Jaeseok Lee (b. 1989) began his work by realistically depicting autobiographical experiences and has continued to explore the similarities between the components of the human body and objects for years. The artist establishes new relationships between humans and objects, and the juxtaposition of these different images created in the process evokes a surreal atmosphere in his paintings.

Jaeseok Lee’s work originates from his experiences in the military. While serving in this highly regimented environment, where everyone had to conform to the same rules in both behavior and appearance, he found it strange how people were treated almost like objects. Soldiers were assigned numbers, further reinforcing their objectification, while weapons, in contrast, were valued so highly that there was even a saying, “Treat your gun like your lover.” 

Through his encounters with the intersection of the human body and machinery, Lee became interested in the functional similarities between firearm components and human organs. Drawing from these experiences, he began creating works that depict gun triggers in red, deconstruct firearms and human bodies into organs and mechanical parts, and rearrange them like an instruction manual.

Various sizes and shapes of fragmented human forms, depicted alongside firearm components rendered in red like human organs, are based on the artist’s own body joints or specific anatomical structures. These fragmented body parts symbolize the individual or the "fragment" concealed beneath the enforced discipline, control, and management systems that sustain a collective or whole. 

For example, in one of his early representative works, The Instructions with the Body (2018), disassembled mechanical parts are meticulously arranged in the foreground, while a human figure in the classical contrapposto pose—a posture historically associated with idealized beauty—stands in the background. However, this figure, representing the most ideal and aesthetically refined form, is obscured by the scattered components, making it impossible to see in its entirety.

Furthermore, in Arranged Parts (2018), severed human hands and arms are placed among scattered mechanical components, appearing as if they are merely another part of the machinery. According to the artist, this work reveals the ambiguous boundary between the body and the machine by depicting a state in which the human becomes a component of the machine—or conversely, the machine becomes a part of the human—existing simultaneously as both "a body and an object."

In Jaeseok Lee's paintings, objects take on a reddish, blood-like hue, while the human body appears fragmented like mechanical components, blurring the boundaries between the two. By stacking machine parts vertically and referring to them as self-portraits or frequently incorporating skulls—an entity positioned between body and object—Lee personifies objects such as guns and machines or adopts them as his persona, constructing a new relationship between objects and the human body.

In Jaeseok Lee’s paintings, the elements within the composition are rigidly arranged according to the structured grid of vertical and horizontal lines. The artist perceives the canvas frame as a reflection of the world he inhabits, carefully constructing and organizing images within it to form a structured system. 

This process of structuring is deeply influenced by Lee’s intense memories of his time in the military. According to him, the military is a space where opposing forces—freedom and control, body and machine—collide, and where the rigid vertical hierarchy is physically experienced. 

As a result, Lee’s canvases naturally reflect the vertically structured and regulated systems he once encountered, manifesting through both the composition of his paintings and the arrangement of images.

Through his experience in the military, Jaeseok Lee became aware of the similarities between firearm components and human organs, leading him to develop an interest in the fusion of seemingly disparate elements such as the body and machinery, life and death. His exploration naturally extended to contemplating objects that exist on the boundaries between two contrasting entities. 

His solo exhibition 《The Boundary》 (2021) at Hakgojae Gallery focused on these very thresholds—between the body and objects, life and death, the individual and the collective.

The works newly presented in this exhibition primarily feature the motif of a "tent." Confronted with the societal shifts brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic—where boundaries between bodies and between indoor and outdoor spaces became more pronounced—Jaeseok Lee turned to the tent, an object that embodies an ambiguous duality as both an interior and an exterior. 

The tents depicted in Lee’s paintings are military tents, structures that serve as boundaries between inside and outside, and further, between nature and humanity. While military tents act as barriers separating spaces, they are neither thick nor rigid, making them closer to intermediaries rather than absolute dividers. In this sense, they simultaneously separate and connect two entities. 

This liminal quality of the tent is most evident in Camping (2020), where a foot protrudes from beneath the thin tent fabric, emphasizing the tent’s role as a "boundary."

During his military service, Jaeseok Lee assembled military tents in a precise order, reflecting on his own position—both inside and outside of these structures. He saw parallels between the individual components of a tent, which exist to serve the whole and are designed for maximum efficiency, and his own role as an individual within the collective system of the military. Additionally, he perceived the tent’s fabric, the most essential element of the completed structure, as akin to human skin. 

Overlapped Tents (2020) was inspired by Lee’s experience of tents feeling almost organic, as they concealed their interiors with thin layers while still interacting with the outside world. A closer look at the tents in the painting reveals that they are not entirely anchored to the ground, making them incomplete and, therefore, fluid.

In the ‘How to Set Up the Tent’ (2020) series, components appear to float in the air, guided by dotted lines resembling those found in product assembly manuals. This visual approach shifts the viewer’s perspective, allowing them to see the tent as a sum of its parts. By breaking down the whole into individual elements, Lee highlights the existence of each component, which, though useless on its own, gains significance as part of a larger structure.

Recently, Jaeseok Lee has begun exploring physical phenomena such as the laws of gravity, which function in harmony within nature. His 2023 solo exhibition 《Exceptionally Complex, Yet Elegantly Engineered》 at Gallery Baton provides an inspiring opportunity to discover a new series of works by Lee, who has expanded his interests from aspects of uniformed lifestyle within the social system towards the mechanism of nature and the universe and how it is perceived.

Jaeseok Lee expands the world of his paintings into the universe, creating more surreal scenes. For example, in the ‘Alignment’ (2023) series, black spheres surrounded by an aura appear, creating a fantastical atmosphere. At the same time, the sense of balance created by dividing the upper and lower parts of the canvas evokes the physical phenomenon of tidal forces in reality.

In the artist's recent work Linkage (○―○―●―○―○) (2024), a different mode of expression is introduced. This painting depicts layers of mountains across the entire canvas, where multiple locations and perspectives coexist simultaneously, as opposed to the fixed single viewpoint seen in previous works. This arrangement of the composition causes the geographical elements such as mountain valleys and rivers to become patterned and simplified, resembling abstract painting.

Meanwhile, the intricately drawn summer grass flowers at the bottom of the canvas contrast with the monotone plane. Curator Juwon Kim added that this space in the artwork is “an alternative reality and place devised and constructed by the artist, as well as a metaphor for the world we struggle to live in.”

Additionally, the consistently connected lines and symbols across the contrasting elements of the canvas visualize another reality—the virtual world of the World Wide Web. This evokes the contemporary landscape where digital network technologies blur the boundary between the virtual and the real.

In this way, Jaeseok Lee's paintings, which begin from autobiographical experiences, become a space where he visually unravels the relationships between himself and various objects in the world he lives in. The artist observes the many movements within this intricately designed world and translates his bodily experiences onto the canvas. As a result, his paintings evoke a complex and surreal visual feeling, yet they contain a very realistic landscape behind them.

"I tend to view events from the perspective of a passerby. If I become too immersed, it's hard to grasp the overall situation. My paintings are based on my own experiences, but they also contain a third-party perspective." (Jaeseok Lee, from an interview in Design House Magazine, November 2022)

Jaeseok Lee received a BFA and an MFA from Mokwon University in Korea. He has held solo exhibitions at Gallery Baton, Seoul (2023); Chapter II, Seoul (2023); Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) Storage, Seoul (2021); and Hakgojae PROJECT SPACE, Seoul (2021); Gallery MEME, Seoul (2020); M2 Project Room at Lee Ungno Museum, Daejeon (2018).

He has participated in group exhibitions, including Daejeon Art and Science Biennale 2024 《Magnum Opus》 (Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, 2024), 《Hysteria: Contemporary Realism Painting》 (Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, 2023), 《Collected Landscapes》 (Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, 2022), 《Cocoon2020》 (Space K, Seoul, 2020), 《POP-UP LAP》 (Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, 2019), among others.

Lee was selected as an artist-in-residence at Studio White Block Residency Program (2022-2024). His work is represented in the collections of MMCA Art Bank, Daejeon Museum of Art, CNCITY Energy, KOLON Corp., etc.

References

• 갤러리 바톤, 이재석 (Gallery Baton, Jaeseok Lee)
• 서울대학교미술관, 이재석_신체가 있는 부품도_2018_캔버스에 아크릴릭_193.9x130.3cm (Seoul University Museum of Art, Jaeseok Lee_The Instructions with the Body_2018_Acrylic on canvas_193.9x130.3cm) 
• 월간미술, 이재석: 랭커, 분해/병치에서 결합/연결로 – 김주원
• 행복이 가득한 집, 나에겐 현실이던, 초현실적 장면
• 갤러리밈, 이재석 (Gallery MEME, Jaeseok Lee)
• 학고재갤러리, 경계선 (Hakgojae Gallery, The Boundary)
• 갤러리 바톤, 극단적으로 복잡하거나 매우 우아하게 설계된 (Gallery Baton, Exceptionally Complex, Yet Elegantly Engineered)