Lee Seahyun’s works may seem like utopia, but it actually capture dystopia created by humans. When looked from afar, it looks like a landscape painting, but looked closely, there are images of ruins of buildings and traces of cannonballs; his works frankly speak of Korea’s painful history. Traces of pain and reality of today’s society are portrayed along with the artist’s intimate places and people on the canvas.
Read MoreWhen studying abroad in London, he personally experienced culture differences between two countries, and during this process, Lee accepted the difference and contemplated upon Korea’s environment and started to depict it as red landscape. His work is composed of two most memorable factors: memories of nature environment he grew up with at Geoje Island are the foundation, and along with it, he struggles to hold onto disappearing landscapes of Korea and adds on artist’s own imagination. By doing so, he stimulates audiences’ sensibilities and nostalgia for the lost past. His series is inspired from landscapes he saw through night vision goggles during his time in the army at the DMZ and started to use red color. He depicts warships, cannonballs, ruins of buildings, and by doing so, he frankly reveals political, social environments created by reality of division between two Koreas putting bits of painful history and present days.
Lee Seahyun was in 1967 in Geoje Island, and graduated from Hongik University Graduate School, earning his BFA and MFA in Department of Painting. Then he studied abroad at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London and started his series from there. His works are part of Microsoft Art Collection, Bank of America, and many other art collections throughout Europe and United States. He also carried on a print project with New York Pace Prints, actively working in the field.
Text courtesy Hakgojae Gallery.
