In 1956 Lee moved from Southeastern Korea, where he was raised, to Tokyo, where he would study philosophy. Through contingent arrangements of industrial and natural materials, Lee Ufan’s installations open up the possibility for encounters between objects, viewers, and their surrounding space, toward a heightened awareness of the world “as-it-is.” The ethics of mediation that play out in his art mirror his experience living between East Asia, Europe, and North America. Additional support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency, and the Sakana Foundation. Lee Ufan is made possible by significant support from COS and the Samsung Foundation of Culture. In Relatum (1974), a long wooden beam is suspended above a steel plate by a thick length of rope in a seemingly precarious arrangement that captures the interconnectedness of various materials a defining principle of Mono-ha. Relatum (formerly Language, 1971) juxtaposes two diametrically opposite materials, pairing seven thick, soft cushions with large boulders. Relatum (formerly System, 1969), one of Lee’s earliest Mono-ha sculptures, is composed of six steel plates that are bent at ninety-degree angles and positioned evocatively in relationship to the gallery's architecture.

The exhibition at Dia Beacon, resulting from close collaboration with the artist, showcases Dia’s 2017 acquisition of three sculptural works by Lee – Relatum (formerly System, 1969), Relatum (formerly Language, 1971), and Relatum (1974)-alongside several important loans. His use of “Relatum” can be compared to the frequent use of “untitled” by American Minimal artists. In 1972 he changed the titles of the works that he had made up to that point to Relatum, referring to a concept in Heideggerian philosophy, which conveyed the artist’s interest in contingent circumstances. A pioneer of the Mono-ha movement in Japan, Lee Ufan developed a sculptural practice in the 1960s that explored the tension between natural and man-made materials and the dialogue between object and space.

Dia beacon sculpture