So Lee

B. South Korea Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

So Lee creates an immersive, experiential environment by presenting her life-size figurative paintings unstretched and suspended from the ceiling. This unconventional approach heightens the sensory impact of her works, as they are experienced collectively. Immersion is typically associated with installations and electronic media art, not necessarily with painting. Lee’s genre-bending style elevates her work into a conceptual realm.

Lee’s free approach is further evidenced in her varied handling of paint, which at times recalls the washes of Color Field painting, with thinly applied swaths of peach, green, and fuchsia, combined with precise and detailed figuration.

Thematically, Lee’s paintings focus on the visual and psychological exploration of childhood and domestic environments. While childhood is traditionally presented as a safe, carefree, and happy time, it is often one of the most treacherous and difficult periods of life. Lee offers a non-saccharine approach to childhood representation. Heightened vulnerability, unprotected exposure to the complex world of adults, and the often-cruel peer-to-peer dynamics create psychological and physical tensions that are reflected in her work.

Sometimes covered or disguised, children with mute faces stand or sit in front of the viewer like frozen frames. Often coated with bright layers of paint and realized on a large scale, her works exude theatrical enigma and produce a cinematic effect.

So Lee holds a degree in molecular biology and has worked in basic scientific research, both in academia and the biomedical industry, as well as in business consulting. She received an MFA in studio art from the City College of New York (CUNY) in 2022. Her work has been included in a group exhibition and in a solo thesis show at CUNY in 2022, as well as in a group show at Chashama in 2022. A Korean-born artist, So Lee currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, with her two children.