The year she turned 23, she moved to Germany and was admitted to an art school in Frankfurt. CNB Journal writes that she held her first solo show there that year. In 1996, she settled in Berlin.
In August 2006, she held Sadong 30, her first solo show in Korea, in an abandoned house in Incheon. In December 2008, Arts Council Korea named her the artist for the Korean Pavilion at the following year’s Venice Biennale.
The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 38, she showed Condensation at the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in June. The Seoul Shinmun writes that the selection led to wider recognition for her in Korea.
In 2010, she held a solo show at the New Museum, and in August another, Voice Over Three, at Artsonje Center in Seoul. In 2011, she held the solo show The Art and Technique of Folding the Land at the Aspen Art Museum. In 2012, she was invited to dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, the first Korean participation in 20 years.
In 2014, she took part in the Taipei Biennial. In February 2015, she held a solo show at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, her third in Korea, and in September she took part in the Biennale de Lyon. In July 2016, she held a solo show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The year she turned 46, she was named the 2018 Wolfgang Hahn Prize winner, the first Asian woman artist to win it. In April 2018, she received the prize at the opening of her retrospective at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and in October she was selected for the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award in fine arts. In 2019, she held the solo show When The Year 2000 Comes at Kukje Gallery.
In 2020, she held her first solo show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. In 2021, she first showed the new work Mesmerizing Mesh, a series of hanji paper collages. In March 2022, she held a solo show at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, and in October she became the first Korean artist to win the Benesse Prize at the Singapore Biennale.
In 2023, she ranked 71st on ArtReview’s Power 100. In October 2024, she held Leap Year, her first solo show at the Hayward Gallery in London. In September 2025, she opened a solo show at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. In 2026, she held the solo show Star-Crossed Rendezvous at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Haegue Yang (born 1971) debuted in 1994, the year she turned 23, with her first solo show in Frankfurt, Germany, and became known as the artist at the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, which opened on Jun 7, 2009, the year she turned 38. In 2018, the year she turned 47, she received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize, the first Asian woman artist to win it.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.