Jimin Lee: Ballad of the Mundane
September 10, 2009 – October 4, 2009

    
L: Tropical Heading, photo etching, aquatint, hard ground, spit bite, pigment on Kozo, chine collé, 20 x 26”, 2008
R: Rainy Arrival, photo etching, aquatint, hard ground, pigment on Kozo, chine collé, 20 x 26”, 2008

Ballad of the Mundane, a solo exhibition by Oakland, California-based artist Jimin Lee, was presented at Open Studio from September 10 to October 4, 2009.

Utilizing the most mundane objects and experiences of contemporary existence, Jimin Lee’s work seeks to convey a sense of emotional and psychological intensity through establishing a symbolic relation to the daily rituals that shape everyday networks of sociability and human relationships. Through the use of various print media, Lee’s work suggests daily rituals, but also conveys a metaphoric sense of social and personal life.

Ballad of the Mundane will showcase some of Lee’s earlier pieces, in addition to newer work. Whereas Lee’s earlier work focused on common objects of domestic utility in order to unmask complex experiences encountered within everyday surroundings, in her current work, the objects have become animate and are in motion. According to Rebecca Diederichs in the accompanying essay, Lee’s depictions of “containers that carry one in travel become metaphors for life in process.”

To view photos please, click on the thumbnails below.

Jimin Lee is a print media artist whose research field includes intaglio, lithography, book arts, and mixed media printmaking. Lee utilizes the most mundane objects of contemporary existence and her work seeks to convey a sense of emotional and psychological intensity through establishing a symbolic relation to the daily rituals that shape her everyday networks of sociability and human relationship. Combining digital printing, photomechanical processes and chine collé she uses numerous plates in each of her etchings to produce uniquely complex images.

Lee, who was born in 1965 in Inchon, Korea, is a graduate of Seoul National University with a BFA in painting (1990) and MFA in printmaking (1992). She also holds a second MFA in Printmaking from San Francisco Art Institute, USA. Lee has had solo shows at QCC Art Gallery, the City University of New York (1999); Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco (1999); Anchor Graphics, Chicago (2003); do ART Gallery/Hyundai Window Gallery, Seoul (2004); Shirota Gallery, Tokyo (2005, 2008); AndrewShire Gallery (2006), Los Angeles and Megalo Gallery, Canberra, Australia (2007). Notable group exhibitions include Crosscurrents: 8 American Contemporary Printmakers at Il Quadrato di Omega, Rome, Italy and Tradition & Innovation II at Museum Zallerein Halle 6, Essen, Germany. Since 1995 Lee has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area and she is an associate professor and heads the print media program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Rebecca Diederichs is a Toronto-based artist, writer, student, photographer and imagemaker.

To download a PDF copy of the exhibition brochure, please click here. In order to view PDF documents, you will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer.

All installation photos by Sara Kelly for Open Studio, 2009. All artwork and artwork images are © Jimin Lee and courtesy of the artist.