Chang-Jin Lee

Chang-Jin Lee (Korean: 이창진) is a Korean-American visual artist who lives in New York City.[1]

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea,[2] and lives in New York City.[3]

Education

Lee attended Parsons School of Design[4] and earned her BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase.[2]

Career

In 2011, Lee received a fellowship from the Franconia Sculpture Park, for which she created Dear Leader, an inflatable monument of Kim Jung Il. Lee's sculptural art Floating Echo, a transparent inflatable Buddha atop a lotus flower, debuted at the Busan Sea Art Festival in Korea in 2011. The 10-foot-high work was presented at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens in 2012, where it floated in the East River,[5][6] and at the Three River Arts Festival at Point State Park in Pittsburgh the following year.[7]

Lee began researching comfort women in 2007.[8] She traveled to seven Asian countries and interviewed survivors of sexual slavery during World War II as well as a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier. She created a film documentary of the subjects recalling their experiences during the war and their aspirations. Her exhibition Comfort Women Wanted opened at South Korea's Incheon Women Artists' Biennale in 2009.[9] The exhibition's title echoes newspaper advertisements soliciting comfort women during World War II. The exhibition recreates a comfort station. It was later exhibited in Bonn, Boston, Hong Kong, Pittsburgh, and Taipei.[7][10] Public art billboards from the exhibition were selected for the New York City Department of Transportation's Urban Art Program in 2013.[11]

Awards

Lee has received numerous awards, including a New York State Council on the Arts grant, Asian Cultural Council fellowship, an Asian Women Giving Circle award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship award, a Puffin Foundation grant, a Busan Sea Art Festival Award, and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Manhattan Community Arts Fund.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Bio". www.changjinlee.net. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  2. ^ a b "Chang-Jin Lee". Franconia Sculpture Park. 2019-02-10. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  3. ^ "Chang-Jin Lee". Brooklyn Museum Feminist Art Base. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  4. ^ Utter, Douglas Max (December 18, 2011). "Chang-Jin Lee exhibit at Spaces masters the subtle telling of a horrific secret". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  5. ^ Otterman, Sharon (October 2, 2012). "A Buddha, Full of Air, Sits Serenely on the Waves". The New York Times.
  6. ^ "Chang-Jin Lee". Socrates Sculpture Park. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  7. ^ a b Thomas, Mary (October 30, 2013). "Chang-Jin Lee exhibition opens at Wood Street Galleries". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  8. ^ Jacobson, Aileen (December 19, 2014). "World War II Sex Slaves Bear Witness". The New York Times.
  9. ^ "Comfort Women Wanted". Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  10. ^ Tablante, Mary (January 1, 2014). "Korean-American Artist Recreates Comfort Women Station". Asian Fortune. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  11. ^ Brooks, Katherine (November 25, 2013). "The History Of 'Comfort Women': A WWII Tragedy We Can't Forget". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  12. ^ "Chang-Jin Lee". City University of New York Asian American / Asian Research Institute. 2021-07-06. Retrieved 2023-06-01.