YehRim Lee

YehRim Lee’s work explores the contemporary human condition using decorative clay techniques (coiling, sculpting glaze, incising, and layering multiple colors) acquired through traditional training. She grew up in a family of artists who made Korean onggi ware, an iron-glazed brown pottery used for storing and fermenting food. She also studied ceramic making in Jingdezhen, China, the ​“porcelain city” that produced much of the high-quality blue and white ware for global trade between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries. However, Lee seeks to expose the materiality and the processes hidden by the smooth surfaces and precise decorations of historic porcelain ware. Her work shows how contemporary ceramic artists critically engage the form, the practice, and the history of ceramic art.

In this talk and Q&A, Lee will discuss her journey as a ceramics artist and the challenges of negotiating her multifaceted background and training. Her exhibition, Dopamine Dressing, will be on display at UMMA from December 3, 2022 to June 4, 2023 in the Irving Stenn, Jr. Family Gallery. This exhibition – inspired by the fashion trend that explores ideas that bright colors and astonishing textures can affect chemicals in the brain – responds to this theory by inviting visitors to respond to vibrancy, materiality, and expressive movement in art. 

Please join YehRim Lee in the exhibition Dopamine Dressing following her talk.

More about the artist:

YehRim Lee was born in Seoul, Korea. She earned her BFA in ceramics from Korea National University of Cultural Heritage (2013). In 2014, she continued her studies at the California State University Long Beach as Post-Baccalaureate in Ceramic Arts (2014−2015). She received her MFA in Ceramic Art at Alfred University (2017). She has shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally. Lee was the visiting resident artist at the University of Georgia in the ceramics department (2017−2018), the University of the Arts (2018−2019), and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia (2018−2020). Recent shows include the Korean International Ceramic Bienniale 2019 and A Dead Reckoning, Pensacola Museum of Art (2021). She is currently a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. 

Lead support for the exhibition Dopamine Dressing is provided by the William C. Weese, M.D. Endowment for Ceramic Arts, the U – M Office of the Provost, and the Nam Center for Korean Studies. Additional generous support is provided by the U‑M Department of History of Art and the U‑M Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.