Originality & Identity

Moka Lee paints the shimmering yet fragile inner world of contemporary youth. While using anonymous figures sourced from social media platforms like Instagram as subjects, she focuses on capturing the emotional fractures hidden beneath their curated appearances.

Her work delves into the duality and instability of identity in the younger generation, highlighting the dissonance between constructed realities and the authentic self, ultimately portraying a universal portrait of youth imbued with emotional depth.

Style & Contents

Lee’s paintings traverse the boundaries between portraiture, still life, and landscape, sensitively capturing unconscious expressions and subtle visual cues embedded in social media images. Employing a unique technique that layers brushstrokes on muslin fabric in a manner reminiscent of CMYK color printing, her surfaces remain flat yet convey a densely emotional depth.

The contrast between light and shadow, the hazy color palette, and blurred faces serve as metaphors for the hidden inner lives of individuals in contemporary society. Rather than forming linear narratives, her works evoke moments of sensation and emotion.

Topography & Continuity

Through a critical lens on the visual culture of social media, Lee exposes the dynamics of identity formation and relational structures among contemporary youth. By establishing a triangular relationship between the subject, the viewer, and herself, she explores the multilayered construction of identity and emotion.

Recently, she has expanded the scale of her canvases to amplify the presence of her subjects and reorganize the viewer’s gaze, marking a new stage in her spatial and perceptual development.