Myung Ja Lee

Oriental paintings in Korea mainly use “Meok (oriental black ink)” on “Han-ji (Korean traditional paper)”. As paintings do not use many colors, one stroke of the brush is more significant compared to other paintings. As an oriental artist, I’ve always contemplated the meaning of ‘my own stroke’ that can express my thoughts and feelings in my drawing.
As my work transitioned to abstract oriental art, I turned my eyes to other materials to express ‘my own stroke’. And one of them was “Han-ji”. Han-ji was simply a piece of paper that embraced all the drawings on a white background, but I started to rediscover the use of this paper: I twisted a thread using Han-ji, tore it into pieces, and attached it to a canvas, or wet with water and hammered with a steel brush to make fluffy texture. As I tried different ways of using Han-ji, this became my new ‘stroke’.
As this example shows, my paintings didn’t stop at traditional oriental paintings but tried to rediscover all materials used in oriental paintings such as Han-ji, oriental watercolor, animal hide glue, twines, and others, to express my experience and feelings in an abstract form.

KIAF (Korea International Art Fair), Seoul, 2023
Seoul Galleries Art Fair, Seoul, 2023
Solo exhibition, Seoul, 2023
KIAF (Korea International Art Fair), Seoul, 2024
Seoul Galleries Art Fair, Seoul, 2024
Solo exhibition, Seoul, 2025