Lee Yongbaek visualizes political and cultural issues of Korea as well as the narratives of existence and intuition of human beings in his very own unique ways: his medium includes single channel video, performance, sculpture, and painting. By crossing over distinctive mediums and showing experimental works that are intertwined—Lee constructs his unique structure in Korean contemporary art. 

Lee’s works can be categorized into four categories. series frankly expresses the social condition of our generation through drastic contrast between an angel and a soldier. is simply comprised of a mirror, a flat screen, and a computer. This particular series focus on existence—displaying a mirror seeming to suddenly break with earsplitting sound. When standing in front of it, the viewer questions whether this breaking of the mirror is real or an illusion. paintings portray real, live fish capturing artificial fish for survival, then abducted by its own attempt to survive, and a human being who would be holding a fishing pole between the two; this harsh paradox of existence is cruel pain, like an eternal punishment that has to be carried upon all living creature’s shoulders. sculpture series metaphorically unfolds contradictions of human existence and the barbarism of civilization by portraying the Virgin Mary and Jesus in two contrasting compositions. 

Born in 1966 in Gimpo, Korea, Lee Yongbaek graduated from the Department of Painting at Hongik University in Korea in 1990, the Department of Painting at Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design in Germany, and the Department of Sculpture at the Graduate School of the same university in 1995. Since graduation, he has been actively working in Korea and abroad. He held solo exhibitions at Alternative Space Loop, Arario Gallery in Beijing and Seoul, and in 2011 Venice Biennale, he was appointed for Korea Pavilion.