ChaeYoung Lee paints places that people have left behind. They are the traces of ruins lying behind the splendor of the city—factories that have ceased operation, vacant lots emptied of human presence, places soon to disappear or already gone. Yet what holds her gaze is not disappearance alone. Present in those same places are beings that spring back to life as if resisting erasure, like weeds and vines. The artist describes herself as someone who “explores the sense of dwelling between what disappears and what remains.”

Lee studied Korean Painting at Duksung Women’s University, where she also completed her graduate studies in the same field. She has since built a distinctive body of work that captures the neglected landscapes on the outskirts of the city, grounded in hanji (Korean paper) and ink. She has held eight solo exhibitions at venues including the Soma Museum of Art, POSCO Art Museum, Zaha Museum, and Gallery Sejul. She received the Chong Kun Dang Yesuljisang Award in 2015, the Grand Prize at Public Art New Hero in 2016, and the Incarnation Cultural Arts Foundation Award in 2021, and was an artist-in-residence at the Gyeonggi Creation Center in 2016.

Her work begins with layering ink on hanji, a material into which ink and pigment slowly seep to form strata. The artist builds up thin layers of pale ink and color to create depth and density on the picture plane. Because a mark, once absorbed, cannot be undone, she faces the surface with full concentration at every moment. While her early work centered on ink, she has recently been exploring new possibilities by incorporating color.

For the artist, nature is not a subject to be depicted but a way of reading time. Even in spaces people have abandoned, nature does not pause; it continues to seep in and grow. In vacant lots overrun with weeds, in cracked walls and neglected structures, disappearance and emergence occur simultaneously. The artist says these scenes reveal that “time does not flow in only one direction.” New traces accumulate over what has vanished, and different times coexist within a single picture.

At this year’s Kiaf, ChaeYoung Lee presents large-scale and small works together in a U-shaped corner booth. Facing the front is Empty Air, a representative work depicting the landscape of a vacant lot, with Strange Afternoon on the left. On the right hang small works from the Between Series, portraying weeds and cracks in the ground. Empty Air captures the density of a space that appears empty yet is never entirely void, built up through many layers of pale ink. The artist hopes that viewers will “recall the work again after time has passed, rather than immediately after seeing it.”