BIO
Dohyun Baek (b. 1994, Daejeon, South Korea) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in the United Kingdom. Working across painting, installation, sculpture, and performance, Baek uses dark humour and surreal imagery to explore human vulnerability and nuance in contemporary existence. Baek’s fictional spaces emerge through layered acrylic, industrial and organic media across conceptually interwoven works.
Baek reflects on human vulnerability in a utilitarian, capitalist context that values efficiency and progress, amplified by the perfectionism of A.I. ‘I live as a human who must remain useful, and yet I exist as an artist who creates the useless and sings of its beauty. Between these two worlds arises a tension, an incompleteness.’ While not opposing progress, he interrogates efficiency in artmaking and instead marks what utility overlooks: the wasteful, the meandering, the imperfect. Works unfold like conversations: materials speak, accidents are invited, and the subconscious mingles with intention.
Baek has exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; New Art Exchange, Nottingham; A.P.T Gallery, Twilight Contemporary and Unit 1 Gallery in London; and Salon De Art Gallery, Seoul. He was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize 2020, NAE Open 2025, Chaiya Art Awards (2023) and BLOOOM Award by Warsteiner (2018).
CV
Born in 1994 in Daejeon, South Korea
Resides and works in London, UK
Education:
2014-2018: Fine Art (Extension Degree) BA (Hons), Goldsmiths, London, UK
Solo exhibitions:
2025, ‘Hosodama’, Meadow At Home, London, UK
2024, ‘One Eye Shut’, London, UK
2022, ‘Just Sayin’’, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
Selected group exhibitions:
2025, ‘The First Movement’, 4482 Sasapari, London, UK
2025, ‘Breaking Bells Make No Noise’, Morphē Artist Residency, London, UK
2025, ‘A Gallery of One’s Own’, Ethereal Maison, London, UK
2025, ‘Running Through London’, Twilight Contemporary, London, UK
2025, ‘NAE Open’, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2025, ‘From Hollywood to Whetstone’, curation by Anthony Fawcett, London, UK
2024, ‘An Exhibition of Small Things with Big Ideas’, White Conduit Projects, London, UK
2023, ‘To Dwell’, Hanbury Hall, London, UK
2023, ‘Hua De Hua Hua’, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
2023, ‘Sandcastle’, APT Gallery, London, UK
2023, ‘Home Discomforts’, Brockley Open Studios, Seager Gallery, London, UK
2023, ‘Awe + Wonder’, Chaiya Art Award, OXO and Bargehouse Gallery, London, UK
2022, ‘Being Neither Here nor There’, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
2022, ‘No Place Like Home’, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK
2021, ‘Fair Art Fair Curated I’, Unit 1 Gallery, London, UK
2021, Heart like a Star (내 마음 별과 가치), Salon De Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2021, John Moores Painting Prize 2020, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2021, ‘Boarding Ticket’, Just Co Tower, Seoul, South Korea
2021, ‘Lauren Jung x Dohyun Baek Duo Show’, Just Co Tower, Seoul, South Korea
2020, ‘Art Must Go On’, Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture, Seoul, South Korea
2019, ‘The Taste of Home in the Wandering Body’, All Saints Parish Church, London, UK
2019, ‘UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019’, Nottingham, UK
2018, ‘Soft House’, Deptford X Festival, London, UK
2018, ‘We Are Making a New World’, Alexandra Mansions, Kings Cross, London, UK
2018, Goldsmiths BAFA Degree Show, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
2017, ‘Subculture’, CICA Museum, Kimpo, South Korea
2017, ‘Islington Summer Salon’, Islington Art Factory, London, UK
2017, ‘The Dance of The Ugly Duckling’, St James Church, London, UK
2016, ‘Collecting Contemporary Art’, De Flore Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2015, ‘I,We’, Goldsmiths Fine Art Extension Course Degree Show, London, UK
Art fairs:
2025, Minor Attractions, represented by Meadow, London, UK
Residencies, grants & awards:
2025, Morphē Arts Artist Residency Programme, St Barnabas Dalston, London, UK
2025, Sputnik Fund, Sputnik: Faith & Arts, UK
2025, NAE Open 2025 (selected), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2023, Chaiya Art Awards (selected), OXO and Bargehouse Gallery, London, UK
2021, John Moores Painting Prize 2020 (selected), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2018, Blooom Award by Warstiener (selected), Art Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Press:
Stewart Collins, “Toilet Humor” in Vibes N Vistas Issue 5: Significant Others (2024) consulted on 24 October 2024.
Professional contributions:
2025: Artist Talk ‘Making as a Conversation’ with 4482 Sasapari, Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK
2025: Judge, YouthCanvas Contest, Vibe N Vistas, Finland
2024: Curator, ‘One Eye Shut’ Dohyun Baek solo show, London, UK
2023: Curator, ‘Sandcastle’ group show at APT Gallery, London, UK