Photo of the Day: Performance Artist Lee Kun-Yong Plants a Tree at Pace Beijing

Our Photo of the Day series this week shares photos of recent openings at 798 and Caochangdi, adjacent creative zones central to Beijing’s contemporary art world.

We’ll start this week’s series simply and boldly, with this tree here, roots intact, assuming a perch in the middle of the pristine white cube that is Pace Gallery‘s Beijing outpost.

Pace Beijing recently unveiled the first solo show in China for Lee Kun-Yong, “one of the foremost early champions of performance art in Korea.” The septuagenarian artist was present last weekend for the opening, giving lengthy responses during an opening Q&A and treating the audience assembled to a live performance of one his most famous painting series, The Method of Drawing:

The tree sitting in the middle of the main gallery space echoes a work on paper behind it: Lee Kun-Yong & Joseph Beuys, Corporal term (Man) and Arabia Woman, which name-checks another pioneering performance artist.

Image via Pace Gallery

Learn more about Lee Kun-Yong at Pace’s exhibition page.