LEE Seahyun

I would say I haven’t dissociated landscape and humanity in my mind although I recently started to paint people in my works. Those landscapes in my works are not the imaginary paradise as it used to be often appeared in oriental paintings. It’s the real sceneries of Korea where some of us are living or lived earlier. Some of those landscapes which I chose to paint in my works could be changed in reality, but it still would be existed in its changes and always will be parts of lifetime of Koreans.
I didn’t see how fast everything gets changed when I was in Korea because maybe watching it every day, I had become insensitive to its changes. Spending years in London and coming back, so many things what I remembered were gone including a little village where I dispersed my mother’s ashes. Watching various (social and political) accidents and incidents, changing landscapes, and how people’s life get affected by those tragic accidents and in those changes, I happened to keep thinking about life and death of the people more. Especially, meeting tragedy of April 16 Ferry Disaster which killed hundreds of people was crucial.
Utopia would be expressed as the beauties of nature and memories of childhood at hometown. However, those are eventually reframed to destruction, extinction, tragedy of national division and etc. This double-sided is the way to show the utopia and dystopia at the same time. Understanding various perspectives and cultures, and ways to express those were chosen. Overall composition, and arrangement or perspectives of the sceneries are highly influenced by the oriental art, whereas observation, description or expression techniques to represent those are taken from the western traditional perspective.  Reflecting the spirit of the times and embodying the role of art as a metaphor of protest must be fallen under the influence of the western art. There are undeniable differences of culture between eastern and western world, but commonness of humankind is clearly existed. Since I’m painting these common themes such as beauty, happiness, grief, agony and essence of life and death of human nature, I believe there is a collective perspective on my works regardless of Korea or west world.
I would like to express the emotional state of “fear, nostalgia, beauty, tragedy and such tumult of emotions” can be conveyed simultaneously rather than regulate and distinguish my works in on expression. Some might carry explicit messages while some may not. Haven’t arithmetically measured which has to be and which doesn’t, and I sometimes enjoy the expression of those ambiguity in itself.
The color, red doesn’t get used to symbolize a certain thing in my works. It has been interpreted so many ways in different culture and countries, and to me the real charm of the color red is in its possibility of diverse interpretation. Ultimately, how to interpret what it tells is up to the viewers. It could be anything under the name of the art. However, capturing the dying utopia on my works isn’t for memorizing and preserving the past primarily, but rather for expressing how tragic the today of Korea is. Beautiful landscapes which are like the hometown of many people’s heart are destroyed by imprudent development. Unable to see again where you are born and raised or more recently not being able to enjoy the nature you spent last vacation with the people you love is the reality of Korea, and I wanted to tell that.  

LEE Seahyun
Born in 1967 Geoje, Korea
Lives and Works in Seoul

EDUCATION
2006 MFA Department of Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
2001 MFA Department of Painting, Hongik University, Seoul
1989 BFA Department of Western Painting, Hongik University, Seoul

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION
2015 Red- Silly Dream, Mimesis Art Museum, Paju, Korea
2014 Between Red, VOUS ETES ICI Gallery, Amsterdam
2012 Plastic Garden, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul
2011 Between Red, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, New York
2009 Between Red, Zonca & Zonca Gallery, Milan
Between Red, Harewood House, Leeds, UK
Between Red, ASPEX Contemporary Art Gallery, Portsmouth, UK
Between Red, Union Gallery, London
Between Red, One and J Gallery, Seoul
2007 Between Red, MIKI WICK KIM Contemporary Art, Zurich, Switzerland
2001 Daily, Contemporary Museum of Hongik University, Seoul
1999 THE, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Yangju, Korea
1998 The Navel of Sea, 21st Century Gallery, Seoul
1997 The Garden of Narcissus, Deokweon Gallery, Seoul

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2017 Neo – naturalism, Ilwoo Space, Seoul, Korea
Six Perspective on Landscape, Muan Seungwoo Oh Museum of Art, Muan, Korea
2016 Hybridizing Earth Discussing Multitude, Busan Biennale, Korea, Busan
OLD & NEW: Yesterday is the discipline through which we advance- Homage to  
Kansong , Dongdaemun Design Plaza Kansong Museum. Seoul, Korea
Black , White , Red . ART SPACE BEN, Seoul, Korea.
“ Please Return to Busan Port” , Vestfossen Museum, Norway
April the Eternal Voyage, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Anshan, Korea
EAST BRIDGE 2016 – Plastic Garden , Total Museum , Seoul, Korea
Contemporary Sansuhwa, Pearl Lam Gallery, Hong Kong
2015 EAST BRIDGE 2016 – Plastic Garden , Force Gallery, Beijing 798, China
“Have a Good day, Mr, Kim”, Choi & Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany
L’exposition de ” Seoul ‘Vite Vite’ a Tripostal, Lille, Commissaire, France
2014 Korea Tomorrow, Dongdaemun Design Plaza Museum, Seoul
The Moment, We Awe, Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
Sweet Dew- since 1980, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Gwangju, Korea
Neo-Sansu, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
2013 Pulse of Sight, Hakgojae Shanghai, Shanghai
Real Landscape of the day, Gyeomjae Jeongseon Memorial Museum, Seoul
The Moment, We Awe, HOW Art Museum, Wenzhou, China
2012 (Im)Possible Landscape, PLATEAU, Seoul
Cynical Resistance, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam
One must imagine Sisyphus happy, House of the Nobleman, London
Prelude, Space Cottonseed, Singapore
2011 彼我同一: We are who you are, Gallery Jijihyang, GyeongGi, Korea
Sea of Peace, Incheon Art Platform, GyeongGi, Korea
The Future Pass, International Art Exhibition “ILLUMInations Biennale Venezia”, Venezia, Italy
Bad Exhibition, PIN Gallery, Beijing
2010-11 Korean Art Issue 2010: Art of National Division -The Flower on the Snow, Daejeon     Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
2010 Plastic Garden, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
The Accursed Share, Gallery Artside, Beijing
New Organ, Space* C, Seoul
A Different Similarity, Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Here and There – The World in Motion 2010, LuXun Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, Shenyang, China; Seoul, Busan