“Lee’s canvas is filled with anonymous figures. In his earlier works, the artist focused on capturing the instant moment of the figure’s movement or certain emotion, intentionally excluding the story behind. Thereafter, he has gradually brought context to his works over the past three to four years, and his recent works primarily focus on contextualizing his subjects. Most of his works have faceless figures floating in the imagined space. These figures - though existing together within the same space - ironically conjure the feeling of solitude. At times, even the works without the figures give the peculiar feeling as if someone has just left the space. This surreal combination of existence and absence is unique to Lee’s paintings, and it arouses special emotions. An interesting point of viewing ‘Mike Lee: Homecoming’ would be to relate this paradoxical duality to the artist’s own narrative.”
- Wonseok Koh, Former senior curator at Seoul Museum of Art -
