Recent Work by South Korean Artist Fi Jae Lee presented at Webster University’s Cecille R. Hunt Gallery

What/Who:

The Cecille R. Hunt Gallery presents recent work by South Korean based artist Fi Jae Lee. Since participating in the reality show “Art Star Season Two” last year, in which film crews chronicled the life of MFA students from the Art Institute of Chicago, Fi Jae Lee has moved back to her native Seoul to concentrate on new sculpture. Using several stories like the Garden of the Eden, The Wine-Lake and Meat Forest of the Yin Dynasty, The Great Whore of the Apocalypse, as a point of reference, Lee uses sculpture to give physical incarnation to what she describes as “the unbreakable and fundamental energy, which established and maintains the world–our selfish desires.” Her creative quest is to share her realization that people rarely attain this knowledge because of “the skin,” which wraps and hides their desire. Using soft materials, collage, performance and installation, Lee enters a strange realm that references both religion and mysticism. Through stuffed grotesque, surrealistic creatures perched on office furniture and pools of red wine as centerpiece to mad celebration, she actively invites the viewer inside her world of strange ritual and an embodiment of her personal belief systems. Seen in its entirety, the work also represents human desire, she asks viewers to “shed their skin” in order to not only witness the barbarous orgy, but to take an active role in realization and transformation. Her sculpture and performance will help move toward an understanding of the fundamental idea behind her work in which she feels that as human beings we cannot be absorbed in the true energy of the universe because of the obstacles of love and fear received from the body.
Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency And with support from the Regional Arts Commission

When:

February 20-March 20, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, from 6–8 p.m.

Hours: Monday - Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. or by appointment.

Where:

Cecille R. Hunt Gallery

Visual Arts Studio, Webster University 8342 Big Bend Blvd.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment

Cost:

Exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

More Info:

Call 968-7171 or art@webster.edu

www.websterhuntgallery.blogspot.com

Fi Jae Lee received her MFA in 2007 and her BFA in 2005 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her solo exhibitions include: 
Le Massacre de Jesus Egoïste, Aix-en-Provence France, 2007; Skin & Out, Caladan Gallery, Beverley MA, 2006; My Shrine, Base Space, Chicago, IL, 2006; A Person Searching for Eyes, a Nose and a Mouth, Gallery Batang Gol, Seoul, Korea, 2007. Her recent group exhibitions
include: Scope Miami Art Fair, Miami FL, 2007; M. F. A. Exhibition, Gallery 2 and Project Space, Chicago, IL, 2007; Gallery 2 and Project Space, Chicago, IL, 2007; International Assemblage Artists Exhibition, Berlin, Germany, 2006; Birth of World, Caladan Gallery, Beverley MA, 2006; Wrestling with the New Science, Around the Coyote, Chicago IL, 2005; B. F. A Exhibition, Gallery 2 and Project Space, Chicago, IL, 2007; Art Bash, Gallery 2 and Project Space, Chicago, IL, 2005.