SARAH LEE
The Weight of Night
a solo ehibition of new paintings
PART I: JANUARY 21 - FEBRUARY 8, 2021
PART II: FEBRUARY 8 - FEBRUARY 28, 2021
The Weight of Night
a solo ehibition of new paintings
PART I: JANUARY 21 - FEBRUARY 8, 2021
PART II: FEBRUARY 8 - FEBRUARY 28, 2021
Sarah Lee’s recent series explores her obsession with wintry night scenes in a notion of a secret hideaway. On the heels of a tumultuous and unprecedented cycle of global events, she has been thinking about the “other world” where there are no others, no noise, just a solitary sensation of being. Lee’s semi-fictional subject matter responds to the real in an antithetical way. She believes that night and winter are the “other world” that magically pauses the rhythm of life. Her works glorify the paused moment and romantically volatilizes the real.
In the Weight of Night, she uses blue palettes predominantly. Lee’s landscapes undergo a process of mutation by the blue color, and thus develop a poetic sense of being with an emotionally charged atmosphere. When she looks at the color she is painting, or rather experiencing, she sees and senses innocence. By this, she means without the overgrowths of meaning, pure emotion. Whether this insight is true or even possible; it feels real.
SARAH LEE, born in Seoul, Korea and lives and works in New York City. Lee received her B.F.A and M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her solo exhibitions include Unoriginal Sublime, The Mission, Chicago (2017); Playing the Field, The Won Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2014). She has participated in many group exhibitions, among them Home Coming, AHL foundation (2020), Silent Night, Artnutri, Taiwan, (2019); Falling Through ‘n’ Going After, One Eyed, New York, (2019); Control & Contrast, The Mission, Chicago, (2017), Presence Interrupted, Julius Caesar, Chicago, (2017). Lee also participated in EXPO Chicago in 2017 and Art Taipei in 2018, 2019. Lee is featured in New American Painting, Knack magazine and ChaioxArt.