Schedule

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
6 p.m. Wine Reception
6:30 p.m. Curator Talk

Join us for a lecture by internationally renowned curator Seolhui Lee, the Artistic Director of the Korean Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, which featured the multi-sensorial installation by interdisciplinary artist Koo Jeong A. Often described as the "Olympics of the Art World," the Venice Biennale is one of the most important contemporary art events. In addition to guiding the audience through the process of organizing Koo Jeong A's ground-breaking exhibition on such a high-profile stage, Lee will share how the recent Korean Pavilion investigated how we perceive and recollect spaces, with a particular emphasis on how scents, smells, and odors contribute to these memories.

RSVPs are requested for this free event.

About the Curator

Seolhui Lee (based in South Korea & Denmark) is the artistic director for the Korean Pavilion 2024, Venice Biennale with Jacob Fabricius. She previously served as the chief curator & curator at Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark (2023–2025), the head of the exhibition team for the Busan Biennale 2020, a curator at the Seoul Museum of Art (2018–2019), and worked for the Korea Artist Prize 2012 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea (2012–2013). Lee has curated multitudinous exhibitions in many countries, recently presenting KOO JEONG A – ODORAMA CITIES (Korean Pavilion, Italy, 2024), the series exhibition I am your Body: Chapter 1 – Automation & Chapter 2 – Flesh (Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark, 2024), Rhizome – Network Without Center Point (Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark, 2024), KOO JEONG A: EHM [Event Horizon Malmö] (Malmö Konsthall, Sweden, 2024), and My Brilliant Friend (The Romanian Association of Contemporary Art, Romania, 2024), among others. In addition, she has served as an adjunct professor at the Kaywon University of Art & Design, South Korea (2022–2023) and the Korea National University of Arts, (2019–2022). In conjunction with her studies, Lee’s essays have been published in Reading Korean Contemporary Art with Keywords (2019) and Korean Contemporary Art Since 1990 (2017). She recently published books for established Korean artists such as Kim Beom (Workroom: Seoul, 2024) and Koo Jeong A (Distanz: Berlin, 2024). Lee earned a master’s degree in Art History from Ewha Womans University (South Korea, 2015) and was selected for the ‘Tate Modern Intensive Course’ (UK, 2019), ‘Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course’ (South Korea, 2016), also invited to the ‘Expo Chicago Curatorial Exchange’ (US, 2025), Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival’s Forum (Denmark, 2024). Furthermore, Lee is a committee for recommending permanent collections for MMCA, South Korea (2024–present), and an adviser to the international exchange department for curatorial practice & exhibitions at Arts Council Korea (2024–present).

Exhibitions and their related programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, and Leslie and Brad Bucher. Major support comes from The Brown Foundation, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment Inc. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, National Endowment for the Arts, and Texas Commission on the Arts. Free Thursday exhibition admission presented by The Nyquist Family. Additional support is provided by The Clayton Fund, Leigh and Reginald Smith, The Stolbun Family, Ann Wales, the Wortham Foundation, and through contributions from the Exhibitions Patron Circle, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional visual art to Asia Society Texas.

Presenting Sponsors

Nancy C. Allen
Leslie and Brad Bucher
Chinhui Juhn and Edward Allen

Program Sponsors

About Asia Society Texas

Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society.