Skip to main content
Artist Discussions

ACO Artist Discussion with Kyujin Lee

By June 29, 2024July 27th, 2024No Comments

Kyujin Lee at the Art Clinic Online

Kyujin Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1972. She received her MFA from the City College of the City University of New York in 1997, and her MA from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2000. Since Fall 2001, she has been living and working in Washington, DC. She has had seven solo exhibitions in galleries in the DMV area and has participated in numerous group exhibitions across the US.

Following the spirit of Surrealist automatism, Kyujin Lee begins her work by creating spontaneous marks on paper or canvas. She often brushes over, splatters, and spills water-based pigments, allowing these initial accidents to guide her process. She then observes and refines the emerging images, composing visual narratives from these serendipitous beginnings.

The resulting stories are deeply personal yet universally relatable. By revisiting well-known characters from children’s stories, such as Pinocchio and the Little Mermaid, especially those with impossible dreams, her lines dramatize the turbulence and complexities of emotional landscapes—a world of hope and despair.