YOUNG LEE: THROUGHT THE NIGHT
VILLAZAN announces Young Lee's second solo exhibition with the gallery in Madrid, entitled "Through the Night". This exhibition features new works that represent her studio at night, when creativity thrives, unveiling the pressures she faces as an artist.
June 13 - June 29, 2024
Young Lee, born in Seoul in 1983, crafts unique worlds by blending imaginary characters with real-life subjects. Her creativity shines through inanimate objects adorned with expressive faces, often depicting herself as she navigates complex emotions and contemporary issues.
Lee's work is characterized by captivatingly colorful yet dark scenes populated with cartoonish characters, inviting viewers into a whimsical journey akin to "Alice in Wonderland." Through her art, she creates a mesmerizing rabbit hole experience, leading spectators into her imaginative and thought-provoking realms.
In the exhibition, Young invites us into her studio at night, when creativity thrives, unveiling the pressures she faces as an artist. She boldly highlights her struggles by repeatedly depicting the same objects in her studio: broken pencils, sleepy brushes, dull mugs, and sweaty clocks ticking angrily. These objects and the relentless passage of time dominate her work and highlight her vulnerability.
Each piece is a mise-en-abyme, scenes within scenes where Young—always her own subject matter, often repeated within each painting—is studying, reading, browsing cell phones, thinking, and perpetually on the verge of painting. Transforming her anxieties into seemingly cute yet tangible forms, she captures our attention and draws us deeper into her introspective world.
Clues and references are hidden throughout her work. In one piece, she clutches the existential work "The Story of Mr Sommer," and the ghost of Philip Guston repeatedly haunts her. Upon closer inspection, we find images of the artist treading water, sweating profusely, and reading under a harsh, interrogation-room light.
The result is a series of sophisticated paintings of interiors—both literal and metaphorical—revealing a much darker undercurrent beneath the initially cheerful palette and cherubic figures.