Copyright (c) Woo-Bock Lee 2011. All Rights Reserved. Images & contents may not be used without permission.
Updated: 08-2011
Woo-Bock Lee - Layered Korean Paper Artwork

The historically aged and culturally preserved Korean mulberry paper is the main
foundation of most Woo-Bock Lee's high quality artwork.

As a Swedish Resident for the past 35 years, Woo-Bock Lee received her higher
art education there, but the genre that has become her most significant medium,
the collage, is based on the paper from her native country, South Korea where
she first initiated her artistic career. Every year, she returns to her native country to
bring back this unique vintage paper, these 200-years old handwritten Korean
and Chinese schoolbooks.

Woo-Bock uses the rigid and structured sheets of paper to create one-of-a-kind
artworks that she reshapes as unique messages, such as banner rolls that was
once a way of communicating. But most often, she uses the more delicate sheets
of paper. Narrow paper strings is applied layer on layer and by adding hints of
applique of gold and solid bright colors, Woo-Bock gives her artwork a subtle yet
a bold statement by balancing the papers' natural scales of brown.

She also uses geometric shapes. Most of the outer and larger shapes are squares,
as well as the smaller sections and the finished images, but there's some
triangular shapes as well. She seems to prefer to work in a meditative repetition,
subconsciously. Sometimes she underlay a wire net that she reshapes into unique
geometric figurations. By occasionally exposing the structural metal net underneath
the delicate paper, she makes bold artistic statements. And by exploring the glass
surfaceas the main candidate, she takes advantage of its natural reflective effects.

With her delicate handling of the paper, she keeps mastering her communication
with her audience.



Article published April 8th, 2010. Originally written in Swedish by Birgit Ahlberg-Hyse.
Woo-Bock Lee
Born: 1947


ART EDUCATION
1977-1983    Konstvetenskap Stockholm University
                        Stockholm, Sweden
1972               Konstfacksskolan
                        Stockholm, Sweden
1971               Academie de la Grande Chaumiere
                        France
1966-1969    Kunkook University
                        Korea
1964-1966    Surabul Art College
                        Korea


ART MEMBER
Konstnärs Riks Organisation
Int'l Association of Paper Maker & Paper Artists
Svenska Konstnärers Förening
Photo: Minoo Cha