Student Art Exhibit Explores the Mundane
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 14, 2015) — The University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies presents the B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) solo show of graduating senior Young Mi Lee. The exhibit, "Cuplandia," will be on display Dec. 14-17, in the School of Art and Visual Studies Bolivar Art Gallery. A closing reception, in honor of the artist, will be held from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
An ordinary object, a cup, inspired Young-Mi Lee's senior portfolio and it is about a mundane object manifesting itself through the repetition of images. The artist wants patrons of "Cuplandia" to question the ordinary object, and hopes to create a new relationship and definition between the object and the viewer. Lee also visualized a red solo cup in different points of view and using different materials. Her senior portfolio is an animation installation, creating a surreal three dimensional (3-D) space and a new experience with cups for the audience.
In creating the animation installation, Lee observed the object, created 2-D images of the object with color pencils, transferred the images into computers, created them back into 3-D space with the addition of time and sound finalizing her installation for the new experience.
A Korean-American artist, Lee was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but grew up in South Korea with her family. In 2005, she came back to the United States with her sister and graduated from Henry Clay High School. Her father is Sang-Kwon Lee, who passed away in 2004, was a professor in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea. Her mother is Hye-Seung Jeong, a librarian at Hankuk University. Young-Mi Lee is pursuing a bachelor's degree in art studio from UK and will graduate this December.
At UK, Lee has served as the event coordinator of the International Student Council (ISC) organizing the annual International Festival. Through ISC, she participated with UK DanceBlue in 2011 as a dancer and was a presenter at the International Talent Night that same year. Also, Lee created an organization called UK Korean Student Association (UKKSA), and has served as its secretary, assisting the webmaster in creation of the group's official website, and as president, organizing various cultural events. During the summers, Lee worked as a head-teaching assistant for Hankuk University of Foreign Studies English Camp in Korea.
Lee has had many different work experiences at UK, serving as library assistant in the Shaver Engineering Library, as the equipment and cage attendant for the Tuska Center for Contemporary Art, and now as a media center attendant and photo lab monitor in at the Art and Visual Studies Building. She studied engineering before she changed her major, and is interested in technology and computer designing programs. Lee's skills include working with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Blender, Flash, AutoCAD, Rhinoceros and 3-D modeling with 3-D printers. She is also fluent in Korean, and has studied abroad in Japan and China.
"Cuplandia" is presented by UK School of Art and Visual Studies in the UK College of Fine Arts. The school is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of art studio, art history and visual studies, and art education.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu