Golden hands friends

A Mushroom’s Mood

A Lump of Love

The Boss and the Faces

Moon Gazing

The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, Golden Hands Friends(ghf), Seoul, Republic of Korea

The Island Where Paintings Rain Down, Golden Hands Friends(ghf), Suwon, Republic of Korea

Figures Coming to Life, Gallery Philosophie, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Mina's Painting Expedition, Golden Hands Friends(ghf), Seoul, Republic of Korea

The Day and Night of Painting, Golden Hands Friends, Seoul, Republic of Korea

100 Squares, brave sunshine gallery, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Friends of the Feline Family, Golden Hands Friends, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The Forest’s Palette, Ban gallery, onepixel offline, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Lee Mina is an artist who closely observes the instincts and habits of animals and plants, granting narrative to their inherent characteristics and shaping the wonder of living beings through a visual language. The subjects in her paintings, shaped by attentive observation, acquire distinct personalities and temperaments, taking their place as if they were individual presences. Through subtle expressions, gestures, and scenes of relationship that she carefully captures, she composes painterly structures that evoke sensations beyond the visible world.

Working primarily in painting while also engaging sculpture, installation, and picture books, her practice moves fluidly across media. Throughout her work, the pure realm of animals and plants intersects with an unknown world that humanity has yet to reach. Her works invite viewers to see familiar beings anew and to imagine the mystery and essential innocence of life.

In the field of picture books, Lee Mina has been recognized by first-generation Korean picture book artist Jaesoo Ryu and Japanese artist Seizo Tashima. She has published five picture books. Her picture books convey layered reflection and symbolism within concise narratives, achieving both visual density and emotional resonance.

Lee Mina’s solo exhibition The Hour of the Dog and the Wolf traces sensations suspended between the visible and the invisible, between presence and absence. For years, the artist has observed the instincts and temperaments of animals and plants, shaping the wonder of living beings into painterly form. In this exhibition, however, her gaze turns inward. Passing through a period of personal loss, questions about life, existence, and reality quietly permeate her work.“The hour of the dog and the wolf” refers to the ambiguous moment when day crosses into night, when the familiar turns unfamiliar and clear forms begin to waver. Standing at this threshold, the artist asks, Where does a being go when it disappears? Is what has vanished truly gone?

The dogs and wolves, the animals by the water’s edge, the shadows reflected on the surface, and the scenes of the sea that appear throughout the exhibition are not mere imagination or representation. They are presences carrying questions within them, gazing at one another. As the boundaries between land and water blur and reflections intersect with direct gazes, viewers may encounter a realm beyond the visible world like stars that shine in daylight yet remain unseen, like something that seems nowhere and yet somehow everywhere.

The recurring images of dogs and wolves are the forms most familiar to the artist. Through what her hands know best, she holds onto her most unfamiliar questions. In the quiet faces of these animals, fixed in contemplation, there lingers an indefinable sensitivity, along with the trace of love that remains even after loss.
This exhibition is not about death, but about what continues to remain after disappearance. Memories that fade, merge, and blur with time, yet are never entirely erased. Fragments of love that grow clearer the more they are questioned. Lee Mina paints while holding onto those fragments.
The Hour of the Dog and the Wolf ultimately becomes a record of belief: that existence does not simply vanish, but changes its form and stays with us and that we are capable of sensing its trace. Before her canvases, viewers may encounter a quiet resonance. We warmly invite you to step into this threshold of time.

Mina Lee