Christophe Guye Galerie is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition by Korean artist Jung Lee (*1972, Seoul). This online exhibition in our virtual gallery features a selection of works, some of which have never been exhibited in Europe before.
'Jung Lee, who explores the relationship between images and text, presents the medium of photography in a more painterly way. Her early work includes the foreigners' perspective and agonies, such as the sense of identity and cultural hierarchy she experienced while studying in the U.K., and language has since been positioned as a major element of her work that simultaneously reveals intimacy and limitedness.
Her pictures display modern people's sensibilities through daily life's common expressions and literary language. Meanwhile, the opposing composition of natural scenery and artificial light appears to metaphorically refer to emotional irony. It is because her photographs evoke expressions such as "a silent outcry," "lonely and enchanted meditation," or "a spring of glorious sadness." Lee appropriates text from various sources including Shakespeare's sonnets, Queen's songs, and modern Korean poetry, and she continues to work in earnest when artistic imagination and sensibilities meet and harmonize here. Significant time and effort is required for a photograph to finally emerge from a site with consideration for the overall environment, including the location, season, weather, and air. Installed in nondescript, desolate landscapes, her neon language reveals the human being's kaleidoscopic thoughts and emotions, which can switch from great intensity to calm, just like nature.' – Text by Jungmin Lee
