Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

His major solo exhibitions include 《Come Sit with Me》 (Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, 2023), 《But some day, one day, soon》 (DOOSAN Gallery, Seoul, 2021), and 《My Dear》 (Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, 2017).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

His major group exhibitions include 《Time Lapse》 (Pace gallery Seoul, 2024), 《Real DMZ Project : Checkpoint》 (Dora Observatory, Yeongang Gallery, Paju, 2023/ Kunstmuseum of Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2022), 《The Society of Individuals》 (Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, 2021), and Gwangju Biennale 2018 《Imagined Borders》 (Asia Cultural Center, Gwangju, 2018), The First Jinan International Biennial 《Harmony-Power》 (Shandong Art Museum, Jinan, China, 2020), 《Follow, Flow, Feed》 (ARKO Art Center, Seoul, 2020), 《Immortality in the Cloud》 (Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, 2019), among others.

Awards (Selected)

Lee was selected as an artist-in-residence at the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (2023), The Physics Room in New Zealand (2016), SeMA Nanji Residency (2015), Cow House Studio in Ireland (2014), MMCA Residency Goyang (2013), and more. 

Collections (Selected)

The Artist’s works are in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Cheongju Museum of Art, and more.

Originality & Identity

Woosung Lee captures the everyday lives of contemporary youth on canvas. His early works in the 2010s primarily focused on portraying the anxieties and struggles of young adults. In Nobody Listen to My Sorrow(2011), the burning pedal boat against an indifferent backdrop metaphorically represents the absurd realities individuals face. Later, he explored the relationship between individuals and society more directly, as seen in People who are Staring Straight Ahead(2012), where the intense gazes of young crowds symbolize generational unrest.

Starting from personal and intimate experiences, his work expands to embrace social solidarity and collective memory. The banner painting Connecting You and Me (2015) visualizes collective experiences while borrowing elements from minjung art to link past and present. More recent works emphasize personal relationships and emotional elements within historical contexts. How are you doing? I am doing well here (2021) reflects the reality of national division while focusing on emotional communication between individuals. In his 2023 solo exhibition at Hakgojae Gallery, 《Come Sit with Me》, he turned his attention to capturing everyday interactions, the nuanced expressions of his acquaintances, and the warmth of human relationships. In I Am Still Working (2023), autobiographical elements also emerge.

Style & Contents

Woosung Lee continuously expands the possibilities of painting through various formal experiments. He primarily works with large-scale acrylic and gouache paintings on canvas. Since 2014, he has been actively creating banner paintings using acrylic and gouache on fabric. The flexible mobility and installation methods of banner paintings allow his works to engage more actively with public spaces. People Walking Side by Side (2014) is a notable example that experiments with spatial openness and narrative flexibility.

In his 2021 solo exhibition at DOOSAN Gallery, 《But Some Day, One Day, Soon》, he explored the movement of painting through drawing animations and OHP film. The key piece of this exhibition, But Some Day, One Day, Soon(2021), was created by stitching together thousands of hand-drawn frames based on video footage of the New Zealand sea, illustrating how his work evolved to record emotional flows through time and repetitive acts.

Topography & Continuity

Woosung Lee’s work uniquely bridges personal and societal narratives while integrating contemporary sensibilities with historical contexts. His artistic journey has transitioned from large-scale acrylic and gouache paintings on canvas to banner paintings, animations, and OHP drawings, symbolizing generational anxieties and the bonds within relationships. His works expand the boundaries between painting and public engagement.

The emphasis on both personal and universal narratives has become more prominent in recent works. His large-scale painting At Twilight, Standing on the Mountain(2024), consisting of three huge canvases (each 200 x 280 cm), portrays a diverse crowd of individuals and animals, forming a collective mass. This piece exemplifies how his art moves beyond individual sentiments to construct a communal narrative, expressing a hope for diversity and solidarity within an often absurd reality.