SARA LEE 이사라
Since Lee Sara made her debut as an artist, she has been painting girl dolls with looks reflecting indifferent or ambiguous feelings. Her doll paintings with highly realistic expression and classical composition attracted the attention of the art world and her name became widely known. Since then, she has been carrying out active artistic activities through many gallery exhibitions and art collaborations with enterprises. Her works manifest philosophy-combining painting with a history of ideas or cultural history in terms of style as well as traces influenced by Pop art and hyperrealism. On the other hand, she expresses a more colorful and optimistic world through the canvas composed and filled with numerous objects. In particular, her works in this exhibition constitute plane (2D) images, which are incomparable with her previous works. She still sticks to exquisite coloring and drawing equal to the earlier works. However, in terms of figuration, they remind us of festivals and carnivals for they are composed of a variety of forms from her memory. All images with repeated scratches are combined with absolutely bright and complex forms. After coloring, she creates her wished images and texture by scratching the completely dry surface with a sharp needle. The scratch process requires a balance of mind beyond mere techniques or labor. The process of making forms and patterns by drawing lines through scratching looks like that of embroidering based on a needle and thread. The surface of the canvas is covered with rugged texture created by strands of the fabric, and the artist fills the uneven texture with paint to make a smoother and more even surface. By scratching on top of it, she makes rugged and uneven textures. This newly created ruggedness fills the entire surface of the work and represents skin embracing the body of the painting. This process of scratching complex and complicated figurations and splendorous colors one by one reminds us of that of inlaying the surface of ceramics in diverse colors and forms. The thinnest relief or etching and painting are constituted in symbols, signs, and patterns, and assimilate each other with delicacy. They are the surface and images with extreme sense, labor, and immersion concentration. Sara Lee’s figure work “Lucky bear” represents dolls in her childhood memory. Dolls may have comprehensive meaning. Babies feel comfort, happiness, and satisfaction with their toy friends. Now dolls transformed into ‘Lucky bears “ in her artworks. The image of “Lucky bear” provides us a kind of charm or more like a guardian angel. She hopes that children can fly to the wonderland full of dreams and happiness and adults can look back on their once innocent world with the lovely work “Lucky bear“.
Awards
2020 Best Insadong Character Artist (Insadong Traditional Culture Preservation Society)
2006 Best Young Artist (Seoul Art Center) 2005 New Frontier (Danwon Art Center)
2004 Dong A Art Festival (National Museum Of Contemporory Art)
2003 Christian art Festival (Chosun Newspaper Art Museum)
2002 Na Hae Duk Art Festival (Suwon Art Museum)
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Gallery Daon (Wonderland)
2019 Insa Artcenter (Colorpool)
2018 Gallery Suppoment (Wonderand)
2017 Art Space H (Good Luck To You)
2016 Gallery Lee Jung A (Dream)
2016 Gallery Bon (Dream)2016 Gallery Ro (Lucky Bear)
2016 Gallery Bon (Dream)
2015 Seo Ho Art Museum (Dream)
2013 Gana Art Space (Dream)
2014, 2012, 2010, 2009 2008, 2007 Seoul Arts Center (Dream)
2010 Gallery Kin Hyun Ju (Dream)
2008 Gallery H (Dream)
2004 Seo Ho Gallery (Dream)
Collaborations
<Samsung TV> Home styling Collaboration
<Be My Love> Lotte Gana Chocolate Design Collaboration
<Sara Lee> Brand Launching Marie Saint Collaboration
<Koreana Cosmetic>Pakage Design Collaboration
<Kwanpen> X <Bear brick> Design Collaboration
<Monsine> Fabric Design Collaboration
<ArtG> Pakage Design Collaboration
<Moque New York> Fabric Design Collaboration
<Rapunzel> Hair Shop Design Collaboration
<Hwa Em Orchestra> X Sara Lee Dream Concert Collaboration
Lecturers (2007- Present)
Seoul Digital University (Represent of Art&Design)
Hong Ik University
Daejin University
SookMyung University
Gangleung University
Hanyang University
Shin Ra University
Digital Seoul Culture & Arts University
Collections
National Museum of Contemporary Art (Art Bank)
Space Mom Art Museum
Moran Art Museum
Heart Heart Foundation
Seoul USC Dental Clinic
Laon Stay Hotel
Sook Myung University
And more
Residency (2016-present)
Gana Art Park
Art Fair
2020 Kiaf (Coex, Seoul)
2020 Gallery Art Fair (Coex, Seoul)
2019 One Art Taipei (Taipei)
2019 Gallery Art Fair (Coex, Seoul)
2019 AHAF (Paradise Hotel, Busan)
2018 Harbour Art Fair (Hongkong)
2018 ArtAsia (Kintex)
2018 Dream Art Fair (Han River Park)
2018 Art Expo (Coex)
2018 Gallery Art Fair (Coex, Seoul)
2018 Seoul Modern Art Show (Seoul Arts Center)
2017 AHAF (HongKong, Seoul)
2017 Harbour Art Fair (Hongkong)
2017 Pink Art Fair (Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul)
2017 Gallery Art Fair (Coex, Seoul)
2016 KIAF (Coex, Seoul)
2016 Hongkong Affordable Art Fair (HongKong)
2016 Spoon Art Fair (Kintex)
2016 Gallery Art Fair (Coex, Seoul)
2015 TAIPEI Art Fair (TAIPEI)
2015 BUSAN Art Show (Bexco, Busan)
2015 DAEGU Art Fair (Exco, Daegu)
2014 KIAF (Coex, Seoul)
2014 MACAO Art Fair (MACAO)
2012 MANIF (Seoul Arts Center)
2012 BIAF (Bexco, Busan)
2012 SMAS (Sejong Cultural Center, Seoul)
2011 SOAF (Coex, Seoul)
2011 Green Cake Art Fair (Shinsege Department store, Seoul)
2011 SMAS (Sejong Cultural Center, Seoul)
2010 AHAF (Japan, HongKong, Seoul)
2010 KCAF (Seoul Arts Center)
2010 BIAF (Bexco, Busan)
2009 KCAF (Seoul Arts Center)
2007 KCAF (Seoul Arts Center)
2005 KCAF (Seoul Arts Center)
