I am interested in the exploration of the aesthetic possibilities existing within non-art items, transforming industrial materials to transcend their intended purpose. This reflects the ongoing transformation of self that occurs as I face my conflicting cultural identity. The materials I use are in large part translucent, referencing my exploration of the elusive and fading quality of memory. The translucent materials are naturally interactive with their environment and immediately transformed by whatever is behind them. I too, feel this inherent sense of environmental affect, as I find myself directly shaped and changed by my surroundings.

Sungmi Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea and now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She obtained her MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. There she received the Amalie Rothchild Award, Reinhart Merit scholarship and the Walters Traveling Fellowship Award-Honorable Mention. In 2006 she was an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. Lee has exhibited her work in multiple invitational shows including the Korean Embassy in New York and in Washington D.C. Her work was included in P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center’s (an affiliate of the MOMA) exhibition “Bearable Lightness…Likeness”. Her work was also viewed as part of “The nation-wide Feminist Art Project” at the Ceres Gallery, NY. Recently, she was also selected to the Viewing program at The Drawing Center in New York and her work was included to participate in the auction as well as the exhibition for Twentieth Anniversary for The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. Reviews of Lee’s work have appeared in Sculpture Magazine, The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, PS 1 Newspaper, The Korea Times, and The New York Times, New York Arts Magazine and among others.