I pay attention to overlooked details that capture socio-economic features of the city. I am interested in the forces that divide, structure, and rearrange the space of the town and the city. A weathered and abandoned brick building full of marks on its surface reveals human actions on it and transformation over time. Piles of dirt and waste from demolished buildings become a new form of "nature" for urban dwellers and travelers. Uprooted street signs, rusty grates and pipes from below ground are the hallmarks of our age: a constant and unconscious archeological excavation. I document specific sites in the cities and use their images as a model to suggest a larger and more condensed picture of the city. In my recent body of work the photographic and painterly representations suffuse to convey a more complex image. Fragments of photographs from different sites are collaged into my painting and then integrated by layered brushworks to create landscapes hovering between the real and the fictitious.
The city is often described as an organism. As the bio-geographer Ian G. Simmons put it, "the city transforms matter to sustain its expansion, extracting from its surroundings sand, gravel, and stone to convert them into buildings. It thrives, feeds its occupants, circulates the energies, exhausts resources of the earth, and passes out endless products and waste."However, in rapid march of modern conditions, the life span of the city's growth, obsolescence, and demolition are constantly shortening. As the architectural historian Daniel Abramson argues, "buildings become pure income-producing commodities, to be erected, destroyed, and replaced in tempo with capitalism's chaotic Creative Destruction." The city becomes disposable and manufacturable as well behind the shorter architectural and urban lives of this era. My paintings portraying the city in the stage of decomposition based through my observation, I focus on what remains behind in the march towards urban progress, bringing forward the debris necessarily resulting from developments that justify ruthless destruction for the good of more profit, convenience, efficiency and new aesthetics.
나의 회화는 재개발지역이나 버려진 공간 등, 도시건설 과정이 이면에 남긴
도시의 잔해를 포착한다. 급격한 변화 속에서 붕괴된 풍경을 통해 그 뒤에 내재된
권력과 사회, 경제적 힘의 당위성을 묻는다. 작업은 특정 도시, 특정 장소의 경험적
기록으로부터 시작되지만, 화면 위로 옮겨지면서 이곳 저곳의 장면 또는 과거와
현재의 시간이 뒤섞여 익명의 풍경이 구축된다. 연작으로 연결되며 파노라마를
구성하는 이들 풍경화는 도시 개발과 도시 해체가 결국 동전의 양면과 같은 현상임을
보여준다.
Education
2003 MFA in Painting, Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA)
1999 MFA in Painting, Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea)
1995 BFA in Painting, Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea)
Solo Exhibitions
2010 Refugee, Hyundai Window Gallery (Seoul) Refugee, Nanji Gallery (Seoul)
2009 Cruise, Gallery Royal (Seoul)
2008 Palast der Republik & O2 World, Gaain Gallery (Seoul) Shadows of Reality, MK Galerie
(Rotterdam) Urban Detritus, Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin)
2006 Redevelopment Area 2, National Changdong Art Studio Gallery (Seoul)
2005 Redevelopment Area, Alternative Space Pool (Seoul) Debris of Landscape, Kumho Museum
(Seoul)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012 Korean Contemporary figurative Painting, Kwanhoon Gallery (Seoul)
2011 No.45 Kumho Young Artist, Kumho Museum of Art (Seoul) No Object Is an Island, Cranbrook Art
Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
2011 Young Artists Project: Future Lab, Daegu Exco (Daegu)
Yangpeoyong Eco Art Festival 2011, Yangpeoyong Art Museum (Yangpeoyong)
Korean Contemporary figurative Painting, Kwanhoon Gallery (Seoul)
Do Art, Hyundai Gallery (Seoul)
Closer to Contemporoary Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (Ansan)
2010 Residency Parade, Incheon Art Platform (Inceon)
First Decade, Seoul Museum of Art Gyeonghuigung (Seoul)
2009 Slum Megapolis, Alternative Space Bandee (Busan)
Bad Boys Here & Now, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (Ansan)
Souvenir, Kunstraum Kreuzberg (Berlin)
2008 Rambling around B (two-person-show), IAC Galerie (Berlin)
Review of a Position, MK Galerie (Berlin)
2007 Discovering Seoul, Gaain Gallery (Seoul)
2006 KHAOS: Contemporary Art from Korea and France, Gana Art Center (Seoul)
Open Studios: Document Changdong, National Changdong Art Studio (Seoul)
Environmental Attack and Junk House, Gail Museum of Art (Kyoungki, Korea)
Scenes: Urban Landscape Painting, Kepco Gallery (Seoul)
2004 Inhale Exhale, Dukwon Gallery (Seoul)
Conversions: Licorice, Bronx Council on the Arts (Bronx, NY)
6595 Miles, Network Gallery, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
100 Treasures of Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Young Painters 2004, Miami University Hiestand Galleries (Oxford, OH)
2003 Cranbrook Collection, Daimler Chrysler Services North America LLC (Farmington Hills, MI)
Graduate Summer Exhibition, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
MFA Degree Show, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
17 Acts of Genius, Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Residencies
2012 Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (Schöppingen)
2009 Studio Residency, Nanji Art Studio (Seoul)
2008 Studio Residency, GlogauAIR (Berlin)
2007 Studio Residency, Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin)
2006 Studio Residency, Changdong Artist Studio (Seoul)
2004 Studio Residency, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Nebraska)
Collections
Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA)
Daimler Chrysler (Troy, Michigan, USA)
Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea)
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (Ansan, South Korea)
나이: 40 / 출생지: 서울 / 활동지: 서울
학력
2003 Cranbrook Academy of Art 회화전공 졸업, 미국 미시간
2001 Tufts University Graduate School of Art and Sciences 1년 수학, 미국 매사추세츠
1999 서울대학교 미술대학원 서양화 전공 졸업
1995 서울대학교 미술대학 서양화과 졸업
개인전
2010 Refugee, 현대윈도우갤러리, 서울
Refugee, 난지갤러리, 서울
2009 크루즈, 갤러리로얄, 서울
2008 Palast der Republik & O2 World, 가인갤러리, 서울
Shadows of Reality, MK갤러리, 로테르담
Urban Detritus, 쿤스틀러하우스 베타니엔, 베를린
2006 재개발지역 2, 국립창동미술창작스튜디오, 서울
2005 풍경의 찌꺼기, 금호미술관, 서울
재개발지역 1, 대안공간풀, 서울
단체전
2012 한국현대형상회화, 관훈갤러리, 서울
2011 금호영아티스트, 금호미술관, 서울
No Object is an Island, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
영아티스트 프로젝트 2011: Future Lab, 대구 Exco, 대구
양평환경미술제, 양평미술관, 양평
한국현대형상회화, 관훈갤러리, 서울
Do Art, 갤러리 현대, 서울
2010 20세기의 첫 십년, 서울시립미술관 경희궁분관, 서울
레지던스 퍼레이드, 인천아트플랫폼, 인천
2009 악동들 지금 / 여기: 1990년대 이후의 새로운 정치미술, 경기도 미술관, 안산
슬럼 메가폴리스, 대안공간 반디, 부산
광주 & 서울시립미술관 창작스튜디오 교류전: No, 광주시립미술관, 광주
GlogauAIR-Souvenir, 쿤스트라움 크로이츠베르크, 베를린
2008 Rambling around B 2인전, IAC갤러리, 베를린
Review of a Position, MK갤러리, 베를린
2007 Discovering Seoul, 가인갤러리, 서울
도시회화의 행방, 신한갤러리, 서울
2006 카오스: 한불수교 120주년 기념전, 가나아트센터, 서울
환경의 역습과 정크하우스, 가일미술관, 경기도
오픈스튜디오: 도큐멘트 창동, 국립창동미술창작스튜디오, 서울
장면들: 도시회화전, 한전플라자갤러리, 서울
2004 들숨날숨, 덕원갤러리, 서울
6595마일, 크랜브룩미술관 네트워크갤러리 블룸필드힐스, 미시간
2003 100 소장품 특별전, 크랜브룩미술관 블룸필드힐스, 미시간
17 Acts of Genius, 크랜브룩미술관 포룸갤러리 블룸필드힐스, 미시간
MFA Degree Show, 크랜브룩미술관 블룸필드힐스, 미시간
Young Painters 2004, 마이애미대학 히드탠드갤러리 옥스포드, 오하이오
Lee Leenam 