COOPER COLE is pleased to announce a solo exhibition from Jennie Jieun Lee.
In recent years, more and more people are looking to online communities such as YouTube, Reddit and 4chan for objective answers to their body dysmorphia. Discussion forums titled “Am I Ugly?” open up self-conscious individuals to varied and often cruel feedback from an equally insecure public. On the one hand, Lee’s abstracted masks could represent the faces these people imagine as their own, especially when trapped in their own thoughts; or alternatively the anonymous respondents of the Internet. However, her cavalier approaches to the tradition of hand building ceramics calls into question the problematic idea of a simple pretty/ugly binary. Lee’s extreme application of colour, disparate textures, and willingness to embrace imperfections of her process amplify this thought. These masks speak to Lee’s own inner voices, experiences and phobias, and explore the effects of how societal norms shape the human psyche. They exist to personify the different faces many of us wear to combat self-inflicted stigmas and general uneasiness when engaging with people IRL.
Jennie Jieun Lee (b. 1972, Seoul, Korea) received a Masters Studio Diploma from the School of Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Her work has been exhibited across the US and internationally, at galleries such as Martos Gallery, New York; TSA LA, Los Angeles, USA; Galerie Lefebvre et Fils, Paris, France; and Jacob Bjorn Gallery, Arhus, Denmark. Lee currently lives and works in Brooklyn, USA.
For additional information please contact the gallery:
info@coopercolegallery.com
+1.416.531.8000
