Lee Myungmi Korea, b. 1950

Lee Myungmi graduated from Hongik University's Department of Painting in 1972 and actively participated in the National Exhibition, "Indépendant", "Seoul Contemporary Art Festival", and "Korean Experimental Artists". In 1974, she participated as a founding member of the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, which was an important turning point for Korean contemporary art, and as the youngest female artist, her existence stood out in a male-centered system. In fact, until the mid-70s, Lee Myungmi produced experimental works in the style of monochromatic painting using physical properties, such as burning sponges or attaching vinyl to canvases, but at some point, she had nowhere to go and did not feel any more fun. Entering the late 70s, Lee Myungmi boldly broke away from the existing art trends that placed importance on logical concepts, building a new visual language according to her sensibility and intuition, and opening a free path toward a pleasant sensuality of artistic expression, which was the beginning of "PLAY".

"PLAY" has been used as the title of numerous solo exhibitions since it was named for her first solo exhibition in 1977, and is an important element of her life until now, more than 40 years later. Her "PLAY" was a harbinger of postmodernism that presented unconventional color and freedom of thought in the era of monochromatic painting and conceptual art. This concept implied intense vitality for life and new standards of value. For her, "PLAY" means that she is not afraid of an unexpected future in the diverse and complex conditions of life, and the positivity of coincidence means the positivity of the world.

In Lee Myungmi's work, all elements of life compose a visual language, from beings with life, such as animals, people, and plants, to objects such as houses, clothes, food, furniture, and numbers and letters. Lee Myungmi expresses ordinary objects that have lost value and are alienated from society simply and clearly like children with intense primary colors. Lee Myungmi's "TEXT," which appears with such symbolic images, refers to the imitated image in the painting or describes the situation that occurs in language as it is. As such, Lee Myungmi's work seems to have a fundamentalist attitude that returns to the emotion of an innocent child but has a pop art element that expresses the subject matter of everyday life in vivid colors and repetitive patterns. In addition, it reminds her of expressionism, which expresses the essence of life with subjective emotions rather than universal truth, and shows its relevance to modernism at the same time, but her works appear the freedom and liberation that cannot be confined to any category.