Ha Chong-Hyun in the gallery this year.”
Also featured in this year’s Power 100 is artist Haegue Yang, ranking 38. Yang has received significant recognition both in Korea and internationally, including the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2018); the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (Presidential Citation, 2018); and the 13th Benesse Prize (2022), among others. Recently appointed Chairperson of Kunst-Werke Berlin, Yang continues to bring her sharp insight and distinctive artistic practice to the global contemporary art landscape. She is currently the subject of solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich. Yang is also participating in the 15th Shanghai Biennale and preparing to unveil her first large-scale commissioned work at the Taichung Art Museum (TcAM) as part of the TcAM Art Commission. In 2026, Haegue Yang will debut several major projects in the United States. In March, she will present a special collaboration with LA MOCA and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, followed by a solo exhibition in October at Dia Beacon, Haegue Yang: Through, showcasing an ambitious new body of work. Regarding the selection of Haegue Yang, ArtReview commented:
“Leap Year, the retrospective the Seoul- and Berlin-based artist staged last year at the Hayward Gallery in London, travelled to Kunsthal Rotterdam in March and then Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, in September. Yang, however, was already on to her next thing, indicative of the restlessness of an artist whose work encompasses uneasy anthropomorphic sculpture that mines both folk cultures and mass-produced consumables, essayistic video, photography and text. Lost Lands and Sunken Fields opened at Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, in February, featuring five series of work, not least her new Mignon Votives (2025), small altars made from pinecones and cairns of synthetic stone. Emerging from the institution’s outdoor fountain was the monstrous black plastic twine work The Intermediate – Six-Legged Carbonous Epiphyte Imoogi (2025). With a gallery show at Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, and a popup in her former studio in Seoul, too, it’s a wonder Yang decided she has time to chair Kunst-Werke Berlin, the institution responsible for the KW Institute and the Berlin Biennale, a four-year tenure she took up in September.”
Meanwhile, this year’s list includes Ibrahim Mahama, a totemic artist and institution maker, at the top of the list, while Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of Qatar Museums, came second. The full 2025 Power 100 list is available on ArtReview's website (https://artreview.com/power-100/).
First launched in 2002, ArtReview’s annual Power 100, published every December, presents a roster of the one hundred most influential figures in contemporary art. The list is compiled through a rigorous evaluation of candidates’ recent activities and impact. The selected figures span a broad spectrum of roles, including artists and artist collectives, collectors, curators, fair directors, gallerists, museum directors, thinkers, and social activists, reflecting the diverse forces shaping the art world today.
Regarding Lee’s inclusion, ArtReview published the following statement on its official website, highlighting her enduring prominence and contributions to the ever-evolving international art scene:
“Lee has steered Seoul- and Busan-based Kukje Gallery for 43 years now. For a long time, hers was an import business, introducing the likes of Bill Viola and Louise Bourgeois to a South Korean audience. She still shows them (with exhibitions in January and September respectively) and exhibited Gala Porras-Kim for the first time in September, but with international dealers – and collectors – flocking to Seoul, Lee says she is refocusing. ‘[Since foreign artists are receiving greater attention in Korea compared to before] The need to heavily promote foreign artists as we once did has diminished,’ she told The Korea Times. Consequently, the 2025 programme was packed with the likes of Yeondoo Jung, Ahn Kyuchul and a group show of young Korean painters. Not that Lee has ever neglected the domestic scene: she was instrumental in introducing Dansaekhwa globally and she also hung the monochrome paintings of key figure Ha Chong-Hyun in the gallery this year.”
Also featured in this year’s Power 100 is artist Haegue Yang, ranking 38. Yang has received significant recognition both in Korea and internationally, including the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (2018); the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (Presidential Citation, 2018); and the 13th Benesse Prize (2022), among others. Recently appointed Chairperson of Kunst-Werke Berlin, Yang continues to bring her sharp insight and distinctive artistic practice to the global contemporary art landscape. She is currently the subject of solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich. Yang is also participating in the 15th Shanghai Biennale and preparing to unveil her first large-scale commissioned work at the Taichung Art Museum (TcAM) as part of the TcAM Art Commission. In 2026, Haegue Yang will debut several major projects in the United States. In March, she will present a special collaboration with LA MOCA and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, followed by a solo exhibition in October at Dia Beacon, Haegue Yang: Through, showcasing an ambitious new body of work. Regarding the selection of Haegue Yang, ArtReview commented:
“Leap Year, the retrospective the Seoul- and Berlin-based artist staged last year at the Hayward Gallery in London, travelled to Kunsthal Rotterdam in March and then Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, in September. Yang, however, was already on to her next thing, indicative of the restlessness of an artist whose work encompasses uneasy anthropomorphic sculpture that mines both folk cultures and mass-produced consumables, essayistic video, photography and text. Lost Lands and Sunken Fields opened at Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, in February, featuring five series of work, not least her new Mignon Votives (2025), small altars made from pinecones and cairns of synthetic stone. Emerging from the institution’s outdoor fountain was the monstrous black plastic twine work The Intermediate – Six-Legged Carbonous Epiphyte Imoogi (2025). With a gallery show at Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, and a popup in her former studio in Seoul, too, it’s a wonder Yang decided she has time to chair Kunst-Werke Berlin, the institution responsible for the KW Institute and the Berlin Biennale, a four-year tenure she took up in September.”
Meanwhile, this year’s list includes Ibrahim Mahama, a totemic artist and institution maker, at the top of the list, while Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of Qatar Museums, came second. The full 2025 Power 100 list is available on ArtReview's website (https://artreview.com/power-100/).
