Yu Woon Lee (b. 1973) is a Seoul-based painter who received both her BFA and MFA from the Department of Oriental Painting at Hongik University. Trained as a specialist in traditional Korean ink painting, Lee primarily depicts historic architectural structures using ink and fine brushwork on canvas.
She carefully selects buildings that represent a city or carry historical and cultural significance, transforming them into architectural portraits. Although the buildings in her works exist in reality, they are presented from a perspective that cannot be easily experienced in everyday life. Rather than being viewed from below, as one would normally see them on the street, the buildings appear centered and aligned with the viewer’s eye level. This creates an idealized, almost impossible viewpoint—one that feels both precise and imagined.
In traditional ink painting, each brushstroke requires great concentration, as it allows little room for correction. Lee builds her images slowly and meticulously, layering countless fine ink lines as if constructing the building itself from the ground up. The dense accumulation of lines reveals not only the structure of the architecture, but also the time, patience, and energy embedded in the artist’s process.
Lee’s works are not simply architectural landscapes. They are portraits of buildings that hold memory, history, and cultural identity. Through the refined language of ink, she preserves the enduring presence of architecture and invites viewers to consider how buildings carry the traces of time. She currently participates in exhibitions both in Korea and internationally.
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