Sung Lee was born in South Korea, raised in the USA, and is currently living and working in Paris, France.
Sung Lee blends a world of dreamlike tenderness with a celebration of the body and the living. Attracted by fantastical imaginary worlds, She builds a universe where female nudity meets impromptu elements of nature: clouds, water, peaches, leaves, peonies, wild flowers, and more. These elements form bridges between women and the living world. Sung Lee’s universe invites the viewer to question the links between man and nature. By exploring these links, her works go beyond simple sensuality to celebrate, in a profound and radical way, the freedom that inspires them. Reflecting her own trajectory, these creations embody the liberation she seeks to achieve.
As a young girl in a traditional Korean society, Sung Lee’s possibilities of expression were very limited. Daring was not tolerated, and exposure of the body was reserved for public baths between people of the same sex. Everything was taboo, a situation increasingly difficult to bear, even without being aware of a different world. That’s why Sung Lee asked her parents to send her to the United States to study. After years of persuasion, at the age of 13, she went to live with her aunt in New York, where her adventures and self-discovery really began. After finishing university and graduating with Studio Art degree, Sung Lee moved to Paris, where she faced a culture shock once again between the U.S. and France, where so much was different.
Sung Lee entered the fashion world as a journalist for Harper’s Bazaar Korea, after having worked many years in Paris fashion scene, she finally rediscovered herself as a creative.
Minhwa (traditional Korean paintings), manga, cartoons from her childhood, pop culture, classical paintings, Greco-Roman mythologies, and Dadaist influences feed a body of work marked by multiple cultural influences, reflecting her multi-situated identity.
