“Puck, Nocturnal Paintings” Installation view ©ONE AND J. GalleryONE AND
J. Gallery presents a solo exhibition “Puck,
Nocturnal Paintings” by Ahnnlee Lee, through August 18. ‘Puck’ is a fairy from William Shakespeare's iconic play A
Midsummer Night's Dream, and in the exhibition “Puck,
Nocturnal Paintings,” he is metaphorized as Lee's alter
ego.
Lee's
close observation of the big and small things around him, including the plants
in his garden, is also a deep look at human relationships. In this solo
exhibition, the artist reflects on the emotions and experiences of his own
daily relationships. Just as Puck sneaks in and plays pranks on relationships
he doesn't know, Ahnnlee Lee, like Puck, sneaks into the complexities of love
and other human relationships through his artwork, hoping for new situations to
arise.
Lee
creates his new works with an innocent attitude, throwing paint on the canvas
in anticipation of a new relationship, improvising lines that go against his
intentions like a relationship that we cannot control, or sneaking something
into the painting that only he knows, like a secret.
His
paintings, including Kiss (2024), Carnival Confetti (2024), and Olive
Trip (2024), are based on sand. Sand is a material commonly used in
sculpture, and Lee draws on his experience in sculpture and the slow-building
nature of sand to incorporate it into his paintings.
He mixes
sand, acrylic, and various pigments, paints them on the canvas, scrapes them
off when they dry, and paints them again. In this process, the artist
alternates between emotion and reason, and completes the painting when it is
drawn down to the tiniest detail, such as a speck.
