John Hyen Lee, Moon with Writing, 2023, oil on panel, 30 x 20 inches
John Hyen Lee
Memory's Memory
June 29 through August 12, 2023
Opens Thursday, June 29, 6–8pm
Harper’s Apartment
51 East 74th Street, Apt. 2X, New York, NY 10021
Thursday–Saturday, 12–6pm; no appointment necessary
Harper’s is pleased to announce Memory’s Memory, a solo presentation of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist John Hyen Lee at Harper’s Apartment in New York City. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York.
In Memory’s Memory, Lee’s quiet and meditative mind-scapes drift between the subtleties of chroma and value. Each work is inscribed with a visual vocabulary characterized by the ebb and flow of mark-making and its erasure. Lee’s gestures are careful, without hurry, pared down to the width of each brush; translating each mark into formal considerations of time. His lexicon is structured by rectilinear borders that reference the gridded notepads, lined journals, and blank notebooks he uses to process and catalog experiences and spaces beyond the painted surface.
Dual first languages—Korean and English—precede Lee’s painted vernacular, which considers the flux in the meaning and experience of words. While his artistic practice derives its form from the repetition of written words or letters, the resulting images exist uniquely within the lexical gap. Operating in
undefined spaces where thoughts and emotions are lost in translation, Lee draws from the limitations of memory and language to process nuanced reflections of a personal history: the irreversible effects of glaucoma, the murky dichotomy of hyphenated ethnicity, and the complexities of marking one’s body.
John Hyen Lee (b. 1994, Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at Christie’s, New York (2022); Scroll NYC, New York (2022); Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York (2021 and 2020); Field Projects, New York (2019); and Memorial Hall Gallery, Providence (2016).
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Scanned excerpt from notes, 2023
HARPER'S APARTMENT
51 East 74th Street, Apt. 2X
New York, NY 10021
(917) 675-6124
Thurs–Sat, 12–6pm
HARPER'S CHELSEA 512
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Tue–Sat, 10am–6pm
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