Weeds of Cultivation
Kang Seung Lee is an artist whose work engages with the lives and legacies of transnational queer figures. Drawing on overlooked histories, his practice explores themes of memory, identity and belonging, reimagining the past through acts of care and reinvention.
For Weeds of Cultivation, Lee’s first UK solo exhibition, he presents a major site-responsive installation, as well as new drawings and embroideries in the Main Gallery. The Fire Station galleries bring together new and recent embroideries, drawings and video works alongside archival materials. The show foregrounds the networks of kinship, activism and artistic work that have sustained queer communities in the face of significant stigma, discrimination and loss.
Taking London’s queer networks as a starting point, Kang draws from both people and place. The work references artists Hamad Butt (1962–1994) and Derek Jarman (1942–1994) and incorporates foraged items from the gardens at Prospect Cottage and London Lighthouse, as well as cruising sites including Hampstead Heath and Burgess Park. Lee has also created new drawings after Gideon Mendel’s The Ward (1993), a photographic series focusing on John, Steven, Ian and Andre, four men who were patients in the dedicated AIDS wards at London’s Middlesex Hospital.
In this exhibition, these London-based references sit alongside wider international histories. Lee continues his practice of paying tribute to queer artists and activists, including Chinese American painter Martin Wong (1946–1999) and Brazilian artist José Leonilson (1957–1993), both of whom were affected by the AIDS crisis and died from AIDS-related complications.
Weeds of Cultivation is curated by the 2026 New Curators fellows: Bijal Manoj Daialal (UK), chris d. reeder (USA), Dulce Ariadna Ardila (Colombia), Juan Felipe Paredes (Ecuador), Mark Mingu Cho (South Korea), Nana Ama Yeboawaa Ampofo (USA), Ruchika Dhillon (India), Runnie Exuma (USA), Sadie Barnett (UK), Seth Kriger (South Africa) and Vy Tsan (Australia).
South London Gallery 65-67 Peckham Road London, SE5 8UH
10th December 2026 – 28th March 2027
Admission Free: https://www.southlondongallery.org/whats-on/
