New York: Gana Art announces an exhibition of new work by Lee Jung-Woong, on view from January 8 – February 7, 2009. Comprised of some twelve paintings, this will be the artist’s first show in the U.S.

Lee’s works are imbued with a sense of tension between opposing concepts. Dualities such as abstraction and realism, form and silhouette, and action and stillness co-exist on the canvas. Even Lee’s materials – Chinese ink and oil paint on Korean paper – point to a convergence of Eastern and Western influences.

To create the works, Lee splatters Chinese ink on his canvas, in a nod to abstraction, then overlays the ink with depictions of paintbrushes. Using thin layers of oil paint, he leaves no visible brushstrokes, for an overall photo-realistic effect. Lee blurs the line between the act of painting and the final artwork, as tools such as paintbrushes are represented on paper and the painting itself assumes the role of the object.

Lee Jung-Woong was born in 1963 in Wooleung-Gun, Korea. He graduated from the Department of Western Painting at Keimyun University in Daegu, Korea. His work has been exhibited throughout Korea and in Europe at venues such as Insa Art Center (Seoul) and GSR gallery (Beijing); and at Art Beijing, ARCO Art Fair (Madrid), Zurich Art Fair, and EUROP Art Fair (Geneva).