SooJi Lee

When She engages in conversations with people, she is more interested in how the they speak rather than what they say. She pays attention to their tone, gestures, and the words they often use, while imagining how they would have lived so far. In her everyday life, she finds the last episode of a soap drama the least exciting, and she wonders about the stories of the elderly pedestrians she sees on the streets. The artist is more interested in knowing the journey that led an object to stand in front of her, rather than the object itself.

While she was in the Netherlands, she witnessed the peculiar and unprecedented way of working of the artists around me. Then she came to realize that the process itself holds meaning. It wasn't just because those processes looked impressive; She came to understand that, more often than not, all processes tend to bring forth failures and struggles rather than be positive and productive. Still, she believes that going through such difficult times could make the outcomes stronger, more valuable.

When such physical methodology and internal fierceness consummate then exhibited, the past processes sometimes become weakened. Within each process, there are countless moments going to different directions; some may move forward and then return, stay still, or quickly pass by. However, when the artwork is completed, all those processes become trivial tools within linear time, existing simply for the sake of closure, losing their meaning. She came to believe that these processes should be respected more. She pondered over the process itself, wondering whether it could be powerful and complete on its own.


Education

  • Information Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven, 2014 - 2016
  • Industrial Design, Hongik University, Seoul, 2005 - 2012

Exhibitions

Solo

  • 4 Tools, Soorim Art Center, Seoul, 2023
  • Goodbye to the art, LimestoneBooks, Maastricht, 2023
  • Form forming, Formation, Incheon art platform, Incheon, 2023
  • Liminal Phase, OCI Museum, Seoul, 2022
  • When Attitudes Become Typeface, 4bid Gallery, Amsterdam, 2017

Group

  • Typo Janchi Saisai 2022-2023, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, 2023
  • Your platform, your park / Re-wild garden : Forest, Incheon art platform, Incheon, 2022 - 2023
  • Hamel residency, Post Territory Ujeonguk, Seoul, 2021
  • Cheongju Craft Bienniale, Culture Factory, Chungju, 2021
  • The Best Dutch Book Designs 2019, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2020
  • Open Craft, Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, 2019
  • Open Studio van Eyck, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2019
  • The Way We Face Leather, Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, 2018
  • The Materialists Present Paper, Ventura Future, Mian, 2018
  • The Materialists Present Paper, Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, 2018
  • The Anti Efficients, Veem, Eindhoven, 2017
  • The Anti Efficients, Kazerne gallery, Eindhoven, 2017

Grant & Awards

  • OCI young creatives, OCI Museum, Seoul, 2022
  • Artists in the spotlight, Arte Laguna Prize 15, Venice, 2021
  • The Best Dutch Book Designs 2019, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / Stichting De Best Verzorgde Boeken, Amsterdam, 2020
  • Typographic Excellence, 63rd Type Directors Club Awards, New York, 2017

Residency

  • SeMA Nanji Residency, Seoul, 2023
  • Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2022
  • Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2018

SooJi Lee. All rights reserved.

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