Lee Eun

Eun Lee

Eun Lee captures perceptual movement from the digital motions of GIFs and translates it into painterly movement. Her works draw out inner instinctual situations and suppressed impulses that cannot be expressed in the real world, manifesting them through the actions and phrases of subjects within GIFs. Born in 1995, Eun Lee graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Painting from Ewha Womans University in 2020 and completed her Master's degree in Fine Arts at Seoul National University of Science and Technology in 2023. She currently works in Seoul, South Korea.

Major Works

Paintings of GIFs featuring cartoon characters.

Later, Eun Lee created paintings such as "Shoooo!" (2021) that depict the repetitive movements of cartoon characters on a single canvas. These characters are from childhood memories of Disney's animated shows that aired on weekend mornings, including familiar figures such as Tom and Jerry, Goofy, Donald Duck, and others that evoke nostalgia for many people. Sometimes she chooses as her subject matter the GIF images and memes that circulate on the internet providing a quick laugh, such as images of cats, Pepe the Frog, and Kermit. These images, their movements, and emotions are familiar to many.

The scenes depicted in Eun Lee's paintings, much like numerous short clips that appear momentarily on the internet, are presented without the before and after context, showing only a brief moment. The short scenes extracted from the original are like conveying emotions through emoticons rather than text, communicating the state of a moment.

GIFs remain perpetually in the present, without any life cycle, repeating the same motion in place without progressing from a beginning to an end. While Eun Lee's paintings are cute and lively on one hand, there's a certain emptiness in the endless repetition of movements fixed on the surface of the painting. This emptiness might reflect us, living in an eternal present, consuming GIFs and similar content in a world where optimism for the future and hope for progress have faded away.

Exhibitions

Eun Lee has held solo exhibitions such as "TURN, SWITCH, JUMP!" (Gallery Chosun, Seoul, 2022), "Autoplay" (Uhjjuhdah GALLERY2, Seoul, 2018).

Her group exhibitions include "K90-99" (L.U.P.O, Milan, 2023), "Goblin Mode" (Art Space HoHwa, Seoul, 2023), "Spring, spring" (Moosey, London, 2023), "Postmodern Children" (Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, 2022), "LOVE PUNCH, Lee Seoyun, Lee Eun Duo Exhibition" (Art Space Young, Seoul, 2022), "SOLO SHOW: New World White. Department Store" (Shinsegae Department Store Centum City, Busan, 2021), "That's What I Like" (Museum of Art Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul), "Too Small Heart" (KYOBO Book Centre Gwanghwamun, Seoul, 2021), "Human Touch" (Museum of Art Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, 2020), "Speaking Time 發話時 " (Space: Illi, Seoul, 2020), "Anyway, You Must Have Been Very Hungry, Lee Eun Jeong x Hwang Kyu Min Duo Exhibition" (Space 55, Seoul, 2020), and more.