Seung Oh Lee

Looking from afar, it pulls you in like a strong magnet. The look of the work is familiar but somewhat different. It surprises again upon closer look, as it reveals more of itself. Texture is like a rough wood or layers of earthen stratum. What fills this beautiful rhythmical display is none else but regular paper.

Waste books are Seung Ho Lee’s main medium for his creation, blowing new life into these otherwise discarded paper. These papers are then again used to recreate and instill newness into classic artwork, for examples those by Van Gogh or Marcel Duchamp. Lee has created an entirely new technique of stacking colored paper and wetting the stacks so that they will be stuck together when they dry, then cutting the stacks into strips, and then assembling 'painting-like' compositions that use the edge of the stacks of paper, creating exciting works of great textural density. It is a 3D-like space within a 2D plane, layers and layers of papers put together in beautiful color combination, creating what feels like an illusionary spectrum.

Lee's work is in the permanent collection of many major museums, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and he has an excellent auction record, with not a single work going unsold in the many major auctions that have listed his work over the last several years, including Christie's.