BIO
Dohyun Baek (b. 1994, Daejeon, South Korea) is a conceptually-led, multidisciplinary artist based in London, United Kingdom. Baek studied BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London (2014-2018). Working across painting, installation, sculpture and performance, Baek’s practice explores ideas of vulnerability and in-between states where opposing conditions coexist but remain unsettled.
Having lived outside South Korea for over half his life, in both India and the UK, Baek’s work has increasingly turned towards the experience of living away from his country of birth. His recent body of work comprising Fold (2025) and Residue (2026) works with soy sauce as both a subject and a staining medium. Residue reworks the soy sauce-stained hanji paper from the performance Fold, preserving it in wax on panels. The soy sauce used in these works carries the taste of home for Baek yet originates from methods industrialised during and after Japanese colonial rule, rather than though traditional Korean brewing methods. This complicated history has transformed a familiar flavour into a site of cultural inquiry. Through these works, Baek considers how intimate everyday experiences become entangled with histories of colonialism, while acknowledging the legitimacy of his own lived experiences in contemporary Korea and beyond.
Personal memories and childhood stories influence the narratives that are threaded throughout Baek’s practice. Drawing on memories of his family and various Korean folktales, his work has reflected on fractured identities as in The Mouse that Ate Fingernails (2023); displacement as in Display This If You Lose My Ashes (2023); and waste and usefulness in works centred on excretion such as Don Quixote and His Stool (2023) and One Eye Shut (2024).
Baek approaches art-making as a conversation with materials. Rather than imposing fixed outcomes, he makes space for the materials to speak, allowing accidents, tangents, intuition and intention to shape the work as it develops.
Baek has exhibited in both the UK and South Korea. Notable exhibitions include the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool), New Art Exchange (Nottingham) and APT Gallery, Copeland Gallery and Unit 1 Gallery (London). He was selected for the NAE Open 2025 and the John Moores Painting Prize 2020.
CV
Born 1994 in Daejeon, South Korea
Resides and works in London, UK
Education
2014-2018: Fine Art (Extension Degree) BA (Hons), Goldsmiths, London, UK
Selected solo exhibitions
2025, ‘Hosodama’, curated by Jarelle Francis, Meadow, London, UK
2024, ‘One Eye Shut’, Bermondsey, London, UK
Selected group exhibitions
2026, ‘Unanchored City’, curated by DoMo Collective, Copeland Gallery, London, UK
2026, ‘Pink Chaos’, curated by Mei Hui Lui, Prokofiev Studio, Hackney Art Week, London, UK
2025, ‘The First Movement’, curated by 4482 Sasapari, London, UK
2025, ‘Breaking Bells Make No Noise’, Morphē Artist Residency, London, UK
2025, ‘Running Through London’, Twilight Contemporary, London, UK
2025, ‘NAE Open 2025’, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2025, ‘From Hollywood to Whetstone’, curated by Anthony Fawcett, London, UK
2024, ‘An Exhibition of Small Things with Big Ideas’, White Conduit Projects, London, UK
2023, ‘Sandcastle’, APT Gallery, London, UK
2023, ‘Awe + Wonder’, Chaiya Art Award, OXO and Bargehouse Gallery, London, UK
2023, ‘Home Discomforts’, Seager Gallery, Brockley Open Studios, London, UK
2022, ‘Being Neither Here nor There’, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
2022, ‘No Place Like Home’, curated by Charlie Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK
2021, John Moores Painting Prize 2020, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2021, ‘Fair Art Fair Curated I’, Unit 1 Gallery, London, UK
2020, ‘Art Must Go On’, Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture, Seoul, South Korea
2019, ‘UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019’, Nottingham, UK
2018, ‘Soft House’, curated by Angl Collective, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
2017, ‘Subculture’, CICA Museum, Kimpo, South Korea
2017, ‘Islington Summer Salon’, Islington Art Factory, London, UK
Art fairs
2025, Minor Attractions, represented by Meadow, London, UK
Residencies, grants & awards
2026, Crea Open 2026 (nominated), CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo, Venice, Italy
2025, Morphē Arts Artist Residency Programme, St Barnabas Dalston, London, UK
2025, NAE Open 2025 (selected), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2021, John Moores Painting Prize 2020 (selected), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Press
Stewart Collins, “Fold (2025)” in Vibe N Vistas (2026) accessed 29 May 2026.
Stewart Collins, “Toilet Humor” in Vibes N VistasIssue 5: Significant Others (2024) accessed 24 October 2024.
Professional contributions
2025, Artist Talk ‘Making as a Conversation’ organised by 4482 Sasapari at Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK
2025, Judge, YouthCanvas Contest, Vibes N Vistas, Finland
2023, Curator, ‘Sandcastle’ group show at APT Gallery, London, UK
2021, Artist Talk for Fine Art students at Goldsmiths, University of London