Lee Sang-Won Korea, b. 1978

Born in Seoul in 1978, Lee Sang-won graduated from Hongik University's Department of Painting in 2006 and is currently working in Seoul. Lee's work is well-known for expressing the ordinary daily lives of people that can be easily seen around us from a distance of memory through a Bird's Eye View perspective. Generally, it seems to be seeing the lives of beautiful and happy modern people that everyone would have experienced once (a stadium, beach, mountain, ski resort, etc.) against the backdrop of a crowded place, but soon it is questionable whether everyone is trying to find joy and happiness in the same thing without a single doubt.

One of the people standing in line in the same uniform on Lee Sang-won's canvas screen may feel like myself because he is accustomed to our society, which is already forced to have his identity before thinking about his identity. After graduating from elementary school and becoming a middle school student, I cut my long hair to 3 centimeters below my ears, and the black boys who wore uniforms became soldiers when they go to the military and wear military uniforms, and a friend I met on the university campus until yesterday becomes a compulsory police officer and stands in front of other students. In Lee Sang-won's work, we can feel our sad generation of people who are taught that making money and being quick and easy are the only ways to become an advanced country after the IMF and are so used to it that they are judged by others' eyes.