Folk painter Jeongok Lee reinterprets Korean folk painting with modern viewpoint

▲ Pohang Women Artists Association / Adviser Jeongok Lee

[Jeongok Lee]
Jeongok Lee, President of the Pohang Women Artists Association, has become the sole winner of the 2021 Woman of North Gyeongsang Province of the Year. She was credited for laying the foundation of modern folk painting and proactively engaging in finding and preserving boudoir culture. She started folk painting clubbing from 1985 in Pohang city and led the Jinsoldang Boudoir Culture. She organized exchange exhibitions between the west and the east and engaged in many exhibitions and events that promote interests and rights of women artists from 1986. She held 22 times of solo exhibition until 2000 alongside numerous group and invitational exhibitions. Some of her works have been appeared as props on movies and TV series such as The King’s Face, The Fugitive, My Princess, Painter of the Wind, Maids, and The Accidental Gangster. Lee is an ardent supporter of gender equality and has participated in a number of related exhibitions in 2001 and 2004 and upto 2018. She participated in the exchange exhibition with Japanese and Russian artists, the Berlin International Art Fair and was invited to an exhibition from Jingisukan University. She gather women artist in the same mind from Pohang, Gumi, Yeongcheon, Gyeongsan, Mungyeong and Gimcheon to set sail the Pohang Women Artists Association in December 2005. She gave lectures for Daegu MBC, Kyungpook National University and the Pohang Women’s Center. The members of the association are engaging in activities of 16 exhibitions and 10 performances divisions. 

[Childhood]
he showed talent in study, sports, dance and art. She majored in art at Daegu Catholic University and Ewha Women University Graduate School of Education. She was drawn to shamanism and wrote a paper ‘Study on Iconographical Meanings of Korean Shamanistic Spirits’. She studied about folk painting passionately and was enchanted by symbols of it hides. Finishing the graduate course, she got married, lived in Gimcheon shortly, moved and settled down in her hometown Pohang and started her career as a folk painter in earnest. She has found and reinterpreted Korean folk paintings alongside developing her own works into a form of living art with modern viewpoint.

[Personality]
Lee is broad and open minded and friendly to others. Her works have atmosphere of grace, glamour and practicality. She enlivened charm of boudoir in her scroll, small dining table and wardrobe works. Her work Honey Jar received explosive reviews at numerous exhibitions in Insa-dong, Seoul and created a heat wave at her 2019 exhibition at the POSCO Art Museum with her 400 works themed on folk painting fans. In her prime time, she slept 2 to 3 hours a day and she has walked the single path for about 50 years with endless passion and consistency. 

[Awards]
Longevity Plaque from Y’s Men Korea Daegyeong Region
Korea Art Awards
Innovation Enterprise & Brand
Excellent Artist of the Korea Folk Painting Association
Korea Culture Management Awards 

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