Miju Lee (South Korea, 1982) explores the fragile territory between memory, emotion and imagination through painting. Her works depict familiar objects, figures and interiors suspended in dreamlike atmospheres, where reality dissolves into states of introspection, fantasy and fleeting perception. Rather than constructing narratives, Lee creates emotional landscapes that evoke sensations difficult to articulate in words — moments that emerge like fragments of dreams, only to disappear again from memory.

 

Working with a flattened pictorial space and a delicate balance between clarity and ambiguity, Lee assembles intimate constellations of beings, objects and symbols that coexist like accumulated traces of lived experience. Her compositions often feel suspended between consciousness and reverie, allowing the viewer to navigate scenes charged with psychological resonance and quiet emotional tension.

 

A recurring element within her practice is the figure of the “Yeti,” a symbolic and deeply personal presence that appears throughout her work as a guardian-like entity embodying inner states and emotional vulnerability. Through these recurring motifs, Lee transforms subjective experience into universal imagery, inviting contemplation on solitude, tenderness and the subconscious.

 

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions in Seoul, Taipei, Paris and Mallorca, as well as group exhibitions in New York, Madrid and Dubai.