ARTIST STATEMENT
I make inside-out portraits of people I am surrounded by to understand myself and the world around me. My work represents my shifting identity as an immigrant, woman, or hybrid in a globalized world with a strong influence on Social Media. I make paintings, drawings, installations, and public art, influenced by surrealism and animation.
My recent work series ‘Waterman the Stranger (2018-2019)’ is about a person like me who struggles to shape identity and stay in a state of flux in a new place or new circumstances. I started by asking – ‘if I mimic what an ideal life looks like in a new place, will I blend in well?’ In this series, I deal with alienation because of pursuing the self-defined ideal life. I illustrate myself as shifting water that repels, absorbs, reflects, and fails to show the figure’s struggle to find a place within its environment. The backgrounds reflect ‘a better life’ in Utah that I imagined. This series started from my struggle of settling in Utah after moving from New York.
BIOGRAPHY
Jiyoun Lee-Lodge is a Korean-born, Salt Lake City, Utah based artist. Selected exhibition venues include Utah Museum of Contemporary Museum, Gallery Korea, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Recession Art, Gallery Ho, PizzaArte, ArtGate, Maum, Arario, the Bowery Club, Clinton Project, New York; ArtMora, New York, New Jersey, and Seoul, South Korea; 437CO gallery, Colorado; Rio Gallery, Urban Arts Gallery, Draw Inc, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Utah and more. She curated ‘Hybrid Life Form’ at Franklin St (Project Space) in NY, and her recent installation projects include an ArtShop Project at Gateway and The Block Main Street Kiosk Project, Utah. She recently completed the public art ‘The Arrival’ that is the commission by the NYC Department of Education, Public Art for Public Schools at PS 144 addition, Queens. Jiyoun is the recipient of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s Artist-in-residence program, Ahl Foundation Visual Arts Award, Manhattan Graphics Center Workspace Fellowship, New York, ArtMora Residency Program, New York, and Teaching fellowship at Brooklyn College. Jiyoun also won Small Matters show at Mesa University, CO, Statewide Annual at Utah Division of Arts and Museums. She was one of the finalists of NYC Urban Canvas as well. Jiyoun received an MFA in Studio Art from Brooklyn College, New York.
