Golden hands friends

The Yellow Tree

The Cold Tree

Beside the Sidewalk

Facing Each Other

<Sparrowvine>, GHF, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<Waiting / Spring>, GHF, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<Sparrowworld>, GHF, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<Remembering>, GHF, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<Banner>, Spacebeam, Incheon, Republic of Korea

<Standing Opposite>, dohingart, Republic of Korea

<The Summer to Come>, Elandspace, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<Some day>, oci, Seoul, Republic of Korea

<tree, tree>, chungartgallery, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Lee Hyunho repeatedly observes the landscapes he encounters in his immediate surroundings. His work moves beyond simple documentation, focusing instead on how places and subjects are shaped and reassembled on the canvas. Familiar everyday scenes pass through the artist’s process of selection and arrangement, gradually forming a finished painting.

Using traditional Korean painting materials and techniques, he pays close attention to describing his subjects. However, his paintings are not straightforward reproductions of what he sees. Through sustained observation, he refines and adjusts forms and spatial relationships, creating images that resemble the original landscape while remaining subtly transformed.

Since being selected as an OCI Museum of Art Young Creative artist in 2013, he has continued to explore everyday landscapes through this ongoing practice.

Lee Hyunho’s work has long begun with the act of observing his surroundings. Rather than focusing on specific events or isolated scenes, his gaze lingers on processes of change. In his recent works, the vine that begins to occupy the surface extends from this sustained mode of observation. It appears not simply as a botanical form, but as a presence that gradually overtakes space, slowly unsettling its forms and order.While space can sometimes be transformed in an instant through deliberate intervention, the vine moves differently. It grows at a pace that is not immediately noticeable, altering its surroundings little by little over time. A year or two later, the place may look entirely different, yet it is difficult to pinpoint when the change began. The act of witnessing this gradual shift accumulates a subtle sense of unease. The artist attends closely to this condition of slow transformation.

The vine does not stop when something stands in its way. It wraps around, covers over, and eventually turns what it encounters into part of itself. The forms left behind can read as traces of vitality, yet at times they resemble something closer to excretion. He observes and collects such moments, translating them into two-dimensional works.

His painting does not aim at straightforward representation. Rather than reproducing what is seen, it attempts to hold onto states that are in the midst of changing. The canvas does not present a completed landscape; instead, it remains as a scene still in progress.

This exhibition brings together new works and drawings alongside a small selection of earlier pieces that had remained in the studio since previous presentations. Works from different periods reveal how a consistent way of seeing has evolved over time.

Hyunho Lee