Jung Sun Lee: Alien Rhapsody @ LOOK WEST

Jung Sun Lee is a Korean-born mixed-media artist based in San Jose, California. Lee’s work intricately weaves together personal narrative, cultural heritage, and geographical transience. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting from Seoul National University, she expanded her artistic horizons by living and studying in Paris, France, from 2006 to 2008. In 2010, Lee moved to the United States, initially settling in Berkeley, California. Over the following decade, her journey took her across diverse regions, including Georgia and Massachusetts. These successive relocations and the adaptations required by unfamiliar environments became a profound catalyst for her practice, prompting her to continuously reassemble her identity and synthesize her lived experiences into her art.

Since returning to the Bay Area in 2021, Lee has entered a highly prolific phase of her career. Following her debut solo exhibition in February 2024, she has maintained a rigorous annual exhibition schedule, presenting notable solo exhibitions at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and San Jose City College (SJCC), alongside group exhibitions in San Francisco and at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (Marin MOCA). Currently, she is preparing for her fourth solo exhibition at Look West Gallery, where she will debut a new series of works that seamlessly blend painting and embroidery on canvas.

For Lee, artistic creation is both a dedicated exploration of life’s intrinsic beauty and a vital medium for intergenerational dialogue. As a mother raising two teenage daughters, she views her dual roles as parent and artist as deeply intertwined. She considers it a vital creative and personal mission to instill a profound appreciation for their Korean heritage in her children while guiding them to perceive the world’s deeper aesthetic truths. Her textured, multilayered canvases stand as a testament to this journey—capturing the essence of memory, maternal identity, and the fluid landscapes of a life lived across cultures.