이상원

​Education

2014     Ph.D. Hongik University

2004     B.F.A. Sookmyung Women's University

2002     M.F.A. Sookmyung Women's University

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023     POPPING UP, Galerie Graff, Seoul
2023     Cheeky Cheek, L Gallery, Seoul
2022     Get Lucky! in wonderland, Wakerhill Hotel, Seoul
              Colorful Queendom, Trinity Gallery, Seoul
2021     Dreams come true, Nohwa Gallery, Seoul
2020     Wonderland, Gallery Daon, Seoul
2019     Colorpool, Insa Art Center, Seoul
2018     Wonderland, Gallery supporment, Seoul
2017    Good Luck To You, Art space H, Seoul
2012    Dream, Gana Art Space, Seoul
2010    Love, Hyunju Kim Gallery, Seoul
2007    Dream, Gallery H, Seoul
2003    Dream, Gallery Seoho, Seoul

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020     Seoul National University Hospital, Space, Bundang, Bundang
              Gana Atelier Open Studio, Gana Atelier, Seoul
              Leesara, Sungho Kim 2 person exhibition, Choice Art Company, Seoul
              Kookmin Bank PV Center, Jamsil, Olympic Park, Ilsan, Seoul
              Print!Printed, Print Bakery Samcheong Branch
              Happy Virus, Choice Art Company, Seoul
2019     Wonderland, Silver shell Gallery, Japan
             With Friends, 63 Art Museum, Seoul
             Portrait of Still Life, Oh Seungwoo Museum of Art, Muan
             Hope gallery, Ara Art Center, Seoul

Awards

2020     Best Insadong Character Contest Grand Prize, Insadong Preservation Committee
2006     Best New Artist Award, Arts Center of Korea
2005     New Frontier Award, Danwon Museum of Art
2004     Dong-A Art Prize, Arts Center of Korea
2003     Christian Art Exhibition Special Prize, Chosun Ilbo Museum of Art
2002    Nahae Suk Art Exhibition, Suwon Museum of Art

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Critique

  Sara Lee has always painted girl dolls with expressionless or ambiguous faces. Her classically composed doll paintings with highly realistic expressions have made her name known in the art world, and she has been actively engaged in various gallery exhibitions and corporate art collaborations. Stylistically, the artist's work shows paintings influenced by Pop Art and Hyperrealism, with the idea of combining painting with psychohistory or cultural history. Specifically, while her previous works were emotionally charged with a clear contrast of neutral colors and shades, creating an atmosphere as if a single object was performing a theatrical monologue, the screens in this exhibition are filled and composed of multiple objects, expressing a more colorful and optimistic world. Most importantly, the images are flat, as never before.

While the artist's methodology remains the same - highly sophisticated coloring and drawing - the geometry is more reminiscent of festivals and carnivals, with a mix of natural and mythological figures. The screen is filled with geometric patterns, with the faces of dragons and dinosaurs, and an unidentifiable figure - human, animal, or imaginary - looking straight ahead at the viewer in a jungle of sharp leaves. The artist combines these figures with lines and images of repeated scratches into highly colorful and complex forms. The artist creates the desired image and texture by scratching thin lines with a sharp needle on a completely dry surface after painting. The process of scratching is more than technique and labor, it's a balance of mind and body. The process of scratching lines to create shapes and patterns seems to be like embroidering with a needle and thread.

 

Excerpt from Carnival of Life; Dreams and Jungles or Infinity by Noam Kim