Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976 — Leeum Museum
An international group exhibition at Leeum Samsung Museum of Art presenting pioneering immersive environments by first-generation female artists from the 1950s through 1970s. Works by artists who created spaces rather than objects — inviting viewers to enter and experience art rather than stand before it. A landmark feminist art history show in Seoul.
Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976 — Leeum Museum
Rewriting Art History
Inside Other Spaces brings together works by women artists who were creating immersive, participatory environments in the 1950s through 1970s — a period when such work was largely excluded from the canonical account of installation and conceptual art. The exhibition makes the argument, through the works themselves, that many of the formal innovations attributed to well-known male artists were being explored simultaneously by women whose names rarely appeared in major museum collections or art history surveys.
The Works
Artists in the exhibition created environments that required viewers to enter, move through, and be altered by the space — using light, sound, textile, scent, and architectural manipulation. Some works are reconstructed for the exhibition; others are presented in original form. The range of materials and approaches is deliberately wide, resisting any single definition of what an “environment” is.
Why It Matters Now
Leeum Samsung Museum is one of Asia’s most respected private contemporary art institutions. Hosting an exhibition of this scope — international in its range, art-historically revisionist in its argument — signals its engagement with the ongoing global reassessment of the feminist art canon. The show has been well-received critically and draws an audience beyond the usual contemporary art circuit.
Visiting Leeum
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art is in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu — a 5-minute walk from Hangangjin Station (Line 6, Exit 1). Note that this exhibition runs through August 31, so June is not the final opportunity. The museum is also currently hosting the Tino Sehgal exhibition (closing June 28), making a combined visit worthwhile before the Sehgal show ends.
