#HealingCampaign2020

The work of Lee Jin Woo stems from an environment of physical and mental exhaustion. The carbon in the paintings is compacted in transparent layers of Hanji paper and dragged with force by a metallic brush through a strenuous and repetitive movement. On the surface it creates rough and steep reliefs referring to a possible interior landscape. It is this process of subtraction of charcoal and its spirit of alchemy that drives Lee Jin Woo's work into silence. A silence that transforms the "object" into abstraction. The intention of the Korean artist is to suppress all cognitive will to approach the inner 'I'. As in the black paintings of Ad Reinhard, or in the Rothko Chapel in Houston, the eye must interact to the depth of the work. A careful, prolonged and deep look is necessary to approach the spiritual.

Through intense physical labor, Lee Jin Woo negates a certain formal intention in order to channel his energy into the process of making art. His work is intuitive and open, always untitled, for Lee Jin Woo the artistic discipline is not a purpose in itself, but a channel of meditation where he develops his work in long periods of development, becoming a philosophy of life. In this process of personal alchemy, Lee Jin Woo, conscious of the essence of the charcoal, used it to generate visual and mental landscapes that echo the origin and end of man's existence. The ambivalence between a contemplative dimension and a descriptive one, come together in his compositions.
-MICHEL SOSKINE INC

Video excerpts from
“Art Chosun Meet & Talk_이진우 작가_lee jin woo” by Art Chosun
"The Quiet Music" Music by David Fesliyan