Lee Jung Woong

Biography

Lee Jung Woong, who made a name for himself internationally with the series of "Brush" Paintings, was born in Korea in 1963. 

Looking at the paintings of Lee Jung-Woong, one is appalled at the extremely meticulous reality of his works. Such reality surpasses that of hyper-realism and photo-realism. Even a close look at his works cannot reveal traces of brush touch, leaving one to to wonder how that could happen. Viewers at his works naturally try to ascertain if they are real photos by using a magnifying glass. Such keen depiction that deceives the eyes of viewers is not made possible unless the artist can have excellent grasp of formation and outstanding sense of color. This sense of color that is capable of adapting the realistic color image for his paintings is apparently innate. This is because even though the function of a hand is superb, the eye causes optical illusion to what works the hand.

Rather than pursuing visual images through thick touch sense of oil colors, Lee Jung-Woong attempts to reveal the mental value projected into his paintings. Virtually, his paintings do not nearly reveal the properties of oil colors. They hide such properties and vehemently render the surface texture sense of the subject matter, thus triggering visual confusion. His paintings put viewers in the illusion of looking at real objects beyond realistic images. This technique is at the level of magic.

The empty space in his paintings is a space of relative concept corresponding to subject matter.He uses korean paper instead of canvas in rendering a series of paintings involving a brush as the subject matter. Korean paper is white with nothing on it, but serves as an object of independent properties thus making it an expressive space. Korean paper, seemingly involving nothing, has its unique texture and expression that helps to highlight the subject matter. It does so because it is manufactured manually and not mechanically. Lee Jung-Woong chooses Korean paper over canvas presumably because of the symbolic feature of the Oriental material of Korean paper. His paintings depicted on korean paper are distinctively different from those on canvas.With the material remaining as it is without the background rendered abstractly, the reality is more intensively highlighted. With work using Korean paper, the Korean paper can be an actual background, as well as a ground where the subject matter lies. Here, the Korean paper is presented as not a processed reality, but as the reality itself. Thus, Korean paper is an actual object as well as realistic space.

Lee-Jung-Woong's works embraces certain formative principles, seeking to make dual structure based on the Orient's yin and yang thoughts, opposing concepts such as calligraphic paintings and oil paintings, forms and silhouettes, dynamic and still images, reality and false image, oil and water colors. This creates a sense of  visual tension in a conflicting state, simultaneously pursuing a dramatic reconciliation and harmony to attain a sense of formative beauty.