JIYEON LEE
b. 2000, South KoreaJiyeon Lee graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts, Korea National University of Arts in 2024, and received her MFA in Painting from the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University in 2026. The artist continues to explore ways of drawing out the full range of sensory experiences encountered in specific spaces through her own formal language. Her practice of dividing and reconstructing spaces she once inhabited through color and plane also constitutes an inquiry into the boundaries of the genre of landscape painting. As she retraces memories bound to space through painting, sensation becomes substance, and substance, passing through the new body of the canvas, newly constructs the place within the image.
For Jiyeon Lee, memory is like a slide in the midst of a process in which new layers are ceaselessly overlaid upon an original that has not disappeared. The repeated act of painting the same room is at once a way of confronting the substitutes that have accumulated layer upon layer over the original, and of remaining in that place while embracing the traces of the original, which continue to operate beneath the surface in an inaccessible state. In this process, the canvas becomes a site where replacement without disappearance leaves its traces; within it, all memories coexist with equal weight through flat brushstrokes, without any temporal hierarchy of before and after.
Courtesy Gallery Chosun
Explore and Follow Artists Shaping Contemporary Art
A respected voice in contemporary art discourse.
Focusing on ambitious storytelling and insightful art-world commentary. Ocula Magazine publishes in-depth interviews, critical essays and timely analysis on the artists, exhibitions and ideas driving the global art world.
Learn more about Ocula Magazine
Showcasing the best of the art world.
Ocula partners with galleries from around the world to highlight their artists, artworks and exhibitions. Gallery membership is by application and invitation, with each member vetted by an independent panel.
Learn more about Ocula Membership
Specialises in the sale of major artworks.
Led by a team with deep ties to the world’s leading auction houses, galleries and collectors. Ocula’s advisory team offers bespoke services to high-net-worth clients from around the world who are looking to acquire the best of contemporary and modern art.
Learn more about our team and services