On a grey hill

Lee Jaehyun SOLO EXHIBITION

2023.04.05-15

8 Rue Chapon, 75003 Paris








Artist Lee Jaehyun

Lee Jaehyun (b.1979) is a trained architect who practiced sculpture in his 20s and 30s. In 2018—only a year away from his 40s—he shifted his focus to painting, quickly catching the attention of collectors as a contemporary Korean artist. Lee’s painted works are still evolving forward through his iterative experiments with diverse materials and media.

The subjects of Lee’s paintings are largely traced back to his childhood. The oft expressionless characters in his paintings are significant figures in his life. Those childhood recollections hearken back to the Korean capital’s Sanggye-dong neighborhood. Located on the outskirts of the northeastern quarter of Seoul’s urban sprawl, the neighborhood was founded in the 1960s by squatters and demolished not long after redevelopment plans were declared in 1985.

The artist’s earliest memories were of being alone at home after both his parents headed out to work. A timid child, he would tremble alone in the evening darkness of the shanty town, terrified even by small sounds. Now in his mid 40s, Lee recalls those lonesome years with forlorn reflection; a heavy greyness that sits inside and on canvas.

Plush dolls appear regularly in his works—named Betty, Hannah, Chopchop, and Thomas. The offset eyes gaze askant, the differently shaped noses and small mouths altogether curious. They were the artist’s childhood friends, refuge and comfort in the raw reality of those years. The pink porcine brief-bag is an homage to the one is father carried, an element of the artist’s past.

Lee’s works are markedly layered and textured in his matière and technique, the colors and contours thick with distress and confusion of childhood, upon which he has decided to cast light and move onward.






Jae hyun LEE, artiste contemporain coréen né en 1979 à Gapyung (Corée du Sud), vit et travaille à Chuncheon (Corée du Sud).

Architecte de formation, Jae Hyun LEE se passionne pour la sculpture. Depuis 2018, il travaille la peinture et rencontre un premier succès auprès de collectionneurs grâce à l’originalité de son travail.

Les souvenirs de son enfance constituent l’univers où Jae Hyun LEE puise son inspiration, et la particularité des visages qu’il peint, exprimant un rapport au monde proche d’une certaine crispation.

Le peintre coréen a grandi dans un quartier pauvre de Séoul, celui de « Sang-gye ». Véritables ressorts de sa pratique artistique, les fragments de sa « mémoire grise » enfantine ouvrent ses toiles à l’exploration de ses propres sueurs nocturnes, de sa solitude, et également à la condition de sa famille.

Le burlesque mélancolique s’invite aussi dans ses scènes avec des regards éclatants et des sujets éclatés, notamment avec la représentation des peluches personnelles de l’artiste (nommées Betty, Hannah, Chop Chop et Thomas) mais aussi de la mallette de voyage d’affaires de son père.

L’une des caractéristiques techniques de ses peintures serait leurs empâtements colorés. Pour l’artiste, à travers ces accumulations de couches de couleurs épaisses sur la toile, il y a l’amoncellement du passé qui le fait réfléchir à sa propre destinée.


ART WORKS

Lee Jaehyun
Here I am

Oil on canvas

76 x 30 cm

2023


Lee Jaehyun
My sister

Oil on canvas

105 x 35 cm

2023


Lee Jaehyun
My sister

Oil on canvas

105 x 35 cm

2023

Lee Jaehyun
The grey

Oil on canvas

91 x 61 cm

2023


Lee Jaehyun
The painter's still life

Oil on canvas

120 x 80 cm

2023


Lee Jaehyun
Wind, People, See

Oil on canvas

160 x 120 cm

2023