Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) has today announced internationally acclaimed sculptor Yona Lee as the recipient of its 2027 Judy Wheeler Commission, a prestigious annual initiative championing the depth, diversity and bold innovation of Australian contemporary arts practice.

Established in 2022, the 10-year program is made possible through a philanthropic gift to PICA by the Simpson Family in honour of their late wife and mother Judy Wheeler, a passionate supporter of the arts. Each year, the Judy Wheeler Commission supports the creation of a new site-specific work by an Australian artist that responds physically or conceptually to PICA’s building and its history, embodying the organisation’s spirit of experimentation and celebrating art’s power to connect people and places.

For the 2027 Commission, Lee will create an expansive, site-specific sculpture that occupies PICA’s first floor and responds directly to its architecture. Constructed from stainless-steel tubing, the work will wrap around the space as a continuous line, incorporating everyday objects and transforming the building into an expanded drawing.

Part artwork, part propositional infrastructure, Lee’s installation brings familiar objects into unexpected relationships with PICA’s architecture. Some remain functional while others are displaced, inverted or placed beyond reach, activating the building’s edges and voids through a shifting interplay of function and form.

“I’ve been thinking about support structures and objects that quietly shape how we move through institutional spaces – handrails, seating, lighting, things that support the body while also directing it. For PICA, I wanted to work with that language and respond to the building’s history as both a former school and a contemporary art space.” Yona Lee.

PICA CEO/Director Hannah Mathews said the Yona’s concept speaks beautifully to the intent of the Judy Wheeler Commission

“Yona’s work will transform familiar, functional elements into something unexpected, inviting audiences to experience PICA differently while opening up broader ideas around care, access and generosity. It is a thoughtful and ambitious continuation of what the Judy Wheeler Commission was created to enable,” said Mathews.

Born in Busan, South Korea, Lee’s sculptural practice ranges from tabletop objects to installations occupying entire museum spaces and buildings, with major solo exhibitions and commissions presented at institutions, including Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and Auckland Art Gallery. Lee’s work has also featured in the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art and Busan Biennale, and is held in major public collections across Australia and New Zealand.

Now entering its fifth year, the Judy Wheeler Commission has invited artists to engage with PICA’s architecture, history and place in markedly different ways.

“Each year, the Commission has produced a new artistic response to the PICA building and its surroundings,” says Judy Wheeler’s son, Tom Simpson. “Yona Lee’s proposal brings a generous and lively sensibility to the program. It’s wonderful to see Judy’s legacy continue through a work that engages not only with the site itself but also with the artists and publicwho inhabit it.

Previous recipients include Meanjin/Brisbane-based artist Elizabeth Willing, who in 2023 drew inspiration from the smells and textures of the PICA building to create a monumental tapestry; Gadigal/Sydney-based artist Diana Baker Smith, whose 2024 commission focused on the past and present flow of physical movement around the Central Gallery balcony; Badimia Yamatji and Yued Noongar artist Amanda Bell, based in Goomburrup/Bunbury, who in 2025 created rainbows inside the building by drawing Country in. In 2026, Naarm/Melbourne-based Jen Berean and James Carey turned their attention to the hidden systems carrying water through and around the PICA building with their commission Soft Grates.

The 2027 Judy Wheeler Commission by Yona Lee will be presented at PICA in 2027.

The Judy Wheeler Commission is made possible by the generosity of the Simpson Family.

Image: Yona Lee, ‘An Arrangement for 5 Rooms’ 2022, installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Courtesy of the artist and Fine Arts, Sydney.