Yujin Lee
Painting Conversation:
Stories of Rice-Thieves
Special Edition Cushions for Palestine
September 3 – October 31, 2024
Yujin Lee
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Special Edition Cushions for Palestine
September 3 – October 31, 2024
We are pleased to present Yujin Lee as our IV Special Artist. Renowned for her process-oriented and relational storytelling, Yujin Lee introduces her ongoing series Painting Conversation in a unique special edition for Palestine. This series, Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves, involves artists from Jeju and Fukuoka who collaborated on paintings while sharing personal food stories.
The collection features 18 limited-edition cushions that seamlessly blend artistry with functionality. Each cushion invites you to engage in a dialogue through art while supporting a significant cause.
60% of the profits from these exclusive cushions will benefit the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF).
Yujin Lee: Beige Bird Cotton Cushion
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
In Collaboration with Jaka
Edition 04/18
Natural Paint on Linen
$320
Yujin Lee created Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves into cushion series for Iron Velvet Art - it is a unique reinterpretation of her collaborative art practice. Exclusively available at Iron Velvet Art, each cushion features one of the 18 original paintings created with natural paint on linen. The cushions are adorned with traditional Jeju fabric dyed with persimmon, filled with cotton, and sewn by artist Oh Mikyung and a seamstress from Dongmun Market. Each piece reflects the stories shared by the participating artists.
"I’m a visual artist and collaborator experimenting with everyday art centered around diverse relationships, practicing the slogan 'Making Friends, Not Art.'"
Yujin Lee
Documentation photo at Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Yujin Lee: Farm Cylinder Persimmon Dyed Cushion
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
In Collaboration with James Moon Lee
Edition 17/18
Natural Paint on Linen, Buckwheat husk fillings
$320
Yujin Lee: Geometric Cylinder Persimmon Dyed Cushion
Edition 18/18
Natural Paint on Linen, Buckwheat husk fillings
$320
Yujin Lee: Green Circle Cotton Cushion
Edition 06/18
Natural Paint on Linen
$320
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Yujin Lee at Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Documentation of audience-participatory performance at Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Documentation of audience-participatory performance at Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Documentation of audience-participatory performance at Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
Painting Conversation is a collaborative art project initiated in 2019. This particular series involves 18 participants from Jeju and Fukuoka who painted together while sharing stories about food, particularly focusing on the concept of "rice thieves" in 2023. The paintings are displayed as table mats on a long tablecloth, accompanied by kitchen-related objects lent by the participants and their recipe cards for the audience to take home in the exhibition of Kitchen Across the Ocean in Fukuoka(curated by Hyesu Cho), Japan.
The Sound of the Painting Conversation
Watch the edited sound of the Painting Conversation
The video captures personal conversations about favorite foods, reflections on home-cooked meals, and cherished experiences with kimchi, offering a glimpse into the participants' culinary memories.
Photo of Next Door to the Museum, Yujin Lee's Jeju Residency
Next Door to the Museum
After living in Berlin (2010-2013) and New York (2013-2017), Yujin Lee settled in a rural village on Jeju Island. She transformed a traditional Jeju farmhouse, which includes a main house (angeori), a sub-house (bakkgeori), a tangerine barn (chang-go), and a tangerine orchard (wooyoungpat), into a creative live/work space named Next Door to the Museum. Inspired by Van Gogh's Studio of the South, Black Mountain College, and Rirkrit Tiravanija's The Land Foundation, Next Door to the Museum serves as both an artist's home and a residency for creative minds, blurring the lines between art and life and fostering long-term friendships.
Yujin Lee also collaborated as a curator for the 3rd Jeju Biennale (2022-23), hosting Rirkrit Tiravanija's site-specific installation at her farmhouse.
Yujin Lee: Wind Persimmon Dyed Cushion
Painting Conversation: Stories of Rice-Thieves
In Collaboration with Ruangsak Anuwatwimon
Edition 11/18
Natural Paint on Linen
$320
About the Artist
Yujin Lee (born in 1986 in Daegu, South Korea) is an artist and a collaborator who wears many other hats; she is a writer and translator, a caretaker of land and animals, as well as a host of an alternative artist residency that she began in 2019 at her farmhouse in Jeju Island, South Korea. Lee holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BFA in Painting from Cornell University. Lee’s selected group exhibitions include: Migrating Humans - Homo Migratio, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju (2023); How to Love Many in Many Ways, Iron Velvet, New York (2022); Global Week: Time-Space Resonance, Culturetank, Seoul (2021). She also participated in artist residencies including Art Omi in upstate New York (2022) and organized international exchange projects in partnership with organizations such as Heritage Space in Hanoi, Vietnam (2023) and Void Art Centre in Derry, Northern Ireland (2024).
