brilliant 30: Seahyun Lee

Seahyun Lee’s paintings draw together aspects of contemporary society in the form of “social landscapes.” Lee speaks of expired national ideologies - he labels them as the “Red Complex” - which he feels in this dominating contemporary society. The artist narrates the causes and effects of this “Complex” by covering his canvases in red. Lee’s massive works, depicting nature and villages, elicit recollections of familiar sceneries. Employing a landscape painting technique, the artist is able to integrate fragments of what we know as South Korea and North Korea into a single, holistic scene. Lee’s work tells of gentrification and the decay of nature, and the consequences thereof. A beautiful landscape is a façade depicting a utopia. But if one looks more closely, he/she can find the hidden metaphor of an oppressive and frightening dystopia clearly.

These red landscapes depict points of socio-political tension between North and South Korea, such as the 38th Parallel, dividing the two regions with issues related to dictatorship, democracy and homeland security. In a larger sense, details in the works represent Korean culture, nationalism, values and social structure. In context, these details illuminate contemporary ideologies which have subsumed traditional ones. Technically, Lee’s subjects are integrated by means of painterly abstraction and realism which broaden the artist’s narrative scheme. Tiny figures appear against a backdrop of mountain slopes; minute details are blurred together to form a holistic, red-hued landscape. In this way, Lee’s paintings juxtapose elements which in sum, create a greater “social landscape.”