Arthur Kwon Lee

Arthur Kwon Lee is a Korean American painter best known for commenting on man’s sense of ecological solidarity and individuation through large scale paintings and murals. His works tackle ideas of social constructionism by a combination of unique mark making and archetypal subject matter. By rendering the model in a barrage of gestural and rectilinear paint strokes, the line where the figure begins and ends is blurred. 

Lee received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus in painting from the Corcoran College of Art before their inevitable merger with George Washington University. His work is imbued with psychoanalytical and ecological themes, the figures are so entwined in the field of pixilation they almost lose their individuality: Making references to Freud’s Oceanic Awareness and the humbling reality of the Gaia hypothesis. 

Along with a chain of murals in the east coast Lee's paintings have been exhibited in Italy's Gallery of San Carpoforo, the Skyline Hotel, Gallery 31, the Target Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Viewers of the work always inquire the relationship we have to materiality when seen beyond our macular vision. Like a microscope, the works function at different levels of distance eventually demanding the observer’s intimacy due to the requirement of reaching a closer distance in order to see the subtle complexity and detail. 

Lee is currently working out of RONIN 浪人 Studio, right next to Sun Trust Bank in Adams Morgan.