Thread Drawing Room portrays the elements and fragments of home and family through abstract images and relevant materials and objects. Having nurtured her own family for the past 10 years, Lee's emotional connection to her work has been deeply rooted in the physical and emotional environment of “home”. In this exhibition, she explores the daily routine and psychological connection with home and family while questioning the spirit and value of this life. The work responds to present day and takes queues from the artist’s memories of her childhood home in Korea.
Lee’s use of thread as material has been greatly influenced by her teaching Fibers/Textile at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In her recent practice, thread has been the most grounded and fundamental material she employs, one that “binds everything in the household to function and exist.” Through the month-long installation at CFEVA, Lee will explore the essence of thread’s metaphor for labor and home through layering, stitching, sewing, and binding. Through the construction of small objects and drawings within the confines of a larger space, Lee’s site-specific installation will culminate in a full sized "thread room".
Mi-Kyoung Lee is an Associate Professor, Program director of Craft+Material Studies, and Head of the Fibers program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She received her BFA from Dong-A University, and she earned her two masters degrees in Book Arts and Printmaking from The University of the Arts and in Fibers from Cranbrook Academy of Arts.
Lee has had sixteen solo exhibitions and a number of national and international lectures and shows, including the Arizona Art Museum, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Reading Public Museum, Painted Bride Art Center, New York and Chicago SOFA, Busan Metropolitan Museum in Korea, and Espace de Tisserands, France. Her work has been represented by Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia since 2004. She received Junior Minority Faculty Grant Award from the Lindback Foundation in 2004 and 2007 as well as numbers of faculty development grants from Uarts and Korea Foundation.
Lee was an editor for Art Textile of the World: Korea, Volume I, which was published in December 2005 by the Telos Art Publishing company in London. Since 2005, Lee has been collaborated with International Opera Theater since 2005 as a costume and set designer as well as an art director. Lee is currently a Visual Artist Fellow of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.
Image: Thread Drawing, 2015 (detail), Photo credit: Ken Yanoviak