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HEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS at luggage store presents TOURNESOL AWARD WINNER FOR PAINTING YOON LEE Solo Exhibition large scale paintings
July 7 – August 5, 2006
Opening Reception:
Friday, July 7, 2006 – 6-8pm
Artist Talk:
Saturday, August 5, 12pm
Gallery Hours
Wed-Sat. 12-5pm and by appt.
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At first glance, Yoon Lee’s paintings appear exuberant, as if her gestures capture the moment whenchaotic forces transform into ordered systems. She squirts vividly colored acrylic paint out of plasticbottles to create slick, tactile surfaces filled with dynamic swarms of abstract shapes. Her bold yetgraceful forms seem swept up in their own fast-paced trajectories, often set against traces of industrialarchitecture. When viewed more closely, however,it becomes evident that Lee’s seemingly spontaneous marksare actually computer generated and painstakingly executed. She predetermines her formal vocabulary byscanning and “mixing” popular media images, drawings, and photographs of freeways, railroads, andengineering structures taken along the Port of Oakland—visual sites and by-products of globalcapitalism that the artist experiences on a daily basis. Her monumental paintings mesmerizewith their synthetic materiality, ultimately evoking the ambivalent desire we feel when confronted by colorfulplastic consumer goods, beautifully crafted confections, or successful advertising campaigns. We are seduced into believing that these glossy,overdetermined objects possess the power to comfortm us. As the artist explains, “This connection betweenthe work and consumer goods reflects my interest inmconsumption as a strategy to assuage urban anxiety. Mywork addresses the relationship between this anxietymand the speed in which information and
signals travel through space.”
Born in 1975 in Pusan, Korea and raised in San Diego, California, Yoon Lee attended the University ofCalifornia, San Diego, where she studied computer science, mechanical engineering and existentialphilosophy before deciding on a career in the arts. To augment her painting training, she studied for twoyears at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia before completing her BA in Visual Arts at UCSD. She earnedher MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. Since then, her work has beenfeatured in solo and group shows throughout California, most recently in San Francisco at theTransAmerica Center, Crucible Steel Gallery, The Lab, Hang Gallery, Diego Rivera Gallery, and CatharineClark Gallery, where her paintings in the 2006 “Moxie” exhibition garnered critical acclaim. In 2005 her workwas selected by Arts Benicia for “Cream—From the Top”, an exhibition highlighting the most promisinggraduates from Bay Area MFA programs. Lee was awarded 2005 residencies at both Headlands Center for the Artsas part of her Tournesol Award and at Idyllwild Arts near Los Angeles as a participant in their “Painting’s Edge” series.
--Lydia Matthews,
Associate Professor of Visual Studies,
California College of the Arts Headlands Center for the Arts is a nonprofit
organization annually offering residencies to
approximately 40 local, national and international artists. Headlands supports artists in the exploration of their work and serves as a laboratory whose focus is on the artist's process of investigation and creation by providing an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Throughartists’ residencies and public programs, Headlands offers opportunities for reflection, dialogue and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society. (www.headlands.org)
The Tournesol Award sponsored by Headlands Center for the Arts was established by an anonymous donor to
recognize one emerging artist each yeare whose primary medium is painting. The goal is to provide the
artist with the financial and community support to assist their artistic development in the critical years after school.
The award includes a cash stipend, a one year residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts and a solo exhibition at a Bay Area
venue.
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