Gallery 2 is proud to present Sojung Lee’s fifth solo exhibition, a new collection of works by an artist who uses the abstract and organic ink and wash techniques of oriental painting. This exhibition features more than fifteen paintings from the ‘SCION’ series, exploring the theme of ‘cuttage’, a technique used to propagate a new growth by cutting a plant’s stems or leaves and encouraging them to take root in soil.
Oriental painting with new experiments and patterns
Lee’s recent works have developed in the dialectical relationship to her previous work. Stating that her works have, up until now, been part of a narrative sequence, Lee developed her idea from Lips, a work which intentionally gathered together the recurring elements from her previous works. The work is characterized by a pattern that comes through the combination of different forms, and arrow signs that allude to parts of the body such as the extended genitalia, eyeballs and splashing mucus, forms that were commonly seen in her previous works.
Combination of images derived from ‘(pregnant) mother’
The paintings that feature in this upcoming exhibition came about through a process that involved taking images from a ‘mother’ work by recombining them, or deconstructing it. For this reason, Lee’s work may be compared to the act of ‘cuttage’. Several different forms are created by the arrangements and overlapping that occurs between the four sections made by cutting a square in the shape of a cross, or from the two sections made by dividing along the length and width.
Vibrant composition with autonomous rhythm
The work that was featured in Lee’s previous solo exhibition had similar ways of working, also utilizing partial images cut from a ‘mother’ painting. For those works, Lee gave herself strict rules, and adapted diagrams from a Bosch drill manual as the basic elements of these principles. The signs indicating the steps for the assembly and breaking apart of items were quite effective helping to create connections between different images as patterns on the canvas. However, in seeking to combine these images for her current works there has been a desire to free herself from these rules. As a result, Lee’s work presents rhythmic compositions that have the energy of vitality. Each image seems to come to life, perhaps because of the greater diversity of the compositions made on canvas, and the daring exposure of planes cut by these straight lines. Lee has endeavored to control the irresistible and uncontrollable effects of spreading ink in Oriental painting, and embrace ideas that surface ‘autonomously’ within the unconsciousness, whilst also visualizing them in an objective way. Drawing upon her well-developed process of experimentation, Lee has reached a point where she is able to manipulate the whole image as well as individual elements. This exhibition will act as a space in which the viewer can see the works that have resulted from this new phase.
