SEUNG LEE STUDIO's Artistic Journey: A Visual Story

Seung Lee is a Korean-American contemporary artist and a Professor of Art at Long Island University Post. His paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations have been exhibited extensively in the US as well as internationally: Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea. He has received numerous reviews in the New York Times, Newsday, Radio Interview with RTHK (HONG KONG), WLIW-FM, Kyoto Times, Korea Daily News, Busan Daily, Art Word magazine, Art Price magazine, Art in Culture magazine, Art Price magazine, Art and People magazine, and selected for Woori Bank of Korea’s 2018 VIP Calendar. 

Seung Lee received many awards; New York State Governor, Nassau County Supervisor, Suffolk County Supervisor, New Jersey City Mayor, and in 2011, Seung was awarded as “Best International Korean Artist” from Korean Art Association.

Seung has been an invited panelist in National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Fellowship, Decentralization Grants for New York Artists, International Documentary Film Festival, Berkshire Museum, Long Island Museum, Heckscher Art Museum, Islip Art Museum, International Nature Art Biennial, etc. 

For over 40 years, Seung Lee’s artwork deals with the manipulation of the art space, which provides the viewer with an opportunity to share in a vision of environmental and social downfall urging the viewer to reflect on their own experience and act accordingly.

Kodama-trees inhabited by spirits-dominated Seung’s subject matter for the past 15 years. Seung’s new studio on the North Fork of Eastern Long Island is shrouded with bamboo. While struggling to make art during pandemic times, Seung spent many days exercising “bamboo management”. Subsequently, an area for meditation and artwork was created. Bamboo replaced Kodama.

Bamboo reflects strength, flexibility, and health. It’s strength teaches us to stand upright in this difficult time. It’s flexibility teaches us to adapt to the hard circumstances and spring back after experiencing adversity. The combination of these virtues teaches us how to find balance and peace in our lives, thereby improving our overall health.

ART = LIFE

LIFE = ART

The way you live is an art, not just what you make. Art making is a spiritual activity occupied with time (past, present, and future) and space (pictorial and personal). I see the present as the pivot point on which the past and future revolve, the only solid point of orientation for time. I am constantly trying to learn of my inner self, striving to exist more in the present. My ideas are clearest when I'm closest to this point of orientation. I believe it's the only way to create an honest work of art.