aaploit is pleased to announce the solo exhibition ‘Travelogue’ by Lee YeRim, on view from Friday 1 to Sunday 25 February 2024. The exhibition will be held in cooperation with Gallery COLORBEAT in Seoul, South Korea.

YeRim studied painting at Hongik University, where she also obtained a Master’s degree in visual art and design. She worked as an editorial designer for children’s books at a publishing company but moved to New York to concentrate on her creative work. She has had more than 20 solo exhibitions and has exhibited in Hong Kong, Singapore, Amsterdam, Milano and LA.

YeRim’s interest in the relationship between the city and herself has led to a consistent theme of urban architecture in her work. Born and raised in Seoul, YeRim became interested in her own relationship with the city or skyscraper during her stay in New York. In her travels to world-class cities NYC, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo and Seoul, she senses the expression, emotion, and vanity of the people that buildings hold and captures the urban character reflected by each skyscraper. New York has diversity and history, Shanghai is futuristic and progressive, and Seoul is a beautiful blend of tradition and innovation. The exhibition explores in depth the architectural beauty and cultural context she represents and offers a fascinating insight into the urban skyscraper.

For the modern urban residents, a building is a symbol of human desire. Buildings are symbols of the richness and deficiencies of the neighborhoods in which they are rooted, and the level of stories built up inside by the people who enter and leave the place reveals the true ‘face’ of the area.

YeRim’s life in New York gave her the opportunity to rethink the city. Later, while living in cities like Shanghai and Bangkok for a few years, she focused on people’s lives and the face of the city.

People made cities and raised sky scrapers for their needs, but there were the buildings that stayed at their spots overlooking at us when people come and go out of the cities like tides.  Ordinary buildings, where people spend their daily lives, became the faces of the cities and they have told me different stories day after day.  People spend their daily lives in the cities; between buildings to be exact.  The buildings are made sturdy and it is why they can capture the people’s daily lives and their inner worlds with various faces.  The buildings reside in my paintings possess emotions of people who live in the cities through sturdy and yet soft; linear and yet organic lines.

Having lived in cities around the world as she traveled, YeRim expresses people’s lives and emotions through the appearance of cities and buildings.

This is her first solo exhibition in Japan. Please take this opportunity to visit the exhibition.

Exhibition overview

Date: 1 Feb (Thu) to 25 Feb (Sun), 2024.

Opening hours:

Friday

3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Saturday

1:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Sunday

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Venue: Contemporary Art aaploit 2-19-2 Suido, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Bio

李禮林 / Lee YeRim

Hongik University, Seoul, Korea, MFA, Visual communication and Graphic design

Hongik University, Seoul, Korea, BFA, Painting

Selected solo exhibitions

2023

Hometown, Eum the place, Seoul

Private Show, Home Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2022

Somewhere more than here, Print Bakery, Seoul

Hello, everyone, Gallery Colorbeat, Seoul

2021

Hello, everyone, Gallery Marron, Seoul

2020

Village, Gallery Daon, Seoul

2019

City of Flâneur, Lotte Tower BGN Gallery, Seoul

Close Moment, Art247, Seoul

Selected group exhibitions

2023

A Secret diary, Collast, Seoul

About there, Gallery MHK, Seoul

2022

Beautiful my city, Samjung Gallery, Busan

Seongsu Land, Collast, Seoul

2021

The Colors Starts Beating, Gallery Colerbeat, Seoul

을삼의조 vol.4, Gallery Marron, Seoul

2020

Spotlight, Donhwamun Gallery, Seoul

2019

ART N Life, Hanjeon Art Center, Seoul

ARTMINING-MILANO 2019, Palazzo Litta, Milano, Italy

Sparkling Summer, Gallery Suppoment, Seoul

Remind, Artion, Seoul

Collection

Seoul Eastern District Court

Hotel Prince

Chungmu Building

Think Museum