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Gallery Hyundai hosts solo exhibition of artist Lee Woo-sung

Published: 17 Mar. 2026, 18:37

LEE JIAN
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Artist Lee Woo-sung speaks to reporters about his upcoming solo show at Gallery Hyundai in Jongno District, central Seoul, on March 17. [LEE JIAN]

Gallery Hyundai in Jongno District, central Seoul, is set to open Lee Woo-sung’s solo exhibition on Wednesday, marking a new chapter for the 42-year-old painter with proven craft.

A graduate of the painting department at Hongik University’s College of Fine Arts, Lee went on to earn his master’s degree in fine arts from Korea National University of Arts. His work has been exhibited at numerous institutions, including a special exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art, a group show at Art Sonje Center and a solo presentation at Hakgojae Gallery.

Best known for his realist depictions of people, Lee turns toward surrealism in this latest solo exhibition, exploring deeper, more candid emotions within the meticulously rendered landscapes and cityscapes through approximately 40 paintings, including hanging works.

“I painted as if writing in a diary. I experienced events I once thought were someone else’s story, which then became my own, and passed. I turned that into paintings,” Lee told reporters at the gallery on Tuesday. “Before, I didn’t try to bring emotion into my work, but this time I was able to paint with some distance. What’s changed is that I decided to begin from a place of honesty.”

"The way home at the Han River bridge" (translated, 2025) [GALLERY HYUNDAI]

Over the past 15 years of his artist career, Lee has focused on capturing the "present." In the early 2010s, for instance, he depicted the anxieties, contradictions and fragmentation of his twenties through figures rowing across seas of fire or riding burning swan pedal boats. In “Please Sit in the Smoke” (2023), he reduced the background to monochrome fields and brought figures into close-up, intensifying the emotional charge of their expressions and silhouettes. In the self-portrait series “Working on It Now” (2023), he introduced cartoonlike figures rendered in simple lines, placing versions of himself just beyond the frame, imbued with melancholy and unease.

“The ‘present’ that Lee seeks to capture is not a fixed or fragmented moment that slips into the past and disappears into memory,” the gallery explains. “Like an expression one can never forget, the ‘present’ he constructs is a meaningful and beautiful moment that endures, cutting across past, present and future.”

"Until dawn, we" (translated, 2025-2026) [GALLERY HYUNDAI]

The theme continues in his exhibition at Gallery Hyundai, where landscapes are infused with surrealist elements. Lee captures the present through meticulously detailed renderings of scenery drawn from photographs he has taken over the years, both in Korea and abroad. He contrasts these with more exaggerated, caricature-like forms — defined by soft, flowing lines — used to depict people, clouds and waves. These shifting, transient elements introduce a sense of movement, evoking a dreamlike atmosphere suspended between reality and imagination.

“I’ve been thinking about how to depict things that move and change — waves, drifting clouds, people passing through. Within a still landscape, I try to trace these fleeting, changing moments in curves,” said Lee.

Landscape for Lee stands in for identity.

“This set of works began as I translated landscape photographs into paintings, one by one —landscapes that remind me of who I was then, of who we were; landscapes that connect to who I am now,” the artist said. And through these landscapes, the artist ultimately asks both himself and the viewers: “If I were to ask you, will there be an answer?”

“Will There Be an Answer” runs through April 26.