Doowon and the Golden Fish Submarine Arrive in New York

Doowon and the Golden Fish Submarine Arrive in New York

April 8 through May 31, 2025

ACA Galleries

173 Tenth Avenue, New York

Opening Reception: Wednesday April 9, 6–8pm

New York, NY…ACA Galleries is delighted to present Doowon and the Golden Fish Submarine Arrive in New York, the artist’s US debut. The solo exhibition will present a new body of work the artist has created over the past year while living in Hunza, Pakistan, featuring large scale paintings, mixed media works, and intricately patterned rugs. The new series expands upon the artist’s previous work inspired by his travels to Pakistan beginning in 2012.

Doowon Lee’s artistic practice is intimately informed by his travels, during which he engages with local techniques and artisans. Inherently site specific, the artist’s works emerge from materials sourced through collaborations with regional artist workshops and ateliers. Drawing from his experiences, emotions, and surroundings, his multimedia works utilize the languages of painting, craft and handiwork, fusing natural materials like Pakistani wool, Nepali hemp, and Indian khadi cotton with paint, ink, gouache, oil pastel, and buttons.

From an early age, Lee developed his innate artistic sensibilities through observation. He grew up in a creative household and was inspired by his father, a disciple of the renowned Namjonghwa master Uijae Huh Baek-ryun; his mother, who worked in the fashion industry; and his aunt, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in France. As the title of the exhibition suggests, Lee’s work is both playful and experimental, harnessing a range of recurring motifs, from tigers to spaceships to the artist himself. For Lee, painting is about following his instincts rather than conforming to specific techniques. As a result, many of his projects evolve directly from his imagination and emotions. He never traces his compositions before beginning to paint, therefore his process unfolds intuitively, unguided by any specific rubrics or limiting expectations.

“There is no right answer to painting; therefore, I do not use pencil and eraser. In both nature and my experiences, I sense and gather energy from materials as abundant as stars, and this energy activates my theater of drawing. In this day and age where there are so many art theorists or art-scientists, I am just an unbridled painter who draws and draws.” – Doowon Lee

Self-identifying as a “nomadic artist,” Lee establishes what he terms “mobile ateliers” as he travels. Learning from new landscapes, climates, and artistic communities across the United States, Japan, Germany, Korea, France, India, Pakistan, and Nepal, he develops instinctive compositions gathering visual associations, colors, and images from nature. As he travels, Lee maintains a work journal—an artistic project in its own right—recording his observations and thought processes. In a journal excerpt from one of his first visits to Pakistan in 2013, Lee writes:

“One day I saw a picture of the village of Hunza in Pakistan. When I saw the picture of springtime apricot flowers in full bloom and long, slender and tall trees embraced in the bosom of a high, rough, rocky and snowy mountain under the blue sky, I set out on a work trip to the place. My studio is mobile. It can be on a rock, a lawn, a hotel rooftop, or sometimes a train or bed.”

Doowon Lee (b. 1982) is an artist who eschewed formal art education in favor of traveling the world, drawing inspiration and materials from his emotions, experiences, and nature. Growing up, he was profoundly influenced by his father, a disciple of the renowned Namjonghwa master Uijae Huh Baek-ryun; his mother, who worked in the fashion industry; and his aunt, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in France. Holding a cosmology that views nature, animals, and humans as one, Lee creates a humorous world free from the constraints of traditional forms and distinctions by seamlessly blending artificial and natural elements. His work incorporates natural fibers such as wool from Pakistan, hemp fabric from Nepal, and khadi cotton from India, combined with various locally sourced materials and Korean ink. In 2023, Lee achieved significant milestones, including a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London and being selected as a representative artist for the Busan Biennale 2024. He continues to actively engage both domestically and internationally.