Doowon Lee: Doowon Arrives in New York with Too Many Animals

Doowon Arrives in New York with Too Many Animals

April 25 through June 20, 2026

ACA Galleries

173 Tenth Avenue, New York

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 25, 3 to 5pm

ACA Galleries is pleased to announce Doowon Arrives in New York with Too Many Animals, on view April 25 through June 20, 2026. The exhibition marks Lee’s second solo presentation at ACA Galleries and introduces New York to a new body of work that is materially rich, and teeming with life.

Doowon Lee is a self-taught Korean artist who travels extensively, drawing inspiration from nature and his surroundings while incorporating materials discovered during his journeys to Pakistan, Nepal, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and beyond. He frequently collaborates with local artisans to transform his original paintings into handwoven carpets and tapestries.

Within Lee’s magical universe, nature, animals, and humans share the same stage. He creates a playful and humorous world free from traditional forms and distinctions by seamlessly blending imagined and natural elements.

The title of this exhibition isn’t a metaphor. It’s a literal description of what I brought to New York. The paintings are densely packed with tigers, leopards, frogs, birds, and fish. There is no quiet negative space. The surfaces are crowded, noisy, and slightly out of control.              

A lot of contemporary art tries very hard to appear serious and difficult to decode. I prefer a more direct approach. In my previous exhibition, I arrived riding a golden submarine. This time, I arrive with a massive herd of animals. Biologically speaking, I am simply another animal migrating into this gallery ecosystem.  My work doesn’t hide behind complex metaphors.  It’s just heavy tents, rough wool, and too many animals. Really, too many. – Doowon Lee

That candor is itself a kind of artistic statement. Where many artists labor to mystify, Lee insists on directness, a philosophy that extends from his materials to his migrations to the sheer unleashing of an unstoppable herd of creatures crowding his canvases. To encounter his work is to step into a visual ecosystem governed by instinct and abundance.

Lee has garnered significant critical and institutional recognition in recent years. In 2023, a solo exhibition was presented at the Saatchi Gallery in London and in 2024 Lee was selected as a representative artist for the Busan Biennale. In 2025 he  was artist in residence at The Twenty Two, London and had his debut exhibition at ACA Galleries in New York. He continues to actively exhibit domestically and internationally and has been the recipient of several glowing reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Vogue magazine among others.