Miju Lee (South Korea, 1982) explores human emotion through painting, giving form to subjective experience. She paints clearly recognisable objects; however, the images in her works seem to be perceived from a state of half light rather than sharp awareness, as if they emerged from fantasies, daydreams or drowsiness. Some dreams are so vivid that we confuse them with reality even after waking. Resonating with meanings that are at once clear and elusive, impossible to fully describe in words, these deeply emotional and fleeting scenes tend to evaporate quickly from memory.

Lee has shown a unique ability to faithfully translate these indescribable scenes into painting. “I often pick up one or two shells or clams when I walk along the beach. I call this habit ‘jupjup’, a slang term for ‘picking up and collecting objects’ that first appeared in the Korean MMO gaming community.” For Miju Lee, the canvas is a surface that houses a multitude of imagined or lived stories. Elements accumulate and merge with the background in a flattened perspective, as she composes interior landscapes like a collection of beings and objects gathered together as so many memories of a life.

Formative works such as Yeti strikingly reflect her introverted side. Yeti is a muse and source of inspiration that frequently appears in her dreams. Like a guardian spirit, it is transformed into an object that embodies her inner feelings.