"Can You Hear Me?"

The word "youth," which evokes images of bright, glowing days, seemed to suit him particularly well. His paintings speak clearly in a voice that is both serious and somehow pure. Some faces in his works seem to cry out, questioning why their words fail to reach you. The figures in Woosung Lee’s (40) paintings sometimes reflect in contemplation, burn alone, or carefully observe their surroundings before eventually making room for companionship.

The title of his solo exhibition, which opened on September 9 at Hakgojae, is 《Come Sit with Me》.

Woosung Lee translates contemporary portraits into the language of painting. His gaze is that of an observer who calmly and sincerely examines the present, using metaphor rather than direct statement. The people he encounters daily, along with everyday objects and landscapes, become the subjects of his paintings. These themes extend from individual life to narratives of relationships, and further to the broader social dimension. Friends and colleagues, teachers and students, studios and public squares, daily life and socio-political reality—all these elements interweave to form his world, much like the perspective of young people living in the present day.

Woosung Lee was born in 1983 in Seoul. He graduated from the Painting Department of Hongik University’s College of Fine Arts in 2009 and obtained a Master of Fine Arts from the Korea National University of Arts in 2012. He has held solo exhibitions at Hakgojae (2023, 2017), Doosan Gallery (2020), Amado Art Space (2017), Art Space Pool (2015), and OCI Museum (2013), among others. In 2018, he gained attention for his participation in the Gwangju Biennale’s "Imagined Borders."

He has also exhibited in group shows at institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Arko Art Center, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Ulsan Art Museum, Seoul Museum of Art’s Nam-Seoul branch, and Ilmin Museum of Art. In 2013, he was awarded the "OCI Young Creatives" prize, and his works are held in the collections of major institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, and Cheongju Art Museum. He is currently teaching at Seoul National University of Science and Technology.

◆Come Sit with Me—A Seat Left Open for You

In Woosung Lee’s painting Midsummer (2015), created eight years ago, a watermelon remains enclosed in its thick, unbroken rind. The hands that pondered how to break it open in that painting eventually succeeded two years later, with the help of others, in I Came a Long Way to See You; Let’s Share and Eat Here (2017). In his new series Come Sit with Me (2023), presented in this exhibition, the canvas is once again filled with a massive watermelon. This time, however, it has been cut open and transformed into a bowl of fruit punch, filled with floating pieces of fruit and round ice cubes. The bubbles in the poured soda glisten between them.

When asked why he frequently paints watermelons, he responds, "Because it’s a fruit meant to be shared." It is a medium that brings people together, inviting them to sit in a circle and enjoy each other’s company. The hotter and more exhausting the day, the more welcome its sweetness becomes. Now, the watermelon has fully transformed into a shared dessert, inviting more people to join in. "Come sit for a while. Let’s spend some time together."

Perhaps the voices that once cried out, unheard, were simply saying this all along. Let’s fill our days with kindness—the kind that everyone wishes for. Let’s lean on each other’s shoulders in difficult moments, hold each other’s hands, and continue enduring the present, always younger today than we will be tomorrow.

◆Painting as a Record of the Present

All grand narratives begin with small, everyday events. I Will Be Back Here Again (2023) is a painting depicting three figures leaning on a railing, gazing at sunlight resting on the ridgeline. Capturing today’s friendships with a shimmering warmth, the painting serves as both a portrait of our generation and a nostalgic echo of our era. The same sunset also appears in the mirror held by the figure in The Disappearance of the Self on the Mirror (2023).

He describes this piece by saying, "I wanted anyone to be able to see their own reflection." The mirror’s surface is colored with the hues of the most peaceful time of day, inviting anyone who steps into the painting’s space to find their own sunset within it. He hopes that the reflections exchanged between viewers will become sources of comfort. In capturing the present, his paintings oscillate between glimpses of a larger world and deeply personal moments. The totality of a single individual’s experience of the present is, therefore, both profoundly intimate and universally resonant.

Woosung Lee frequently paints on fabric rather than canvas. This choice allows for easier storage and transport, reducing spatial limitations while fostering interaction with surrounding environments. His distinctive career path, moving between domestic and international art residencies, has also influenced this decision. Compared to canvas, fabric can be more easily adjusted in scale to suit different studio environments or carried around as needed.

He has participated in residencies at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Goyang Residency (2013), Annescaugh Cow House Studio in Ireland (2014), Seoul Museum of Art’s Nanji Residency (2014), The Physics Room in Christchurch, New Zealand (2016), Cheongju Art Studio (2017), and Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s Geumcheon Art Factory (2023), among others.

Some critics have noted that his realistic depictions of ordinary lives and his use of fabric-hung paintings in outdoor spaces recall the geolgae paintings of 1980s minjung artists. His works have also drawn attention for referencing socio-political events, such as the Gwanghwamun candlelight protests. However, Lee has consistently emphasized that his focus remains on the everyday and personal emotions. His paintings do not seek to make radical statements or provoke upheaval, but rather to faithfully document reality as he sees it—without turning away.

When exhausted, he leans on the shoulder of a friend standing beside him. As an artist, and as an ordinary young person of our era, he spends countless days contemplating relationships and emotions on a smaller scale than society itself.

◆Still Working, Now and Always

Woosung Lee’s solo exhibition at Hakgojae runs until September 13. The faces filling the exhibition space are all those of people he has met along the way. Each landscape of a shared place has become a canvas of layered memories.

Among the many carefully rendered portraits, only his self-portraits in the series Still Working (2023) appear as if they were pulled from a comic strip, with exaggeratedly slack expressions. With lips pouting and furrowed brows, he roams through daily life in frustration. If asked what he is doing, he would simply respond, "I’m working right now." It seems that the life of an artist has, at times, been exhausting. So much so that even helpless melancholy spills onto the canvas.

Fifteen years have passed since Woosung Lee began his artistic career. The young man who once gazed at his canvases in his mid-twenties is now forty. With a clear brushstroke and a softer voice, his paintings speak to us again.

"Come sit with me. There are still many stories to tell, and countless days ahead to share them."

References

• 세계일보(Segye)