Self-portrai, 2008,
Sumi ink & gouache on paper, 26 x 20 inches


sooim lee (b. Seoul, Korea) moved to New York in 1981 and continues to live and work in New York. She received a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Painting from Hong-Ik University in Seoul (1976 and 1978, respectively) and a M.A. in Printmaking from New York University (1984). Recent performance: Calling Back, Calling Forward, From This Blanket, Print Center New York, NY (2024); Recent solo exhibition: SOO IM LEE: across time and place, Art Projects International, New York (2017); Recent group exhibitions include 30 years: Art Projects International, NY (2023); Color as Space, Art projects International, NY (2022); Paper and process 3, Art projects International, NY (2021); New works, Art projects International, NY (2019); Summer selections, Art projects International, NY (2018); Marking 2, Art Projects International, NY (2016); Summer Selections, Art Projects International, NY (2014); Curate NYC, Rush Arts Gallery, NY (2013); Intersecting Lines, Art Projects International, NY (2012); 911 Arts: A Decade Later, Commons Gallery, New York University (2011), Absence, Queens Museum of Art: Partnership Gallery, NY (2010); and Irrelevant, Arario Gallery, NY (2010).

lee creates bold, multilayered, intuitively derived paintings with imagery and detail that bring to mind complex three-dimensional spatial structures, intricately woven mesh, and lush forests of lines. These paintings in varying sizes and executed in oil on canvas, employ a variety of brushstroke-like forms in an array of vibrant colors. Through repetitive gestures and markings, lee builds a web of accumulated lines and overlays that activates the surface. lee's works on paper are rendered in delicate yet bold layers of red, blue and green. The movement of her brush strokes compliment the tonal shifts in color, creating a lively interplay of superimposed layers.

Contact: SooLee213 (at) gmail (dot) com
Instagram: @soolee213