 |
| ▲ Forme d'esprit (J301), Acrylic on panel, 182.9x152.4x4cm, 2015 ⓒ Sang Nam Lee, Perrotin Seoul |
Korean leading artist Sang Nam Lee (이상남) will hold his solo exhibition, 'Forme d'esprit' at Perrotin Seoul.
Lee is a contemporary artist centered in New York, USA, and through this exhibition, 13 works covering his painting world from the 1990s to the present will be exhibited at the same time.
He is well-known for his geometric abstract paintings using symbols, and he actively participated in major exhibitions at home and abroad, including the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival in the 1970s, the Tokyo Central Art Museum, and the Sao Paulo Biennale, before moving to New York in 1981.
 |
| ▲ Forme d'esprit (J267), Acrylic on panel, 162x130cm, 2014 ⓒ Sang Nam Lee, Perrotin Seoul |
He intentionally rejected the readability and votes of images by appearing various images and symbols in his work. It avoids the representation of a specific object and represents a way of thinking that denies existing perceptions and stereotypes.
His work is formally related to geometric abstraction, but in his work, the form and content of the image constantly deny the fixed relationship, causing tension and wit in the cracks created. This means that his paintings do not reproduce distinct forms.
In the early days of painting, the artist manually created a prototype and moved it to a plane, but in modern times, it goes through a kind of algorithm process that extracts more images by performing this process using computers.
 |
| ▲ Forme d'esprit (J264), Acrylic on panel, 162x130cm, 2014 ⓒ Sang Nam Lee, Perrotin Seoul |
He completes the painting through many processes, including applying acrylic paint, and lacquer, rubbing it with sandpaper, and coloring on the background of the work, and the reason he removes traces of manual work is to create artificial smooth materials.
Lee's work is evaluated as breaking away from the modernist perspective that separated the world of painting and the world outside the frame. For him, painting is a worldview in which the space of our lives, architectural space, and social issues intersect and relate to each other.
Through his works, the artist makes philosophical thinking about the various ways in which we live in our daily lives, the entanglement, and the existence itself.
 |
| ▲ The installation view ⓒ Perrotin Seoul |
The artist talked about his view of art, "I touch the line between modernism and postmodernism, rationality and irrationality, analog and digital, painting and architecture, art and design. I live in between. Painting makes everything possible. It can hold everything".
Through the exhibition, visitors will be able to look at the artist's unique geometric abstract language in his 40-year art career accumulated by Lee.
The exhibition will be held at Perrotin Seoul, located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, from the 25th to March 16th.
 |
| ▲ The making of artwork ⓒ Sang Nam Lee, Perrotin Seoul |
Sayart / Nao Yim, yimnao@naver.com
