vitae.pdf
Ke-Sook Lee(Oh) is known for fiber installation and hand embroidered drawing works exploring abstraction and domestic themes. She was born in Seoul, Korea in 1941 and moved to the US in 1964. She earned a BFA in Applied Art from Seoul National University 1963, and her second BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982. She lives and works in Berkeley, CA.
Ke-Sook has been represented by and exhibited at the George Billis Gallery New York and Los Angels, Artlink Gallery, Seoul, Korea. Her work has shown at the Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PA) Riverside Museum of Art (LA), Spencer Museum of Art (KS), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (KS), Philadelphia Art Alliance(PA),), Trunk Gallery (Seoul), Park Eul Bok Embroidery Museum (Seoul), Ami Art museum(Dangjin), and international exhibitions held in Berlin, London, Paris, Florence, Ireland.
Among public collections, her work is in Spencer Museum of Art (KS), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (KS), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PA), Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (MO), Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul), Park Eul Bok Embroidery Museum (Seoul), Racine Museum of Art (WI).
"By recording non-text- based imagery that speaks concerns, dreams and fears of past generations of women inn Korea, her narrative memories take on universal significance as commentary on the role of women, in the domestic arena..."
Pricked: Extreme Embroidery, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2007
"Lee's conceptual installations convey a thoughtful declaration of endurance and grace born from, and in the artist's words, "seedpods filled with dreams".
Material Girl, Riverside Museum, Los Angles, CA, 2007
Sprout garden toil
Drawing is pure,
a trace of honest heart
which poured out of passion with spontaneity from our soul.
Exploring mark making devises from everyday life
drawing opens boundary of art making,
Burnt marks, wrinkled surface
spilled spots, worn holes, mended marks
hanging thread, tangled thread, dancing thread
stitch by stitch sprouted life
woman’s dream shadow
fragile weight, crumble down, getting up, walking,
growing again
my dream
Recycled vintage household linen holds trace of
past generation of women’s mundane life experience.
adopting endless shapes and forms from life
recognizing women’s dream space.
Holding my inheritance and thread in one hand
reaching out to contemporary drawing with the other hand,
My work continues freeing itself
from boundary of art making
cultivating to find
my identity and feminine aesthetics.
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