Current 

H-flux Gallery is delighted to present Poetic Fantasy, the debut solo exhibition of Sangyeal Lee, on view from January 21st to 28th. Using the grandeur of mountains and rocks as a primary medium, Lee’s latest works reflect on the existential boundaries of human being. The exhibition delves into a fluid sense of identity and psychological terrains that shift and reshape themselves amidst unfamiliar surroundings, offering a profound glimpse into the artist’s inner world. Artist Statement My life has been a continuous cycle of frequent displacement and transition. Each time I was cast into an unfamiliar environment, I experienced the fragmentation of familiar connections and dilution of my identity. We often believe we see things ‘as they are,’ but in reality, we only see them ‘as we know them.’ My work begins in the gap between this habitual knowledge and the raw, visceral moment when I confront the unknown. In my paintings, landscapes transform into familiar, yet unfamiliar, spaces. Within these spaces where familiarity and alienation coexist, I introduce figures—either naked or concealed behind objects. These figures play a role similar to Adam in Eden, cautiously exploring a world that has not yet been defined. Their act of hiding, peering out at what lies before them, is driven by both fear and curiosity: the idea that stepping into the unknown might transform one into a different being. I meticulously reassemble the scattered fragments of my life in my paintings. Just as I combine disparate materials—layering oil paint over a base on traditional hwaseonji (rice paper)—I reconstruct my own psychological topography by blending memories with present sensations. Therefore, the act of climbing a mountain or facing a wall in my paintings is not an act of submission to a higher power. On the contrary, it is a form of resistance. Each painting is a persistent effort to express the fact that "I am here" without losing myself in a world both intimate and strange. It is my way of living honestly.