Exhibition Information

Exhibition view

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Lee Jae-Hyun Alone Again
2023 Oil, Mixed on canvas 147 x 97 cm
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Lee Jae-Hyun When you needed me
2023 Oil, Mixed on canvas 46 x 46 cm
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Lee Jae-Hyun Destiny
2023 Oil, Mixed on canvas 80 x 47 cm
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			Gallery Joeun is pleased to present Lee Jae-Hyun's solo exhibition "Alone Again" from August 17 to September 9. Lee Jae-Hyun, whose life forms the basis for his work, unravels meaningful people and objects that have entered the artist's life, from childhood memories to the present as an adult, in his unique artistic language.

The crooked eyes, the pouty nose, the small mouth - people and objects are humorous but lonely. The artist, who spent his childhood in a small shanty town, experienced a lonely childhood between his father, who was on a business trip, his mother and sister, who were busy earning a living. Dolls and toys satisfied the "emotional hunger" of the young artist, who had to spend much time alone in the house. The objects, personified under the names of "Betty"," "Hannah" and "Thomas", are "friends" that stand by the young artist and "healing" that soothes his mind.

The texture of these colorful, humorous and kitschy characters is rough and coarse. The rough texture, the coarse lines and the free colors in his paintings, created by the impasto technique of thick paint application, are an unconscious expression of the "texture of life" that the artist has layered since childhood. The esthetic consciousness born from the perspective of the artist, a lonely and solitary being, is expressed in all working processes and results. Art critic Hong Kyung-Han commented, "For Lee Jae-Hyun, art is a call to memory and a silent diary of existence."

The artist's three-dimensional matière, which is a flat but relief painting, is completed by mixing architectural materials with oil-free oil. He draws on his experience in architecture and sculpture. After turning to painting, he continued his successful career as an emerging artist, from his solo exhibition in 2022 to his solo exhibition in Paris and the inaugural exhibition of Whitestone Gallery Seoul in 2023.

In this exhibition, a total of 21 recent works are presented, ranging from the landscape of the shantytown "Sanggye-dong" where the artist lived, the series "Obsession" filled with toys as if encountering scarcity, the series "Destiny" about family relationships, and the series "Emergency Kit" offering "compassion" and "healing" to the viewer.

(Source = galleryjoeun)