ARTIST BIO(b. 1967, KOREA)
Lee Hi Yong’s artworks depict a series of fine traditional potteries that portrays the passage of time with black and white colours in the background. They are titled as ‘Jeongmul’ (still-life) series, creates a tranquil and mysterious atmosphere through his sophisticated drawing skills and minimal colours. Lee’s work reminds the artworks of Willem Kalf, a Dutch Painter from the 17th century, who is recognised as a still-life painter. The artwork raises intellectual curiosity on conjecturing the hidden meanings contained in the subject matter, by the national treasure class pottery the middle of the canvas that portrayed in a dramatic way by darkening the background. Lee Hi Yong is a pencil drawing artist who lives and works in Chun Cheon, Gangwon Province in South Korea. Lee deeply analyses and expresses the subject matter which is a white porcelain through his realistic still life drawing with only papers, pencils and erasers. Lee’s simple but heavy drawings reflect his personality and lifestyle. Lee is widely recognised as an artist who draws still life of fine porcelains that is very exquisite and novel. At first glance, people will recognise his sophisticated skills which makes them confused as if the drawing is a photography, which is a very classic reaction towards his artworks. Although the work looks heavy and dense, he only uses three main media which are pencil, paper and eraser. Lee has settled down in Chun Cheon area where he was born and educated, and now he lives and works in that area. He moved to a more suburb area of Chun Cheon recently, because the previous village was reconstructed by industrial infrastructures like factories. The reason why he started his artistic career is a bit blurry to him but he has been creating his artworks since his university until now, so it has been more than 20 years. However, his artistic perception and style have been changed a lot since he started to paint and it has been only 10 years since he depicted a white porcelain in his drawing. Lee’s maiden works are completely different in style compared to the white porcelain still life series. His previous paintings are very vigorous, rhythmical and raw but his recent paintings are charming, sophisticated and calm. He said, the reason why his artistic style changed so much is because his personality was changed a lot compared to his youth days. Lee does not have any clear reason or motive of drawing, but he prefers to naturally layer all the processes of creating his artworks. One day, he decided to draw fine white porcelains all of a sudden but as he starts to draw, it did not turn out as he wanted to be. Then, he tried and repeated it over and over again and this is how he had been working on the same artistic matter, a white porcelain for around 10 years, since 2010 until now The artist was suffering from the hardships of life so he started to use pencils to create artworks rather than to use oil paints and canvases. According to the artist, he felt that the medium like oil paints and canvases were very expensive and burden to him. However, he did not want to stop his artistic activities because of the economic crisis so, he decided to use pencil for a while as an alternative way of continuing the work and he still uses pencils until now. Although the ‘Still-life’ series were created with pencils, the ambiance that the work creates are heavy and deep as much as the oil paintings do. Lee paints national treasure class potteries such as celadon, white porcelain and living china, which bear traces of countless years through simple materials such as pencils and erasers on paper. The artworks look like a black-and-white photograph, but the viewers are able to feel the resonance and mystery of the time traced with glowing white porcelain in the middle of very black graphite background. Lee’s action of filling the background with complete black graphite is a process of repeating filling the space with pencils, rub the surface of the paper, moisten the paper and wait for graphite to layered up to create a complete black background which is a very meditative action itself. This is why it takes a long time and a long time of waiting to build that pitch black background. It does not matter regarding the size of the work, but it takes at least 10 days to make that black background with pencils and it may take up to a month to create the drawing, depending on the size of the main object. Through this repetitive process of creation, the artist metaphorically expresses ‘layered time’ in his work. The fact that he was not very sure about why he started to paint and the motivation of his artistic career was one of his challenging point in his artistic career. There is no particular focus on his artistic process but he said, he only focuses on the point of inaccuracies occurred when he creates the artworks. Seeing can be very inaccurate at some point but on the other way, he only has his eyes to rely on while he creates the fine porcelains on papers. The artist repeats all the processes and reviews the works until he can decide to stop and finalise the work then he put on varnish on top of the work. However, this process also takes up to few days to completely finish the work as his decision. Lee is not tiring of these repetitive processes and always prefers the same things and does not like changes The main subject matter of his ‘Still-life’ series is simple in appearance, resembling a pencil and an eraser, but the graphite expresses the heaviness and deepness of time that carefully layered through a white porcelain. in the environment that he is facing in his life. He said his personality is very bland, calm and subtle so, that is why he prefers these kind of processes. The recent series of work reflects the artist’s lifestyle and personality better than his first work. He told that he used to live his life in a vibrant and a fun way in the past but his life changed in a calm and quiet as time goes by. Surprisingly, he pointed his first works and said ‘This is also a part of me’. busy life. There was an offer from Simyeo Gallery that they wish to represent him as one of their artists. However, he is still agonising over his lack of confidence in living such a hectic and busy life. |
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EDUCATIONBA Art Education, Gangwon University MA Education, Gangwon University EXHIBITIONSSELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION 2018 Dalashim Gallery, Chun Cheon, South Korea 2017 Gallery Jang, Seoul, South Korea 2013 Creative Space Arsoop, Chun Cheon, South Korea 2012 Hwa Bong Gallery, Seoul, South Korea 1996 Chun Cheon Arts Centre, Chun Cheon, South Korea Do-ol Art Town, Seoul, South Korea
GROUP EXHIBITION
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