LEE Kangwook: Abstract Color and Gesture

LEE Kangwook is well known for his abstract painting series, Invisible Space, in which the oppositional spatial concepts of the ‘microscopic’ and ‘macroscopic’ worlds collided together in coexistence. Another prominent series by LEE, Geometric Form depicts the fundamental and canonical elements that are point, line and surface in painting incorporating organic movement. Throughout his creative journey, LEE has been engaging in various figurative experiments within the domain of painting, posing a fundamental question to the artistic practice: What is painting?

LEE’s solo exhibition Abstract Color and Gesture in ARARIO GALLERY Cheonan will showcase Invisible Space-Image and Gesture series that explore his artistic research on the concept of ‘abstraction’ and ‘color’. Invisible Space-Image series is based on the artist’s further investigation about spatial conception, and then Gesture series examines the pure essence of painting which reflects an artist’s unique disposition and his or her act of an art making itself. This exhibition will survey LEE’s artistic career to understand the inward nature of painting that he developed in the past 15 years.

LEE Kangwook (b.1976) earned his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Hongik University and won a number of the most respected art awards in the early 2000s including the grand prize at the Korea Painting Festival in 2001, the Dong-ah Art Award at the Donga Art Contest, the grand prize at the Joong-Ang Art Festival in 2002, and the applicant award at the Songeun Art Award in 2003. He graduated from Chelsea College of Art with his Master’s degree in 2011 and received his Doctoral degree from East London University in 2015. Lee is currently working as a professor in Hongik University and actively works London and Seoul.