Exhibition
 
2022
Tea Time & Coffee Break
Culturetank T5, Seoul, KR
 
2021
Parallel Worlds
Seongkok Art Museum, Seoul, KR
 
2019
Road Show:2019 from Shanghai to Chongqing
Korean Cultural Center Shanghai, CN
 
Tracing Times
Gallery Simon, Seoul, KR
 
2017
Missing
Seongnam Art Center Cube Art Museum, KR
 
Ghost
Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, KR
 
Your Hand, My Heart
Gallery Simon, Seoul, KR
 
2016
Vapours Like Fire Light
Gallery Purple Studio, Namyangju si, KR
 
OLD & NEW
Kansong Art Museum, DDP, Seoul, KR
 
The Illusion of Time
Ilwoo Space, Seoul, KR
 
2015
31 Experiments on Light: Intimate Rapture
Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, KR
 
International Contemporary Art Project Ulsan 2015
Culture Street, Ulsan, KR
 
2014
Shadow Casters
Gallery Simon, Seoul, KR
 
Liquid Times
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
 
2013
The Roads of Forking Paths
SeMA Nanji Exhibiiton hall, Seoul, KR
 
Arrival
Gallery Simon, Seoul, KR
 
2012
MAM Project 017: Lee Changwon
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JP
 
Festival O! Gwangju Media Art 2012
5.18 Democracy Square, Gwangju, KR
 
Other Selves
Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, KR
 
Your Invisible Shadow
Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
 
2011
Bad Romanticism
Arko Art Center, Seoul, KR
 
Parallel World
Kim Chong Yung Museum, Seoul, KR
 
2010
Pleasure Ground
Lokaal 01, Breda, NL
 
2009
Shared. Divided. United.
NGBK, Berlin, Germany
 
Emerging Korean Artists in the World 2009
Hangarm Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
 
City Net_Asia 2009
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
 
Disappear
AANDO Fine Art, Berlin, Germany
 
2008
Art Through Nature
Space*C Coreana Museum, Seoul, Korea
 
Your Mind's Eye-Digital Spectrum
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
 
Shadow of Heroes
Gallery Fiebach & Minninger, Cologne, Germany
 

2007

Soft Power: Asian Attitude
Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art
 
ASIA-EUROPE mediations 'Asian attitude' 2007
Muzeum Narodowe, Poznan, Poland
 
'Passersby' Window Gallery, Seoul, Korea
 
'Reflection' doART Gallery, Seoul, Korea
 
'Reflexion' Gallery Januar, Bochum, Germany
/ March 02 - April 5, 2007
 
'New Talents', Art Cologne 2007
 

2003

Changwon Lee recent works Gallery Kusseneers, Antwerp, Belgium
 
hug stencil

left: Hug Stencil, right: Memorial Shadows, 2019
exhibition view: Gallery Simon

hug stencil

Hug Stencil, 2017, from left: Victory, Consolation, Sorrow, Summit, Saint Mary, Trust
Steel, powder coating, dimensions variable

 
tracing times

Hug Stencil, Memorial Shadows, Overlapped Times 2019
exhibition view: Gallery Simon

 
Hug Stencil, Memorial Shadows

These two series stemmed from the process of preparing for "Parallel World," that is, collecting newspaper articles and classifying and archiving people's images which are being repeated or symbolic. Images of people captured in mass media are frequently and generally dramatic and symbolic. Occasionally, they are photographed in a pose that you would see in famous paintings in Western art history. Also, while preparing for this exhibition, I newly found that these poses would remind me of those of the statue figures. In the Memorial Shadows series created using the etching technique, those silhouettes turn into a statue on a pedestal standing against the background of the inverted image of landscape, that is, trees in memorial parks.

The Hug Stencil series aims to capture the various silhouettes of hugs shown in news media and leave their traces in the three-dimensional space. I saw the shadows of the contemporary history, a history our own contemporaries all around the world are going through, in those countless hugs appearing in mass media: those between politicians, heads of state or government, and celebrities, those of sharing sorrow and consolation between people who suffer from accidents or natural disasters, those of a Muslim performer who offer hugs of trust to break the prejudice that Muslims are terrorists, and that of grief, as in Pieta, given by indvidiauls who lost their child in the war. While I was looking at them, the hugs represented in artworks in history which inspired numerous artists, recurred to my mind. I named this series "Hug Stencil" after the hand stencil which indicates the handprints found in prehistoric cave painting done by ancient people.

 
memorial shadow

Memorial Shadows, 2019, from left to right: Resistance, Sorrow, Saint Mary, Prayer, Mission
115x90x1cm, Stainless steel, etching, inking

overlapped times

Overlapped Times, 2019,
44x300cm, Steel, powder coating

hug stencil

Hug Stencil_Lovers, 2017
170x70x45cm, Steel, powder coating

 
tracing times

from left to right: History of Liberty, Golden Liberty, Ganghwado_Shadow across Time, 2019
exhibition view: Gallery Simon 2F

 
tracing times

from left to right: History of Liberty, Golden Liberty, Ganghwado_Shadow across Time, 2019
exhibition view: Gallery Simon 2F

 
ganghwado

Ganghwado_Shadow across Time, 2019
180x500x7.4cm, MDF, Plywood, ground coffee, varnish

 
ganghwado

Ganghwado_Shadow across Time, 2019
180x500x7.4cm, MDF, Plywood, ground coffee, varnish

Ganghwado_Shadow across Time

Since this year marks the 100th anniversary of the March First Movement (Samil Undong) and the establishment of the Korean provisional government, the general atmosphere of our society, including that of TV series, plays, movies, and even TV news, tends to reflect upon the country's history. As for me, a chain of thoughts about the Japanese occupation of Korea, and about the situations at the end of Joseon Dynasty and during the period of Korea Empire, brought me to the time when strange Western ships first appeared in Joseon's coastal areas. Perhaps because of this, I abruptly visited Ganghwa Island during preparing for the show. Many history museums and historic sites scattered throughout the island well preserved and exhibited the relics and records relating to the battles against foreign invasions in the late Joseon Dynasty. However, it were waves, ruffled by light winds as before, that inspired me to imagine about those past times more vividly than any other. Looking over the sea between pine trees of Ganghwa, I thought of the moment when the so-called 'yiyangseon' (meaning "strangely shaped ship") was first shown to the Joseon people, that is, the moment when an ordinary Joseon person who was walking along the beach caught the first sight of a ship floating on the sea, the like of which he had never seen before in all his experience. I imagined the moments when the silhouette of the ship, produced based on the Western technology and sense of beauty, was overlapped with those of Joseon trees, when after since, the products of Western civilization came rushing in, when the smell of coffee began to fill the Joseon Palace, and when, finally, the dynasty was colonized by its neighboring country, yes, every time when the country had to stand at the crossroad of choices ¡¦

 
history of liberty

History of Liberty, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum board, pigment print, wooden frame

 
history of liberty

History of Liberty #01, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum boad, pigment print, wooden frame

 
history of Liberty

History of Liberty #02, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum boad, pigment print, wooden frame

 
history of liberty

History of Liberty #03, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum boad, pigment print, wooden frame

 
history of liberty

History of Liberty #04, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum boad, pigment print, wooden frame

 
history of liberty

History of Liberty #05, 2019
67.3x85.8x5.4cm, Rising museum boad, pigment print, wooden frame

History of Liberty

After visiting Ganghwa Island, I looked for statues throughout Seoul. I went to see not only bronze statues but also memorial parks and memorial halls, searching on the internet and reading books on Korean statues. In that they are a reified image of the figure whom each historical period wanted to memorize, I thought that they showed how each period understood liberty and which type of liberty was presented by its system and consented by its society. This series titled History of Liberty deals with the liberty from the invasion of foreign powers(Great Monk Samyeong's statue), from colonial restraint(Yu Gwansun's), from communism(Douglas MacArthur's), from dictatorial power(Kim Juyeol's), and lastly, of capital(Lee Byeongcheol's). Do those who are living together in a free democratic society have all the same idea of liberty? Also, I give a thought to what kind of liberty our society is going to pursue.

 
golden liberty

Golden Liberty, 2019
101.7x81.7x6.5cm, Rising museum board, paint, gold ink, wooden frame, wooden frame

 
golden liberty

Golden Liberty, 2019
101.7x81.7x6.5cm, Rising museum board, paint, gold ink, wooden frame, wooden frame

 
underwood

Underwood, 2019
83x96x4.4cm, Rising museum board, paint, wooden frame

 
underwood

Underwood, 2019
83x96x4.4cm, Rising museum board, paint, wooden frame

 
underwood

Underwood, 2019
83x96x4.4cm, Rising museum board, paint, wooden frame

Underwood

While hunting for statues, I came face-to-face with that the figure named Underwood in the Yonsei University campus. It was said to have been first set up in 1928 and pulled down twice, and the present one is the third. The figure was Dr. Horace Grant Underwood, who came to Joseon as a missionary. He taught physics in a Western-style medical school, organized the Christian youth association YMCA, and founded Yonhi Professional School, which later became Yonsei University. The statue was removed by the Japanese to collect copper to produce weapons after the Pacific War broke out. The fact that an individual's statue was erected in that he had contributed to the modernization of Korea and then, at some point, the statue was used as material for military weapons seemed to me the very the double face of modernization. It was indeed through modernization that Western knowledge, technology, and culture were introduced to this country, but it also had the face of a war of aggression.

 
tracing times

left: Shadow of Shadow, right: Hug Stencil
Exhibtion view: Gallery Simon 3F

 
tracing times

left: Fata Morgana, right: Shadow of Time
Exhibtion view: Gallery Simon 3F

 
shadow of shadow

Shadow of Shadow, 2019
38x17x17.5cm, Japanes vintage bamboo ruler, steel

Shadow of Shadow

This work was made after the silhouette of Kim Gu's statue in Namsan Park. Under the dictatorship of Korea (Yu-shin era), many statues of Korean independent activists were built in the name of encouraging the national spirit. However, ironically, it was turned out that a great number of pro-colonial artists were often commissioned for the project, for most of the artists who received art education during the Japanese occupation of Korea studied in Japan. The Kim Gu's statue is a case in point. So there was once a controversy regarding removing it, which itself may be a reflection of the modern and contemporary history of Korean, a jumble of contradictions and ironies. I like vintage items. Some time ago, I wanted to have a vintage bamboo ruler I had used when I was a child, so I desperately asked around about it and was embarrassed to find out that the ruler was originated in Japan. It is as if I suddenly recognized that my past in my mind was composed of things that I had never known. I bought bamboo rulers in a Japanese auction site and created a sculpture by cutting them and attaching the pieces in the shape of the silhouette of the Kim Gu's statue in Namsan Park.

 
hug stencil

Hug Stencil, 2019: from left _Trust, Summit, Consolation, Sorrow, Consolation, Saint Mary, Victory
40x17x14.5cm, 40x18.8x17.7cm, 40x17x13.5cm, 25x32x25cm, 40x17x14cm, 40x18.8x14cm, Steel, Powder coating

 
fata morgana

Fata Morgana, 2019
50.5x73.5x4.5cm, 31.2x46x4.5cm, 20.1x28.2x4.5cm, Rising museum board, paint, gold ink, wooden frame

Fata Morgana

It was one day in 2018 when I turned the pages of the newspaper to collect documentary photos I needed for my work. I saw a full-page advertisement of the Dmitrii Donskoi ship, a Russian warship which sunk near Ulleungdo Island in the East Sea during the Russo - Japanese war. One large Korean company even announced that because this ship contained tons of gold, it would raise funds in the form of cryptocurrency, to salve the sunken vessel and then divide the profits. A treasure ship in 2018¡¦ Fata Morgana shows a gold illusion of the phantasy of a treasure ship which momentarily appeared and then disappeared with a frenzy of cryptocurrency in the Korean society in 2018.

 
shadow of time

Shadow of Time, 2019
47.4x102.3x4.5cm, Rising museum board, paint, ink, wooden frame

 
hug stencil

Hug Stencil_Consolation, Hug Stencil_Lovers, 2019
60x30x24.7cm, 60x25x22cm, Steel, powder coating

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright 2022. Changwon Lee. All rights reserved.