SAMMY SEUNG-MIN LEE
I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Denver, Colorado. My work focuses on spatial, narrative, and sequential qualities in personal and smaller communal history, as I incorporate my various explorations in art and architecture. I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea and moved to Southern California at the age of sixteen. I studied fine art and media art at UCLA and architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and also learned bookbinding under the tutelage of master bookbinder Daniel Kelm in Easthampton, Massachusetts. My work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in collections at the Getty Research Institute, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, and the Spanish National Library in Madrid, Spain, and I had a fantastic performative collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma during his Bach Project tour in 2018. I am a recent resident artist at Redline, serve as Ambassador for Asian Art Department of Denver Art Museum, and operate a new contemporary Asian art project space, called Collective SML | k in Santa Fe Art District, Denver.
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COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITIONS:
Public Collections:
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, California
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Chapman University, Orange, California
Children’s Museum of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
Getty Research Institutes, Los Angeles, California
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana
Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania
Ottchil Art Museum, Tongyoung, S. Korea
Seoul Institute, Seoul, S. Korea
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
Spanish National Library, Madrid, Spain
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California
University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Selected Exhibitions:
2020
ID, Please, Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
Synesthetic Cyphers, Walker Fine Art, Denver, Colorado
2019
Turning Points, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Fulfillment Center, Black Cube Nomadic Museum Headquarter, Englewood, Colorado
Invictus, Global Livingston Institute, Entusi, Uganda
Finding Place, Walker Fine Art, Denver, Colorado
Mirth Myth & Mystery, La Napoule Art Foundation Alumni Exhibition, Redline, Denver, Colorado
Now That I Have Your (un)divided Attention!, Redline, Denver, Colorado
2018
Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series regional winner exhibition, ART SCOPE, Miami Beach, Florida
Wounds, Dar al-Kalima Gallery, Bethlehem, Palestine
Molding Memories, Solo exhibition, Lakewood Cultural Center, Lakewood, Colorado
Saving Lions by Killing Them, Two-person exhibition, Odessa, Denver, Colorado
Urban Aggregate, Georgia, Denver, Colorado
Liminal Space, DMZ Museum, DMZ, Korea
Art & Soul, Art Students League of Denver, Denver, Colorado
10x, 10th Anniversary Retrospective Resident Artists Exhibition, RedLine, Denver, Colorado
2017
Time Zone Converter, Korean Cultural Center, Beijing, China
Intrinsic. Matter., Two-person exhibition, Japanese Friendship Garden, San Diego, California
Complementary, Art Students League of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Small k, solo exhibition, B-platform Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Integrated, Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
The Obscured Self, RedLine, Denver, Colorado
Built, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Nice Work If You Can Get It, RedLine, Denver, Colorado
2016
Nancy Lake Benson Thread Studio Installation, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
Artists' Book Cornucopia VII, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Wanderlust, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2015
Readers Art: Concealed, Confined & Collected, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Art & Soul | Soul Struck, Space Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Beyond Words, Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado
2014
Tasting Scripts, World Script Symposia, installation and performance, Sejong Center, Seoul, Korea
Coptically Bound, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado
The Show Must Go On, traveling exhibition curated by Total Museum, Seoul, Korea
(show traveled Romania, Malaysia, Italy, India, Thailand and Singapore)
Urban Volumes (생명이 자라는 책), Seoul Institute, Seoul, Korea
Beat. Spread Out., solo exhibition, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, Colorado
2013
Boston Printmakers 2013 North American Print Biennial, Boston, Massachusetts
Tangibles: Beauty and Purpose in the Art of the Book, NAU Art Museum, Flagstaff, Arizona
Exposición premiados Masquelibros 2012, Galeria Rina Bouwen, Madrid, Spain
Artists Book Cornucopia IV, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Print 528.0, Invisible Museum, RedLine, Denver, Colorado
Exhibition at La Salina de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Word 6: An Architecture, The Arcade Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2012
Horizon, Guild of Book Workers Traveling Exhibition until 2014, Kentucky, Utah, Illinois, Colorado, Louisiana, Washington
San Diego Book Arts Fourth National Exhibition, UC San Diego, California
Artists Book Cornucopia III, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado
PRESS & PUBLICATIONS:
Further Reading, Touch, essay by Gillian Silverman, Oxford University Press (2020)
Goraeya Magazine (고래가 그랬어), Rockscape suitby Jiyon Kim (February 2020 issue)
Asian Art Association Newsletter, Volume 31, No.5 Featured Artist: Sammy Lee, Interview by Diana Conovitz (2019)
Korea Magazine, cover story (author), No Lost Art, July 2017 issue
The Korea Daily, Exhibition preview by Sooyeon Oh, November 9, 2017
1,000 Artists' Books: Exploring the Book as Art by Sandra Salamony, Quarry Books 500 Handmade Books, volume 2,
by Julie Chen, Lark - Sterling Publishing
Surface Design Journal, Summer 2014 issue
Guild of Book Workers Journal, 2012 issue
Online:
Westword, exhibit review by Michael Paglia (February 5, 2020)
303 Magazine, exhibit review by Cori Anderson (January 29, 2020)
Westword, exhibit review by Michael Paglia (October 30,2019)
CPR News, exhibit preview by Stephanie Wolf (October 2, 2019)
Finding the Right Vessel, A Conversation with Sammy Lee by Odessa (2018)