HONG KONG – This spring, Hong Kong’s skyline of glass and steel finds an unexpected mirror inside M+. From March 2026, the museum will host Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now, a sweeping, immersive exhibition that charts nearly three decades of work by one of Asia’s most influential contemporary artists. It is ambitious, visually arresting, and uncannily timely, the kind of show that lingers long after you’ve left the gallery.

Co-organised by M+ and Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art, and supported by HSBC, the exhibition arrives in Hong Kong following a highly acclaimed run in Seoul, where it drew more than 105,000 visitors in just four months. At M+, the presentation expands even further, bringing together over 200 works that span sculpture, installation, drawing, and performance, including rare early pieces from the late 1990s and brand-new works created as recently as 2024.

For those unfamiliar with Lee Bul, this exhibition offers a powerful introduction. For longtime admirers, it is a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of an artist whose work has consistently pushed against boundaries of form, gender, technology, and imagination.

Stepping into a speculative landscape, the first section unfolds as an open, almost architectural environment dominated by works from Lee’s Mon grand récit series — monumental installations that resemble fragments of futuristic cities or abandoned civilisations. Shimmering surfaces, skeletal frameworks, and suspended forms evoke humanity’s grand dreams of progress, while quietly acknowledging their inevitable collapse.

Alongside these towering structures are delicate, two-dimensional works from Lee’s Perdu and Willing to Be Vulnerable – Velvet series. Together, they create a dialogue between strength and fragility, ambition and doubt — a recurring tension that runs throughout her practice.

The exhibition then turns inward, towards the body itself. Lee’s iconic Cyborg sculptures — perhaps her most widely recognised works — reinterpret classical statues through a futuristic lens. These hybrid figures, part human and part machine, are sleek yet unsettling, beautiful yet incomplete. Nearby, the Anagram series blends organic and mechanical forms into ambiguous new anatomies, questioning ideals of perfection, beauty, and identity in a technologised world.

It is impossible not to feel the relevance of these works today, as conversations around artificial intelligence, bodily autonomy, and technological dependence continue to accelerate.

The final section offers a quieter, more intimate experience. Here, visitors encounter approximately one hundred drawings and dozens of meticulously crafted maquettes that reveal Lee Bul’s creative process. These works function both as independent artworks and as blueprints for her larger installations, offering a rare glimpse into how her ideas evolve — from philosophical reflection to physical form.

Adding another layer to the experience, M+ Cinema will screen a continuous loop of Lee’s early performance works from the late 1980s and early 1990s, reminding audiences that her career began not with monumental sculpture, but with radical, often confrontational explorations of the body in public space.

Lee Bul emerged in the late 1980s against the backdrop of a rapidly changing South Korea, and her work has always been deeply shaped by social and political transformation. Yet what makes From 1998 to Now resonate so strongly is its global outlook. The exhibition speaks to shared anxieties and aspirations — about progress, failure, and the future — that feel particularly urgent in our current moment.

As M+ Museum Director Suhanya Raffel notes, Hong Kong itself provides a compelling context for encountering Lee’s work. The city’s futuristic skyline, relentless pace, and constant reinvention echo many of the themes Lee has explored for decades. Seeing her work here feels less like a retrospective and more like a conversation with the present.

Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now runs from 14 March to 9 August 2026 at M+’s West Gallery. On opening day, Lee Bul will appear in conversation with M+ Artistic Director and Chief Curator Doryun Chong in a special public talk, offering insight into her creative thinking and the making of the exhibition.

Following its Hong Kong presentation, the exhibition will travel to Antwerp and Ottawa, cementing its place as one of the most significant global art events of the decade.

Whether you’re a seasoned art lover or simply looking for a cultural experience that challenges, inspires, and dazzles, this is one exhibition not to miss. In a world obsessed with the future, Lee Bul reminds us that hope and failure are often two sides of the same dream.

Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now runs from 14th March to 9th August 2026 at M+’s West Gallery. More information available here