Born 1975, Busan, South Korea.

Bae studied photography at Kyung-Sung University, South Korea, graduating with a B.A. in 2003; from 2005-2007 he completed a master’s degree in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He lives and works in London.

In his work he explores his own experience as a newcomer in an alien society, using himself at the subject in elaborately stage-managed enactments of aspects of Western history and culture. In these photographs, he uses the contrast between his ethnicity and gender on the one hand and, on the other, beautifully replicated images of women from past historical epochs to emphasise feelings of estrangement. He has also made a series of works in which he reconstructs scenes from European fairy stories which he feels hide social and moral values reflecting ideologies characterising unsympathetic western attitudes to eastern cultures.

While the content of Bae’s artistic output stems from highly subjective experience, the issues and messages he confronts us with relate to major challenges for the future of international understanding and conciliation.

Bae achieved early recognition in photography competitions while he was still studying, then quickly attracted the attention of art galleries showing his work in group shows in the UK, America, Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, China, Slovenia and elsewhere. He has also been given approaching twenty solo exhibitions internationally.

Other collections holding work by Chan-Hyo Bae include the Arario Gallery, Korea; the Deutsche Bank Art Collection Cologne; the Seoul Museum of Fine Arts; the Houston Museum of Photography, USA; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, USA; the Sovereign Art Foundation, Hong Kong; the Statoil Art Collection, Norway and the Aberystwyth University School of Art Collection. .

Existing in Costume 5