Sanctuary of stillness: Lee Ufan's new permanent space 'Silentium' finds home at Hoam Museum

Lee Ufan's "Silentium" (2025) at the Hoam Museum of Art's Hee Won garden in Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Hoam Museum of Art

Minimalist painter and sculptor Lee Ufan / Courtesy of Hoam Museum of Art

“Silentium” means stillness in Latin. Minimalist artist Lee Ufan breathes his own philosophy into the word, rendering it as “默視庵” — the Chinese characters for “to behold within stillness.”

It is a way of seeing that attunes the self to subtle movements within silence, thus echoing his larger, lifelong mantra: “When one lets go and empties oneself, a greater infinity unfolds.”

This meditation on silence finds physical form at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. “Silentium,” a new permanent space nestled within the museum’s Hee Won garden, gathers three of Lee’s paintings and one outdoor installation in seamless harmony.

As a pioneer of the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement, Lee has long engaged with natural and industrial materials like stone, steel, wood and glass, presented in their unaltered states. His arrangements direct the viewer’s attention to relationships — between the natural and the human-made, the object and the space it inhabits, and between the work and the observer. In his practice, it is this constant interplay, rather than the artist’s personal message or ego, that matters the most.

Standing sentinel at the entrance of “Silentium” is a single stone, artfully placed on a sheet of steel. Inside, three new “paintings” unfold across the floor, wall and in the shadow. Though the artist has long been known for his restrained monochromatic palette, here, color emerges more boldly through dots and circles.

In addition to the permanent space in the garden, Lee has also unveiled three new large-scale sculptural installations from his “Relatum” series in the museum’s Old Stone Garden, an area previously closed to visitors.

Lee Ufan's "Relatum — The Sky Road" (2025) / Courtesy of Hoam Museum of Art

Each piece continues his philosophical inquiry into the encounter between stone and steel. Among them, perhaps the most striking is “Relatum — The Sky Road,” a 20-meter-long stretch of super-mirror stainless steel paired with a boulder.

The project, set against the natural landscape of Hoam Museum of Art, was personally proposed by the artist, according to the museum.

“Basking in stillness, visitors will be able to sense that the entire world moves through relations and encounters, through each other’s breath and resonance,” he said in a statement.

Following a weeklong preview for Leeum members, the site will open to the public on Nov. 4.