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Jack Hanley Gallery Sept 6 - Oct 7 2018

Jack Hanley Gallery is excited to present Access To Tools, Maia Ruth Lee’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Lee’s work addresses the economy of language, new lexicon, alphabets and their transposition into systems of signs and symbols. Like language itself, her work combines structure and practicality with implicit subtleties that shape her own visual vocabulary in a range of mediums.

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Auspicious Glyphs are a series of wrought iron wall sculptures reconstructed from found scraps that are isolated and combined into a glossary of glyphs. The decorative elements are originally used to embellish structures that secure boundaries, adorning fences and window bars around New York City. In the accompanying chart Nine Glyph-Tools for Self-Defense, the lexicographical notion of glyphs is further transformed into a practical set of tools that can activate a mental self-defense to protect oneself against their own fear, sorrow or jealousy.

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Bondage Baggage is a series of sculptures based on Lee’s observation and documentation of luggage at the Kathmandu International Airport in Nepal over the past five years. About a third of Nepal’s GDP is generated through Nepalese migrant workers who carry out labor in the Gulf and Malaysia. Upon return to their country, they frequently bring back valuable goods like electronics or clothes with them, disguised in a unique way to protect their newly acquired valuables from possible theft at the airport security. Wrapped and bound with variously colored tarp, rope and tapes, the meticulously packaged luggages combine practicality and creativity while carrying their own personal stories through space and time.

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Lee’s video projection The Stranger shows footage of her father’s documentation of Nepal in the late Eighties. His tapes survey the environment that Lee and her family trekked through for his linguistic research of the villagers in the Himalayan area. In the second part of the video, 25 years later, Lee continues his survey, accompanying her father’s early contemplations with her own journal entries.

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Prototypes I & II , Size variable, tarp, tape, rope, fabric, Courtesy of L'inconnue Gallery 2018

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Maia Ruth Lee is an artist and educator. In 1983, Lee was born in Busan, South Korea. Lee's parents were Christian missionaries. Lee grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal. Lee has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. Lee also studied at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada.

As an artist, Lee has exhibited her art in New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal. Lee's first solo exhibition was at Eli Ping Frances Perkins in New York. In 2017, while Lee was pregnant, she modeled for fashion brand Eckhaus Latta's spring 2018 show. Lee is a director at the arts-focused non-profit group Wide Rainbow. In September 2018 to October 2018, Lee held a solo exhibition of her sculpture pieces at Jack Hanley Gallery. In February 2019, Lee was selected by curators Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta as a participating artist in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, opening in May 2019 at the Whitney Museum Of American Art in New York City.

maia ruth lee

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Old Future, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 76 2/5 × 51 1/5 in 194 × 130 cm

The portrait and the landscape are among the most common and traditional genres in art history. Even though they might not be addressing new things, because of this history artists are still engaged with these subjects and use them to locate iconic elements that represent contemporary life.

This is because they perceive these subjects as being able to reflect the times whilst still being anchored in tradition. Despite differing levels of engagement and practice, when looking at the tendencies of works by significant artists who have played a leading role in the hegemony of contemporary art, they mostly transform and vary these typical elements according to the demands and form of their time.

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Old Future, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 76 2/5 × 51 1/5 in 194 × 130 cm

There seems to be no better subject to address their stories than portraits and no better object to identify the conditions of living than landscapes. When considering symptoms such as the loss or confusion of identity which most contemporary people are sick of, the figure and landscape are not outdated subjects, and rather can be interpreted as some of the powerful and constant media in visual art. - Kho, Chung-Hwan (art critic)

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Old Future, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 35 4/5 × 28 7/10 in 91 × 73 cm

He says, the series of make him experience the prospect of his creation by getting together nude and Han-bok (Korean dress).

His works are derived from original idea which is putting Korean dress on western women and brings out a sense of beauty using air brushing technique.

By harmonizing the structure of opposition between the East and the West, traditional and contemporary, body and soul, and the Eastern culture and the Western culture, new fascination of the beauty of human body could be created.

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Old Future, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 44 1/10 × 76 2/5 in 112 × 194 cm

born in 1969 2002 Graduated from M.P.A.(Plastic Arts), Paris VIII University, France / 1998 Graduated from Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Versailles, France / 1994 B.F.A. Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea Selected Solo Exhibitions(13 times) 2006, 2008 Kumho Museum (Seoul, Korea) / 2007 Gallery Christine Park (Paris, France) / 2003, 2004, 2007 Gongsan Gallery (Daegu, Korea) / 1999 Gallery Bernanos (Paris, France) / 1998 Gallery FIAP Jean-Monet (Paris, France)

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EFFULGE 2012 - 2014

Acrylic, Glass, Aluminum, Photonic Crystal, Neodymium, Motor, Computer, Electronic Micro Controller, Electromagenticfield Generator, Muon-detector, Air Pump

A project of Fluid Skies, 2012

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AMORPH 2018

Glycerin, water, led

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ELUVIAL HORIZON 2014

Paramagnet Particle, Distilled Water

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ARGOS 2018

Gelger Müller tube, glass, aluminium, micro controller

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IMPULSE (CASCADE PROJECT) 2018

Microfluid dynamics installation

Yunchul Kim is an artist, an electroacoustic music composer, and the founder of Studio Locus Solus in Seoul. His latest works are focusing on the artistic potential of fluid dynamics, metamaterials (photonic crystals) and especially on the context of magnetohydrodynamics. His works have been shown internationally including: FACT, Liverpool; ZKM, Germany; Ars Electronica, Austria; International Triennial of New media art, China; VIDA15.0, Spain; Transmediale, Germany; ISEA, Germany; and New York Digital Salon, amongst others.

Kim was the winner of the Collide International Award 2016, CERN, and was awarded the third prize at VIDA 15.0, Vida Foundation in 2013. He has received grants from renowned institutions and organizations such as Ernst Schering Foundation, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art.

Having taught in several academic institutions, Kim was chief researcher of the research group Mattereality at the Transdisciplinary Research Program at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. He is a member of the art and science project group Fluid Skies as well as Liquid Things, an artistic research project at the Art and Science Department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria.

Yunchul Kim







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