April 4, 2024

Sandra Eula Lee: The Walking Mountain

April 2 – May 25, 2024

 Sandra Eula Lee: The Walking Mountain brings together sculptural installations that reflect the artist’s interests in labor, migration, and material histories. A Korean-American artist and daughter of immigrants, Lee’s exhibition centers on Portable Pond, a large installation referencing East Asian gardens, which traditionally provide a central reflective space to mirror back the view. Other works complement the "pond" in mixed media materials drawn from the confluence of the constructed and natural environments. In Seeds in a Wild Garden for example, Lee reflects on living and working in Seoul and Beijing, where she observed mountains of building materials accumulated as buildings were demolished. Yet occupying spaces in between were impromptu gardens created by neighborhood residents, signaling care and resilience.

Lee's dimensional installations are accompanied by drawings from her expansive series The Walking Mountain. The drawings represent carefully arranged mounds of rocks and formations inspired by the cairns Lee observed in the mountains of South Korea and the burial sites built in the landscape. The drawn and constructed forms mirror these different piles, representing simultaneous states of deterioration and becoming. The title of the exhibition was inspired by a Japanese Buddhist sutra by Dogen Zenji. Translating this text, Lee reflects on matter and migration: "Mountains' walking is just like humans' walking. The mountain's walk may appear different from a human's but we know they walk because their heads are in the sky and their feet are in the water."

About the Artist:

Sandra Eula Lee is a Korean-American artist exploring labor, migration, and material histories. Her sculptures, installations, and drawings have been exhibited internationally including a 10-year survey at The Hilliard Museum at UL Lafayette; and solo exhibitions at The Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College, PA; The Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College; Art Space Pool in Seoul, South Korea; and the Chinese-European Art Center in Xiamen, China. Her work has been featured at Inside-Out Museum in Beijing; DadaPost in Berlin; Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College; Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University; Smack Mellon in Brooklyn; Goucher College in Baltimore; the Delaware Contemporary; Ethan Cohen KuBE in Beacon; and WhiteBox in NYC.

Lee's artwork has been selected for fellowships from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and has been discussed in Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, and TimeOut New York. Residency awards include Seoul Museum of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea; Elizabeth Foundation in New York, Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Vermont Studio Center. Lee received her MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York, and her BFA from Cornell University. She is Head of Visual Arts at Montclair State University.