CYNTHIA-REEVES Projects Announces Jaehyo Lee's 'Lotus' at Sarasota Season of Sculpture, FL

CYNTHIA-REEVES Projects announced the inclusion of Korean artist Jaehyo Lee's seminal wooden pillar Lotus in the upcoming biennial exhibition, Shared Ground at the Season of Sculpture in Sarasota, Florida. On view November 16 through May 2014, Shared Ground highlights site-based installations by eight international and local artists.

Lee is renowned for working in natural materials, notably his meticulous iteration of hand-carved, shaped, and burned wooden elements. Lotus has been on view at one of New York's most high profile public art landmarks, Union Square Park. The six-month run marked the artist's debut public art showing in the United States. Following the November opening, a pair of Lee's charred wood and stainless steel nail works will be on view in a satellite exhibition at the Sarasota Tribune Building, beginning in January 2014. This exhibition focuses on the artist's masterful patterning of steel spikes in charred wood.

Lee's works emphasize the essential nature of these materials. The artist writes: "Those who make a hard living may be the ones who make this world a beautiful place. I certainly do not have the power to create 'beauty'. I just hope to reveal the beauty in what is usually seen but not noticed. If one looks closely, one sees how beautiful simple elements can be."

The opportunity to travel Lotus was a pivotal objective for gallery director, Cynthia Reeves, whose mandate for identifying public art locations for monumental sculpture has become a key component to the gallery's programming.

Lee graduated from Hong-Ik University in 1992, and is the prizewinner of the Hankook Ilbo Young Artists Award in 1997; the Osaka Triennial Award in 1998; the Kim Sae-Jung Award in 2000; the Sculpture in Woodland Award in 2002; and the Japan Hyogo International Competition Award in 2004. His work is included in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea; Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art Japan; Metropolitan Art Museum, South Korea; Busan, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, and the Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Japan. Most recently, his work was included in the Saatchi Gallery's summer exhibition, Korean Eye, which premiered during the 2012 Olympic Games, and originated at New York's Museum of Arts and Design in 2011 - 2012. Jaehyo Lee has exhibited with CYNTHIA-REEVES since 2008.

About Sarasota Season of Sculpture:

The Sarasota Season of Sculpture was founded in 1998 by Jill Kaplan and Bruce White. It produces a biennial international exhibition of large-scale sculptures along the bay front of one of the world's most culturally rich and naturally beautiful cities, Sarasota, Florida. Renamed Season of Sculpture in 2011, the organization focuses its exhibitions on the monumental work of nationally and internationally acclaimed artists, periodically including the work of renowned local artists. The promenade along Sarasota's Gulfstream Avenue is often visitors' and tourists' first impression about the dynamic cultural core of this community. Sarasota Season of Sculpture is located at 1662 Floyd Street in Sarasota, Florida

For more information on Jaehyo Lee and the Shared Grounds exhibition, visit cynthia-reeves.com