Haeyoung Lee “Instinct Curiosity”

Elga Wimmer PCC

[Image: Haeyoung Lee "Remember....me" (2017) oil on canvas, 94 x 59 in.]

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curcioprojects present Seoul-based artist Haeyoung Lee’s first solo New York City exhibition Instinct Curiosity. The exhibit features 21 paintings that Haeyoung Lee created over the past four years whose main characters are animals frequently placed in absurd circumstances. The animals abound with an Asian pop sensibility of cute natural inquisitiveness, but also many are at odds with each other.

In Jonathan Goodman’s essay “Haeyoung Lee: Whimsical Creatures Abandoning Hope,” he observes that “We know innocence is never absolute, even in nature. It could be that Lee is introducing emotions of disharmony in paintings that look truly blameless. Sometimes being charming can switch quickly into an aggressive attitude.”

The diptych Remember … me, 2017, Lee depicts two predators, an eagle and a rattlesnake, poised at either side of a tree that has morphed into a chair. In Lee’s surreal narrative, the tree was a place where the eagle and rattlesnake were friends, now that the tree is a chair, the chair wonders if they remember their friend the tree. They reply “Of course we remember you! We never forgot about you!”

Happy sentiment, however, the implied antagonism – rattlesnake with fangs bared and eagle looking straight at the viewer - gives all of Lee’s paintings an undeniable miss-direction with a slightly menacing sense that catches the viewer questioning their initial understanding. Lee’s compositional strategies of juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images further undermines this understanding. In addition, omitting any surrounding detail and placing the main imagery all on one plane, Lee creates a profound sense of spatial dislocation for the viewer.

Haeyoung Lee has had two solo exhibitions: Jean Gallery, Seoul; Muse of the Wind, 2016 and Gana Art Gallery, Seoul; The Present Given by the Times of Hurts and Pain, 2015. Lee participated in Art Busan and LA Art Show both this year and was included in the group exhibition A Sustaining Life at Waterfall Mansion & Gallery and Bergdorf Goodman, both in NYC, this past winter. In addition to being an artist, Lee is an accomplished actress, singer, designer, writer and socialite.