Overview

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 — La Forêt — Invited Solo Exhibition CaFORET, Yangpyeong, Korea

2020 — Belle Époque — Invited Solo Exhibition Hyocheon Gallery, Heliens Seonmaeul, Hongcheon, Korea

2020 — Mutual Feeling — Invited Exhibition Gallery Choi, Seoul, Korea

2019 — Belle Époque — Invited Solo Exhibition Art Plus Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2018 — Belle Époque — Invited Solo Exhibition GL Gallery, Gunpo, Korea

2017 — So Lee — Invited Solo Exhibition Woomoha Gallery, Yongin, Korea

2014 — And Again, Spring — Invited Solo Exhibition United Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2013 — Landscape of Nothingness — Invited Solo Exhibition 0 Gallery, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022

• EMPATHY — Artistic Souls Beyond Borders
  DDP Design Lab, Seoul, Korea
  Presented by Art Plus Gallery Korea, Art Plus Company USA & CGAM Verse
  Participating artists included So Lee, Han Hong Su, Myung Hee Kim, Man Chul Oh, Kwun Sun Cheol, Won Sang Ho, and Mayowa Lawal. (Africa Festival)

2022

• Portals
  Daniela Mercuri Gallery, New York, USA
  December 8, 2022 – January 25, 2023
  A two-person exhibition featuring So Lee and Ghanaian artist Afia Prempeh. This marked So Lee’s first gallery presentation in the United States. (dmincubator)

EDUCATION

Université Paris 8 — University of Paris 8, France
B.F.A. and Graduate Studies in Fine Arts

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

So Lee works primarily with acrylic and stone powder on canvas, building layered surfaces that evoke the textures and sensations of nature. Her paintings explore memory, atmosphere, and the emotional experience of landscape through color and material.

Her earlier “La Forêt” series focuses on forests and natural environments, while her later practice has expanded toward figurative and psychological imagery. (Artrie)

Artist’s Statement

My paintings explore the emotional and psychological experience of landscape through color, texture, and material. Working primarily with acrylic and stone powder on canvas, I build layered surfaces that evoke the tactile sensations of forests, earth, air, and light. Rather than depicting nature as a fixed or recognizable scene, I approach it as a space of memory, atmosphere, and inner perception.

The forest has been a recurring subject in my practice, particularly in the La Forêt series. For me, the forest is not only a physical environment but also a metaphorical space—one that holds traces of time, silence, movement, and emotion. Through the accumulation of pigment and mineral-like textures, I seek to create images that feel both familiar and elusive, inviting the viewer to enter a landscape that exists between the external world and the imagination.

In my more recent work, this exploration has expanded toward figurative and psychological imagery. The human presence appears not as a literal portrait, but as a reflection of emotional states, relationships, and internal landscapes. I am interested in the subtle connections between the body, nature, and memory, and in how a painting can communicate feelings that cannot be fully expressed through language.

My process is intuitive and accumulative. I allow each layer to retain traces of what came before, creating surfaces in which concealment and revelation coexist. Through this process, I aim to transform personal sensations into open-ended visual experiences—quiet spaces where viewers may encounter their own memories, emotions, and interpretations.

Biography

So Lee is a Korean contemporary artist whose practice explores the emotional and psychological dimensions of landscape through color, texture, and material. Working primarily with acrylic and stone powder on canvas, she creates layered surfaces that evoke the tactile qualities of forests, earth, air, and light.

The forest has been a recurring subject in Lee’s work, particularly in her La Forêt series. Rather than presenting nature as a fixed or recognizable scene, she approaches it as a space of memory, atmosphere, and inner perception. Through the accumulation of pigment and mineral-like textures, her paintings occupy a space between the visible world and the imagination.

In her recent work, Lee has expanded her visual language to include figurative and psychological imagery. Human presence appears not as literal portraiture, but as a reflection of emotional states, relationships, and internal landscapes. Her paintings explore the subtle connections between the body, nature, and memory, expressing sensations that often exist beyond language.

Lee’s intuitive and accumulative process allows each layer to retain traces of what came before, creating surfaces where concealment and revelation coexist. Through this process, she transforms personal experience into open-ended visual environments that invite viewers to encounter their own memories, emotions, and interpretations.

Works