2GIL29 GALLERY is pleased to present a solo exhibition <Dance> by “painting artist” Moonjoo Lee, from 11th Nov. 2021 to 3rd Dec. 2021. Right after studying in the USA and returning to Korea, the first theme she examined was the ‘Landscape of the urban redevelopment’, however in this exhibition, her paintings show new series of artworks that focused on humans, not a city space. In realistic landscape painting with observing artists’ surroundings, there exists an artist’s particular interpretation of the social value of art. Those artworks are one of her series of processes based on an outdoor dance class scene when she passed by a park few years ago. As viewers can see from <In the park>, there are a group of people, old men with gray hair but who are very energetic, in contrast, old age people who struggle with a dance step, elderly men who dance for remedial exercise, and the part-time hired young man who dances for participants’ partner, they all try to perform hardly and diligently following a young tutor’s order from a microphone. This dance class was a Gu-office’s “Healthy 100years old class” program which runs once a week in early Autumn 2013. This scene of dance class catches the artist’s sight accidentally, but it remained a deep impression on her mind and was finally visualized as a beauty, sense of loss, transience, and various mixed emotions.

 

Among the protagonists in Moonjoo Lee’s paintings, she gives special attention to old people’s life. Because the old people are usually stigmatized as a misfit without new and sophisticated social manner and concepts, in our rapidly changing time. In other words, there is a widespread prevailing perception of old people, for instance, old people who have a stubborn character with their narrow views, and who need to be looked after because they have no productivity anymore. It makes no odds what was the starting point of the artist’s motivation, rather than explore the social issues through her artworks, Moonjoo Lee seeks to more concentrate on visualizing matter. In limited circumstances to find a reference image and observe a subject, she devotes much effort to methods of expression between realism and obscurity, detailed space and flat plane, or how to color, contrast, and simplify various visual elements. Each of her artworks looks like a photograph. While a new term called “100 years old ages” appeared in our society with youth image to the fore, but our reality of society still faces difficulties to embrace a person ages. In this context, the ‘Dance’ series is a re-thinking process of awakening one’s consciousness and unconsciousness prejudice and human existence image through visualizing the old people that everyone will encounter in the future. And this series could be also the traces that are constantly created within the artist’s picture plane with the artist’s natural senses and consideration of social consciousness.

 

In this regard, this <Dance> solo exhibition by Moonjoo Lee will provide a great opportunity to audience relish the deep energy from her matured paintings over time. 

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Artist Biography

Moonjoo Lee(B. 1972) majored a western painting at Seoul University and graduated school, also completed Cranbrook Academy of Art in the USA. Since 2005, she buckled down to exhibit her artworks in Kumho Museum and The alternative space pool in Korea, and participated in an artist residency at MMCA Residency Changdong, SeMA NANJI Residency, and Künstlerhaus bethanien studio program as well. From mid 1990’s she has rephrased various city’s urban redevelopment not only in Seoul but also in Boston, Detroit and Berlin with her peculiar pictorial technique, and has sought to find a social role of art consistently.