Mizuma & Kips
Current Art Gallery Exhibition
Choun Hwan Lee
“Meeting Sounds from the Inner Side”
Apr. 7 – Apr. 19, 2021
Born in 1956, Choun Hwan Lee is an artist who operates outside of reality when creating his works. Lee was born on the island of Wando, an island set just off from the Korean coastline, it is known for its stunning natural scenery. His works clearly differ from artists raised in an urban setting, sticking to a set of ideals that embraces nature, bursting with creativity drawn from subtle nods to Asian philosophy.
Lee associates his home island as a vision of paradise set within an earthly environment. He creates his own paradisiac worlds within his artworks, constructing a universe of constant motion, similar to the natural environments around him. Lee refers to semi-figurative art in Korea as being “a condensed trace of continuity – feeling the mind after the time of endurance.” He furthers this notion with his style of painting, repeatedly working over residual layers of paint in order to create unique colors and textures on the surface.
In addition, Lee developed a technique he calls “back painting” in which he paints lines to “erase” color, giving the colors that remain a unique texture with minimal presence, a reference to sound the artist refers to as “meeting sounds from the inner side.” This is possibly a reference to the sounds of the waves against the shoreline on his home island.
