New Stunningly Elaborate Scenes Created Without Photoshop by Jee Young Lee

Posted on 5 January 2015 by admin

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/jee-young-lee-update
Jenny Zhang

Seoul-based artist Jee Young Lee devotes weeks and months to building incredibly elaborate scenes by hand for the sake of taking a single photograph—all without the use of digital manipulation. Confined to the small space of her 360 x 410 x 240 cm studio, she painstakingly constructs every last detail of the set, from painted backgrounds to handmade props to objects suspended from the ceiling. The results are surreal, dreamlike images made all the more extraordinary by knowledge of how much grueling labor and patience went into creating each scene.

At the focal point of nearly every photo is the artist herself, her gaze never quite meeting the viewer’s directly. Inspired by Korean fables or personal experiences, these imaginative self-portraits explore “her quest for an identity, her desires and her frame of mind,” according to OPIOM Gallery. “Her creations act as a catharsis which allows her to accept social repression and frustrations. The moment required to set the stage gives her time to meditate about the causes of her interior conflicts and hence exorcise them; once experienced, they in turn become portents of hope.”

Lee, whose work we first shared in 2013, unveiled two new images—LoveSeek and The Moment—in 2014, included here with a selection of works never before seen on My Modern Met.

Above: LoveSeek

The Moment

Monsoon Season

Childhood

Reaching for the Stars

Sweet Appetite

Neverending Race

Flu

Raw

The Gamer

http://www.opiomgallery.com/fr/artistes/oeuvresphotographe/17/jeeyoung-lee

Artist Creates Elaborate Non-Photoshopped Scenes in Her Small Studio

Posted on 3 December 2013 by admin

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/lee-jeeyoung-stage-of-mind-room
Alice Yoo

Like American artist Sandy Skoglund, Jee Young Lee creates highly elaborate scenes that require an incredible amount of patience and absolutely no photo manipulation. For weeks and sometimes months, the young Korean artist works in the confines of her small 360 x 410 x 240 cm studio bringing to life worlds that defy all logic. In the middle of the sets you can always find the artist herself, as these are self-portraits but of the unconventional kind. Inspired by either her personal life or old Korean fables, they each have their own backstory, which of course, only adds to the intense drama.

From February 7 to March 7, 2014, OPIOM Gallery in Opio, France is proud to present a selection of Lee’s ongoing body of work called Stage of Mind. This will be her first European exhibition.

Above: Resurrection
Inspired by the Story of Shim Cheong, a Korea folktale as well as by Shakespeare’s Ophelia, Lee JeeYoung made this installation by painting paper lotus and flooding the room with fog and carbonic ice in order to create a mystic atmosphere.

Lotus flowers grow from the impure mud to reach for the light and bloom to the rise and fall of the sun; in Asia, it bears various cultural symbolisms such as prospects and rebirth. It is also known for its purifying function. The presence of the artist in the heart of such flower is meant to convey her personal experience. “I was born again by overcoming negative elements that had dragged me down and cleansed myself emotionally. The figure within a lotus blooming implies a stronger self who was just born again and is facing a new world”. It is this is very moment when one reaches maturity and full-potential that Lee illustrates in “Resurrection”, and, more generally speaking, throughout the entirety of her corpus.

Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt is based on the artist’s childhood memories. Lee devoted three months to crafting the lush multitude of wire leaves – it evokes a child-like wonderland.

Panic Room
Contrasting with Lee’s legend- and literature-inspired moral messages, Panic Room is also based on the artist’s childhood memories. Amidst Panic Room’s swirling patterns, objects fly off in all directions in an absurd dizziness.

Broken Heart
Broken Heart makes visual the Korean expression “like breaking a stone with an egg” – an ineffectual effort against insurmountable adversity.

I’ll Be Back
This piece is based upon a Korean fable in which a tiger chases desperate children into a well. A god lowered a rope from the sky by which the child escaped, but when the tiger cried out for help, a rotten rope was lowered, condemning the tiger to a miserable fate. Painted traditional fans are meticulously arranged as a whirlpool, while a hand emerges from its eye to grab a rope hanging down from above; hope can save oneself from even what can appear as the most desperate situation.

My Chemical Romance
Many pipe lines crawl on the building walls of the artist’s neighborhood in Mangwondong (Seoul). Forming checkered and intertwined structures, rather than being merely straight, pipes creep up the exterior of a building and connect each space within it; whether for gas or water, they play a delivering-in-and-out role and function as a sort of passageway. From this angle, they appear to the artist as elements of nervousness and danger which she associates with social interactions and communication. Complicatedly intertwined, much like a maze or obstacles in a hurdle race, they remind her of the potential misunderstanding, anxiety or disappointment to which misunderstandings can lead to. The difficulty of such interactions is highlighted by the black and yellow PVC pipes, usually inherent to danger warnings in industrial sites or traffic and road signs. In addition, steam generated by a fog machine connected to the pipes symbolizes the moment of conflict and clash in relationships and communication.

A black dog slowly walking out of the frame in this autobiographic piece indicates a specific person who inflicted pain onto the artist. Or, as she suggests, it may represent others in general as opposed to the woman in the back, who is the artist herself.

Last Supper
Last Supper conflates the Christian image of the meal that foreshadows Jesus’ impending demise with the competition for limited resources illustrated by hundreds of rats racing toward the table from which the artist appears to be rescuing a plate of cheese.

Birthday

Maiden Voyage

The Little Match Girl

Food Chain

Nightmare

Nightscape

Black Birds

As Hyewon Yi, Director and Curator of Amelie A. Wallace Gallery states, “Drawing upon prodigious powers of imagination, she labors for months to create effects that seem to expand and contract physical space. And always, a lone figure inhabits and completes her narratives. Jee Young Lee assumes the roles of set designer, sculptor, performer, installation artist, and photographer – and she executes them all magically.”

http://www.opiomgallery.com/fr/artistes/oeuvresphotographe/17/jeeyoung-lee

Park Seo-bo: ‘Role of Art Is To Make People Worry’

Posted on 19 May 2011 by admin

Park Seo-bo

Korean artist Park Seo-bo takes off his jaunty bowler hat. A ring on his hand with a purple gemstone the size of a small chicken egg catches the light of a late winter afternoon.

At 80 years old, Mr. Park is widely regarded as the father of South Korean contemporary art. Among Asian art followers, he is also known for his distinct sartorial style and his unapologetic, outspoken nature.

“These days Korean society is full of energy and the art market is lively. It is like America after World War II. There is madness. In general, artists in Korea are trying to be different, to stand out. Chinese artists are similar. This could be dangerous because art should be about expression, not just standing out,” he says.

He throws out this criticism of Korean art in the company of two of Seoul’s most prominent dealers. Mr. Park was in Hong Kong to support the Asian Hotel Art Fair, which the two dealers and other Seoul galleries are organizing. The event, which started in Seoul in 2008, sees art galleries take over hotel rooms instead of exhibition centers. Since 2010, the fair has been held twice a year, in Hong Kong in February and in Seoul in August. The 2010 Hong Kong event was at the Grand Hyatt and this year it was at the Mandarin Oriental.

For a retrospective of Mr. Park’s work at the Busan Museum of Art last year, chief curator Lim Chang-sup wrote that the painter is “the most influential artist and a major figure in Korean modern art in terms of his leadership and pioneering spirit.”

Joan Kee, an Asian contemprorary art scholar at the University of Michigan, says Mr. Park’s influence is broader than Korean or Asian art history. “We have to remember that Park was enormously ambitious, not just career-wise, but also in wanting to contribute to a global history of postwar painting. He jumped quickly from style to style, because he wanted to digest quickly what was happening internationally.”

Mr. Park was born in Korea and studied in France. In the 1970s he returned and introduced expressionist art to his homeland. A political activist in his youth, he became known for making large, seemingly angry paintings that used color to communicate emotions. In the ’60s and ’70s, he used his fame and panache to his advantage.

“Warhol had nothing on Park when it came to self-presentation,” says Ms. Kee. “Park, more than almost any other Korean artist in the postwar period, realized that art-making wasn’t just about the physical artwork, but was also about image management.”

She notes that there are photos from those times “in which the pattern on Park’s shirts and sweaters appears to mimic the composition of his paintings.”

Ecriture no 071204 130 x 195 cm

Mr. Park’s career rose in tandem with South Korea’s economic success. He signs books with one of his limited-edition fountain pens (a solid-gold dragon design) and says: “People are impressed with South Korean society. What the West achieved in a thousand years, Korea did in 40 years. But now Seoul has lots of murders and crimes. Society is moving very fast and not everyone can keep up. The role of art is to make people worry.”

In the past few years, Mr. Park’s work has taken on a meditative quality. In a high-tech world, he says that in his art he is “trying to find the meaning of the hand again.” His newer works appear to connect to his boyhood training in inkbrush painting. Recent pieces are Zen-like in their simplicity and monochromatic palette. In one series, he made lines with a pen on painted mulberry paper.

“Now I am heading towards death. I am more mature, so I seek emptiness,” Mr. Park, who is in good health, says. “Art without spirit is not art. Art has to have soul.”

: Park Seo-bo

: Ecriture no 071221 195x130cm

: Ecriture no 071204 130 x 195 cm

: Ecriture No 081007 130 x 195cm

: Ecriture no 060114 130 x 195cm

Yang Haegue to represent Korea in Venice

Posted on 31 December 2008 by admin

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2008/12/31/200812310026.asp

A series of vulnerable arrangements Installation artist Yang Haegue has been chosen to hold a solo presentation in the Korean Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in Italy next year.

“Yang is one of the most significant Korean artists performing now,” said Joo Eungie, the pavilion commissioner, at the press conference last week at Arts Council Korea. “This is her moment. Through this Venice Biennale, she can get attention and so can Korean contemporary art.”

A new commissioner is designated every year for the Korean Pavilion by Arts Council Korea, and the commissioner selects an artist or a group of artists to present in the Biennale.

Graduating from Seoul National University Fine Arts College, Yang has been showcasing her work more internationally — sharing her time between here and Germany. Critically acclaimed around the world, German newspaper Capital included her as one of the top 100 international installation artists, along with compatriot Lee Bul.

Yang uses sculpture, video and installation to express her sentiments about humanity, history and her private memories.

“I think the similarity between an artist and a philosopher is that they both try to realize something that already exists,” said Yang. “I simply try to express them with my artistic words.”

She has not decided what to exhibit at the Biennale yet, but her former work gives us a few hints.

Electric machines frequently appear in her work. “Asymmetric Equality” which was exhibited in Gallery at REDCAT in Los Angeles last summer, featured theatrical lights connected to sensors on a drum set. If one drummed on the set, different blazing lights moved as an echo of the sound.

An infrared heater warmed the air in her exhibition room from one corner and an air conditioner cooled it from another side. Humidifiers made the space moist.

“It made viewers confront their opposite senses,” explained Joo.

Yang Haegue Similar substances filled the room in “A Series of Vulnerable Arrangements,” which Yang displayed in Sao Paulo Biennale in 2006.

For those who have followed Yang’s career, “vulnerable” is the word that pops into their head at the mention of her. Yang has used the word very often since 2004 to express sadness, loneliness and melancholy.

“The stronger and more impressive I found my surroundings, the weaker my heart became,” said Yang. “Then this melancholic vulnerability seemed to open small passages where different beings and elements can newly be connected through.”

Yang defines her works as “sentimental communities mobilized by senses.” Sounds complicated? Yang herself admits that her works are indescribable.

“My works are hard to imagine if you don’t actually experience it. You need to breathe it, feel it, and see it using all your senses. You have to be covered from top to toe by the shades and lights of my work to really get it,” said Yang.

Unfortunately, viewers will not be able to see Yang’s usual use of dramatic lights at Venice because the pavilion there is very bright.

“We are eagerly discussing what to do. Everything I do from now will be melded in it. I can dare say that I am enough to take this big responsibility. I really want to do my best,” said Yang.

Venice Biennale will run from June 22 to Nov. 22 next year.

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)

2008.12.31

‘The point was to be part of nature’

Posted on 10 May 2008 by admin

By Mark Ellwood
Published: May 10 2008 01:50 | Last updated: May 10 2008 01:50
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6d0193fa-1ca3-11dd-8bfc-000077b07658.html

Businessman Kim Chang-il accrued a billion dollar fortune in restaurants, real estate and retail in Cheonan, Korea, then used his wealth to build one of the world’s top private contemporary art collections. He also opened his own gallery, Arario, which has three sites across Korea and China; its fourth outpost, a 20,000 sq ft space designed by architect David Adjaye, recently opened in Manhattan, New York.

How many homes do you own?

Two – one in Cheonan and the other in Jeju Island, at the southern end of Korea. It’s still very rural down there. Migrating birds often pass by in front of my house and iIt’s located in front of a small pond and right after that is the ocean, so you can see both from the house. As my business is getting bigger, and as I need more time away to look atthink about the future, I go to Jeju Island. It’s also where I make my artwork.

You are as much a creator as a collector of art.

Yes. I have a studio in Cheonan, but it’s on the top floor of the [Arario] gallery, so I can only work there from 9am to 5pmbecause the building is closed after hours. But in Jeju Island I can work at 2am in the morning if I want to. But I didn’t want to have a work place in my home, so I have a separate studio that is connected to the main house.

Tell me about that house.

I built it two years ago. The main point was to be a part of nature. From the outside you can’t see in but from the inside you can really see out.

You grew up in Seoul. What was your childhood home like?

It was in a traditional wooden house. I was always scared because the winds would go through the house and when I walked, the floors would creak. I kept asking my mother to let us move.

But she never agreed?

Well, I moved to Cheonan from Seoul in 1978 after I graduated from college. And I lived in the same apartment for 30 years; I moved for the first time to a new home in Ssang Yong-Dong [Two Dragons] last July.

That suggests you’re a creature of habit.

I don’t like change: my work takes up so much of me. Home is just somewhere I’m comfortable and I don’t want to waste energy on that.

It must have been the perfect apartment to stay that long.

I’ve always dreamt of having a home near a school; when I first purchased my home I was going to have children and wanted them to be able to walk to school; it was safe and convenient. But I feel like being close to a school is very healthy too; in Korea, schools open up their courtyards to the public, so I go there in the morning to exercise then play basketball with my son. I’ve never needed to join a gym.

Can you describe your dream home?

If I were to build another home, I would pay a lot of attention to the kitchen. I want to start inviting a lot of people round and I was thinking about building [another] home in Jeju Island. I want an all-glass kitchen with an island in the center where you can cook, and a table round it where I can serve people, like in a restaurant.

Is the kitchen your favourite place at home?

Actually, in Cheonan, it’s my library; everything I want to read or think about is very accessible. But in Jeju Island my favourite place is a duplex in the art studio, on the second floor, where I can sit overlooking the pondand everything. I have two dogs, Chinese chow chows, and I’m happy when they are there next to me.

How do you choose what art to put on show at home?

Well, there are places you need to accentuate with a work of art but I don’t do it to excess. One of the walls in my bedroom is designated just for my own work; my photography. I have a studio in Jeju; I built a residence for artists with seven studios and nine apartments. People can’t come and just rent out the place – the artists have to be invited – but I wanted them to experience what I’ve experienced. A lot of artists enjoy the chance to be with nature and they choose to stay for up to six months. I’ve been to many artists’ studios and I realise how important the space is. And I feel like I’m providing something that takes them away from their regular studios. Being in nature and seeing the pond is a really good environment. I have lunch, which my chef prepares, with the artists at the cafeteria – though for dinner I usually cook at home myself.

No wonder you want that chef’s kitchen. Are you a cordon bleu cook?

Not really. Just egg fried rice, kimchi, broth and fish barbecue.

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Tag Archives: Visual arts

New Stunningly Elaborate Scenes Created Without Photoshop by Jee Young Lee

Artist Creates Elaborate Non-Photoshopped Scenes in Her Small Studio

Park Seo-bo: ‘Role of Art Is To Make People Worry’

Yang Haegue to represent Korea in Venice

‘The point was to be part of nature’