Ahnnlee Lee (b. 1985) begins his work by observing the small, seemingly insignificant beings and moments that exist around him. He intimately examines quiet presences in his surroundings, such as the plants he nurtures or leftover grapevines, and translates their pure essence into paintings based on his own sensory perception.

For the artist who lived between Paris and Seoul, plants served as a medium that provided a sense of psychological grounding. As Ahnnlee Lee nurtured plants, he observed their unique forms and transformations, engaging in a process of communication with them. The emotions and situations that emerged from this interaction were translated into various artistic forms, including drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture. 

In his work notes, Lee states, “I create while practicing plant-like values in my daily life. There is something in reality that cannot be explained in objective language, and I am moving forward with it.” His works, in this sense, can be seen as the result of the harmonious interplay between his life and the elements that surround him.

Influenced by classical painting, Ahnnlee Lee has meticulously captured the essential beauty of his subjects with a keen sense of balance. His paintings do not merely replicate the outward appearance of objects; rather, they exist as the results of a "poetic process"—a journey of discovering beauty. 

In other words, his work structures the sensations that lie beyond the visible, internalized through his coexistence with living beings like flowers, which continuously bloom and wither—natural elements that embody an ongoing cycle of transformation.

Ahnnlee Lee closely observes the anatomical structures of flowers—the stamens, anthers, ovaries, receptacles, and styles. To the artist, these components serve as gateways to an alternative perceptual world beyond what is visible. The elemental and latent qualities of this world, such as the pollen-bearing anthers or the mucilaginous texture of a circular style, have long stimulated his artistic imagination. 

Through his work, Lee invites viewers to move beyond the conventional aestheticization of flowers as mere symbols of beauty and instead to imagine their structural anatomy as a living organism.

The drawing installation Moon, Fruit, and Birds, Extreme Vocabulary, presented at the 2017 exhibition 《The Flirting the Art Archipelago》 at Seongbuk Creation Center, explored the intertwined relationships between the artist and the spaces he had passed through.

The moon, fruit, and birds—key symbolic elements in the work—were objects the artist encountered in a specific time and place. Though distinct from one another, these elements became bound together within the artist’s moment, coexisting in an interwoven relationship with him.

For Ahnnlee Lee, landscapes exist within overlapping forms at a given moment in time and space. While his works feature clear and simple subjects, they simultaneously explore the textures created through their entanglement. As a result, viewers are invited to perceive these forms in ways that bend, split, cluster, and knot together.

In the 2020 exhibition 《I, Etcetera》 at HITE Collection, Ahnnlee Lee introduced new object installations, ink and pencil drawings, and collages made from everyday materials. Continuously focusing on small beings and fleeting moments connected to his life, the artist wove together these found elements to create his own intimate universe. 

Among these works, the drawing series ‘23 Coincidences’ (2020) was an ongoing project, much like a daily journal. It captures emotions derived from the quiet, subtle events and transformations Lee observed while tending to plants.

Alongside his series of drawings, which delicately encapsulate fleeting moments and emotions from his life, Ahnnlee Lee presented the poem Thieves (2020) by his friend and poet Yu Young Im. At Lee’s request, the poem was included as part of the exhibition. Together, Lee and Im have cultivated ‘Collective Annyeong,’ a fluid artistic community that nurtures friendship, sensitivity, and intuition.

Another exhibited work, the ‘World Domestic Script Office’ (2020) series, consists of collages combining pages from Historia del Mundo en 1000 Objetos—a visual encyclopedia of historical artifacts—with the artist’s own drawings. Interwoven with renowned objects from human civilization, Lee’s drawings create a unique iconography on the rough, repurposed surfaces of paper sacks.

Meanwhile, in the 2023 exhibition 《Orange Sleep》 at ONE AND J. Gallery, Lee presented works centered around the common object of "soap." Soap, which is used to wash away impurities, undergoes a transformation when handled by multiple hands—its smooth form becomes rough and increasingly unpleasant to touch.

The artist focused on the subtle and contradictory state of soap: clean yet dirty, smooth yet uncomfortable. The painting Orange Sleep (2023) carries a soft, comforting image, yet the blurred, white forms are marked by rough and damaged surfaces. Lee evokes the lost volume of the soap, and the shape erased through friction, capturing the tactile nature of this transformation through his imagery.

In 2024, the artist's solo exhibition 《Puck, Nocturnal Paintings》 draws inspiration from William Shakespeare's iconic play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lee identifies with ‘Puck,’ the mischievous fairy in the play who creates various incidents in the lives of humans around him.

In this exhibition, the artist presents works that capture emotions and experiences derived from the relationships in his daily life, much like Puck's involvement with the characters in the play. The works express an openness to new relationships, with the artist throwing paint onto the canvas as if eagerly anticipating them, or drawing spontaneous lines that deviate from intention, reflecting relationships that cannot be controlled. There are also subtle, secretive additions within the paintings—drawings that only the artist himself knows—like a hidden message.

The new works presented in the exhibition, including Kiss (2024), Carnival Confetti (2024), and Olive Trip (2024), are tactile paintings that evoke a strong sense of texture, similar to his previous work Orange Sleep (2023). These pieces primarily use "sand," a material commonly found in sculpture, as their main medium. Lee has incorporated his experience in sculpture and the characteristic of sand—being able to build up slowly—into his paintings.

Lee mixes sand, acrylics, and various pigments, applying them onto the canvas, allowing the layers to dry, then scraping them off, and repeating the process. Through this repetitive motion of his hands, the artist communicates with the world around him, which is built from the smallest and most subtle elements.

In this way, Ahnnlee Lee has embodied a "reaction" to his surrounding world through his own body, expressing it in a sensory form. These gestures of his manifest as an aesthetic practice aiming to connect himself, the world, and art. Through emotional perspective and gesture, he intertwines the objects and phenomena around him into new relationships, forming his own microcosm.

"In my universe, these small events each create their whole. In my narrative, both large and small works share a common fate. I enjoy the mechanism of transformation within my world."(Ahnnlee Lee, Artist's Note)

Ahnnlee Lee received his DNAP and DNSAP degrees from Beaux-Arts de Paris in France. He has held solo exhibitions including 《Puck, Nocturnal Paintings》 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul, 2024); 《Ahnnlee Lee’s SAALGOO Bar》 (Drawing Space SAALGOO, Seoul, 2018); 《Yes. Five Mirrors》 (Drawing Space SAALGOO, Seoul, 2016); and a duo exhibition 《Orange Sleep》 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul, 2023).

Participated in group exhibitions including 《Unboxing Project 3: Maquette》 (New Spring Project, Seoul, 2024); 《How Are you Feeling Today?》 (Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi, 2023); Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London (2023); 《Tinkering with the objects》 (Wumin Art Center, Cheongju 2022); 《2022 Sea & Museum》 (Lee Kang Ha Art Museum, Gwangju, 2022); 《Structures of Gestures》 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul, 2022); 《Local Network Exchange Exhibition: Same Dreams, Different Places》 (Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeju, 2018); 《The Flirting the Art Archipelago》 (Seongbuk Creation Center, Seoul, 2017) and others.

References

• 이안리, Ahnnlee Lee (Artist Website) 
• 원앤제이 갤러리, 이안리 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Ahnnlee Lee)
• 정현, 꽃즙 머급은 살갗_이안리의 예술로 삶되기
• 성북예술창작촌, 살랑대는 예술군도 (Seongbuk Creation Center, The Flirting the Art Archipelago)
• 하이트컬렉션, 나, 그리고 그 밖의 것들 I, Etcetera (HITE Collection, I, Etcetera)
• 원앤제이 갤러리, 퍼크와 밤의 그림들 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Puck, Nocturnal Paintings)