Contemporary Visual Artist. Meesook Lee / info@meesooklee.com Copyright © Meesook Lee. All Rights reserved
THE REBIRTH 2014
“Finally, after endless wriggling, the time has come to stretch out still-wet wings.”
That was my thought when I was cutting and refining rough panels into a shape of cocoons for my very first solo exhibition in 2004. Looking back, that process itself reflected the cycles of birthing and emptying of myself, which still goes on today.
Ten years later, I realized that I still live in a cocoon and wrap myself with silk threads of inspirations, dreaming and ironing my wings for a journey yet to come.
Home of all creatures, starting from mother’s womb, protects and provides us a safe place for true rest. Over 10 years, the shapes of my artworks of cocoons and mother’s womb have evolved, even closer to the image of nature. I wrapped cocoons with fabric threads to represent preparation of a re-birth of incomplete beings. I also painted the artworks with soil mixed with colors to resemble the texture of the nature. The origin of our beginning as well as the final destination where we dream to fly back is the nature, which is delicately interwoven by the Creator. And yet, there are continuous and repetitive cycles of re-birthing and emptying of oneself in between.
A DREAM PLAY 2006
A very entity of human being begins, even before their longed-for birth into the secular world, at a sanctuary called wombs. By the same token, a creature has innate desire to secure as well as to comfort oneself by means of having its own space.
In light of my experience from toddlerhood, I have expanded the concept of "space." By shedding lights through a small space, I managed to have a colossal room where I could cast metamorphous shadow with my tiny hands. In the expanded space, I could even meet a shadow man who was as tall and as big as I was. At the very moment, the shadow man who coexists in the space starts a performance with me in a mutually shared space.
An audience is not a mere third person. He/she is a proactive subject who appreciates arts, and who enters into the very space of them. Subsequently, the one presents a play at the space, i.e., arts.
It is my hope to unravel the ambiguous boundaries of arts. In so doing, I can transcend the borders between visual, theatrical, and acoustic arts, whereby I can deliver "immediate arts." These arts would individually help curtail multiple steps by means of one's own firsthand experience. We are unwittingly facing a reality. Unlike the world of innocence of child, we are intoxicated by various reasons exuding from the reality. The life is hectic.
I am making efforts to create shelters for the contemporaries. Energy is created. Not by a reality directed towards future but by discovering a truth from an ideal. This energy lays the foundation for one's movement, whether it be mental or physical, for the Individuals including myself.
- SOLO EXHIBITION
2014 THE 6th SOLO EXHIBITION "RE-BIRTH" (WALTER WICKIAER GALLERY - CHELSEA - NY , US)
2012 THE 5th SOLO EXHIBITION "DEEP SILENCE" ( OPEN SPACE - NY , US )
2008 THE 4th SOLO EXHIBITION “WINTER” ( IM ART CENTER - NJ, US )
2006 THE 3rd SOLO EXHIBITION “DREAM PLAY” ( GALLERY HUT - SEOUL, KOREA )
2005 THE 2nd SOLO EXHIBITION ( REPORT ON THE ADHERENCE” - TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2004 THE 1st SOLO EXHIBITION "ELUSIVE SPELL" ( GALLERY ART & I -SEOUL. KOREA )
- GROUP EXHIBITION
2013 7th INVITATIONAL ART EXHIBITION ( JERSEY CITY HALL - NJ , US)
2012 OPENING EXHIBITION ( OPEN SPACE - NY , US )
2011 QUIET PLACES ( BRONX ART SPACE - NY , US )
2011 HOPE ( LINCOLN MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CENTER : ART SPACE - NY , US )
2011 DISASTER RELIFE FOR JAPAN- LISMA FOUNDATION / AMERICA RED CROSS JAPAN DISASTER RELIEF FOUND.( NY , US )
2011 ART FOR JAPAN(HELP EARTHQUAKE&TSUNAMI VICTIMS) - ( ISE CULTURAL FOUNDATION, SOHO- NY , US )
2010 CAMP OF CULTURE ( RCA-MARRIOTT HOTEL ART SPACE - WASHINGTON, DC )
2009 FEATURING 300+Artist WorldWide ( APW GALLERY – NY, US )
2009 REFRESH ( PALISADES PARK MULTII MEDIA CENTER - NJ, US )
2008 ELECTION 2008 FOOT SHOW ( ART GOTHAM – SOHO ,US )
2008 DREAM- GROUP EXHIBITION ( RIVERSIDE GALLERY-NJ, US )
2008 OBAMA’ 08 ( ROGUE SPACE- CHELSEA-NY, US )
2008 HOPES- GROUP ART SHOW ( WOULD CULTURE OPEN CENTER- NY, US )
2008 CERAMICS & PAINTING ( IM ART CENTER- NJ, US )
2008 ILLUSION OF SHADOWS ( WOULD CULTURE OPEN CENTER-NY, US )
2008 THE 4th SOLO EXHIBITION “WINTER” ( IM ART CENTER - NJ,US )
2007 2006 THE 3rd SOLO EXHIBITION “DREAM PLAY” ( GALLERY HUT- SEOUL, KOREA )
2006 STUDIO UNIT THE 5th AUCTION PARTY “MARRY MAD CHRISTMAS”<( GALLERY SAMTER-SEOUL, KOREA )
2006 ART CAMPAIGN_CURTAIN CALL PROJECT ( TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2006 GALLERY HUT -OPENING EXHIBITION ( GALLERY HUT- SEOUL, KOREA )
2006 STUDIO UNIT THE 4th AUCTION PARTY "AWARD" ( GALLERY SUP -SEOUL, KOREA )
2006 A.I SPACE _ART + LIBRARY SPACE - NO.5 ( CHOUNG SIN UNIVERSITY-SEOUL,KOREA )
2005 ALICE IN WONDERLAND ( SORI ARTS CENTER- JEONJUSI(JEONJU CITY), KOREA )
2005 THE 4th ARTIST NETWORK PROGRAM ( TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2005 STUDIO UNIT THE 1ST ART FESTIVAL "LOADED GUN" ( GALLERY THE SPACE - SEOUL, KOREA)
2005 THE 2nd SOLO EXHIBITION “REPORT ON THE ADHERENCE ( TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2005 A PRESCRIPTION ON SYNDROMES EXHIBITION ( TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2004 THE 2nd ARTIST NETWORK PROGRAM ( TEAM_PREVIEW - SEOUL, KOREA )
2004 THE 1st SOLO EXHIBITION "ELUSIVE SPELL" ( GALLERY ART & I - SEOUL, KOREA )
2004 the 5th “OPEN” EXHIBITION ( SEJONG ANNEX GALLERY - SEOUL, KOREA )
2003 THE 9th CONTEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS OF KOREA YOUNG ARTIST ( KWANHOON GALLERY - SEOUL, KOREA )
2002 THE 26TH GRADUATION EXHIBITION ( DUKWON MUSEUM - SEOUL, KOREA )
2000 AWARDS GROUP EXHIBITION ( DONG-A GALLERY - SEOUL, KOREA )
2000 AWARDS GROUP EXHIBITION ( SEOUL ARTS CENTER - SEOUL, KOREA )
1999 GROUP EXHIBITION “THE COLOR” ( GALLERY SANG - SEOUL, KOREA )
1998 AWARDS GROUP EXHIBITION ( NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART KOREA )
- AWARDS
1998 WON SPECIAL PRIZE The 18th GRAND ART EXHIBITION OF KOREA ( NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART KOREA)
2000 WON SILVER PRIZE KOREA PUBLISHING ILLUSTRATION OF CONTACT US ( SEOUL ARTS CENTER - SEOUL, KOREA )
2000 WON SPECIAL PRIZE NEW ART EXHIBITION OF KOREA ( DONG-A GALLERY - SEOUL, KOREA )
- EDUCATION
ILLUSTRATION DEPT, HANYANG WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY, SEOUL, KOREA
BFA FINE ART , CHUGYE UNIVERSITY FOR THE ART, SEOUL, KOREA