For Immediate Release

CYNTHIA-REEVES PRESENTS JAEHYO LEE

Press Preview: Feb 18, 5 - 6 pm Reception: Feb 20, 6 - 8 pm Exhibition: Feb 18 - Mar 20 Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6

Contact: Marie Goble, 212.714.0044

Jaehyo Lee opens his second solo sculpture show in the United States at CYNTHIA-REEVES on February 20th, 2010 with an opening reception between 6-8 p.m., open to the public. The exhibition continues through March 20th. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6 p.m.

Jaehyo Lee works in natural materials and steel, as his primary media. He fastidiously works his media. Rather than dismantling each sculptural component and creating a hybrid aesthetic, Lee's works emphasize his materials' most essential natures and inherently complex textures. When working with predominately unadulterated wood, the artist's hand is most overtly seen through the sculpture's form, often smooth geometric shapes such as the wooden spheres and conical pillars. When working in charred wood and nails, however, the sculpture's forms become the more organic element of the work, when contrasted against the high drama of velvety black burnt wood and highly polished burnished steel.

Of the artist's work, Jonathan Goodman wrote in Sculpture Magazine: "Allowing the materials to speak to him, he builds self-contained worlds that mysteriously communicate with their outer surroundings...Texture is deeply important to Lee, who emphasizes the facade of the wood, crosscut and planed to reveal the character of the grain. The surface thus reveals the character of its making, becoming indicative of the creative process and holding interest by itself. (Sculpture Magazine, "The Possibilities of Nature", May, 2009).

Lee graduated from Hong-Ik University in 1992, and is the prizewinner of the Hankook Ilbo Young Artists Award in 1997, the Osaka Triennial Award in 1998, the Kim Sae-Jung Award in 2000, the Sculpture in Woodland Award in 2002, and the Japan Hyogo International Competition Ward in 2004.

His work resides in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea; Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art, Japan; Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, South Korea; and the Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Japan. Most recently, his work was included in the Museum of Art and Design's inauguration exhibition, Second Lives, in their new space at Columbus Circle. For more information contact the gallery at 212 714 0044 or visit the online gallery at cynthia-reeves.com.