[ S T A T E M E N T ]

My work is gestural abstraction, a calligraphic narrative in which I seek to present opposite forces — “East and West,” “determination and spontaneity,” “perfection and immaturity,” “emptiness and fullness,” and “completion and processing.” Employing these contrasting elements through form, color, marking, and layering is an important way I explore not only “self” and gain understanding about real life, but also a way of introducing energy and vitality into my recent work. My art contains bold shapes that merge meditation and gesture. Objectivity, intentness on objects, is also very important; it relates to the elements of space and time

Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism from my native Korean culture, a concept of meditation that results in a Zen-like form of enlightenment and connectedness that ties directly to my work process, and Western philosophical and psychological ideas about seeking harmony between the conscious and unconscious mind greatly influence my approach to life and my work as an artist. Through the power of these stimuli I strive to make “formless space” where I find my creative mind—in the immediacy of gesture, especially the moment when gesture finds its power.

I have always been more interested in the process and substance of the brushstroke than in whatever symbolism it may possess, an inclination which gives even more strength to my recent paintings and works on paper. I apply principles of natural energy as directly as possible through spontaneous gestures. It is this lively, extemporaneous movement that gives my paintings their shapes, colors, lines, and layers as well as the way these elements are shared and relate to one another. The viewer, then, has an emotional, rather than a conceptual, response to my work. Hyunmee Lee: Biography

In 1985, Lee graduated Hongik University having majored in painting. At the end of that year, she moved to Australia where she would remain for six years and achieve two post-graduate degrees. She exhibited in her first commercial gallery in Sydney in 1989, when her work also was published in “Art Four,” a contemporary art book.

After earning a master’s and MFA at the Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney, she returned to Korea where she lived for the next seven years. There she taught at Hongik University as a lecturer and exhibited in solo shows in major art galleries and museums.

In 1997, Lee came to America and settled in Utah. In 2001 she joined the faculty of Utah Valley University. She had her first solo show in America, called “Mountain Armatures,” at Orem’s Woodbury Art Museum in 2002. “When Gesture Finds Its Power,” her solo exhibition at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum in Logan was held in 2005. She showed her large-scale work at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in 2006 in an exhibition titled “Intimacy without Restraint.”

After receiving tenure at Utah Valley University, Lee retired from teaching in 2009 and concentrated more fully on her art. She is currently working with established galleries in the United States. She has an annual solo show and recently changed her style following lengthy trips to Asia and Korea. She has added color to her well-known monochromatic works; her gestures are alive with her signature calligraphical mark-making.