Sangho Lee

Sangho Lee (B. 1960, Mokpo)

 

The artist, who dropped out of the Buddhist art program of Dongguk University and graduated from the painting department at the Chosun University College of Art, formed the two axes of his art realm with Buddhist painting and Gwangju’s reality participation art movement. He joined the Gwangju Visual Media Research Group in the early 1980s and participated in creating woodcut prints and hanger pictures. He was arrested for violating the National Security Act after exhibiting the hanger picture New Day of Reunification Dawning at the Foothills of Mount Baekdu-san, which he painted in collaboration with Chun Chung-ho, in the Reunification exhibition in 1987. The cruel torture and beating deeply wounded the artist’s mind and body proceeding as acute trauma. He gained the strength to recover while studying traditional Buddhist painting. He has recently been creating Nectar Ritual paintings encompassing modern history from the Dong-hak Peasants’ Revolution and Japanese Imperial Occupation Period to the April 19 Revolution, May 18 Democratization Movement, June Uprising, and Candlelight Revolution, and he has been creating works testifying to the era as someone who experienced the aftereffects of the May Uprising.

 

Lee is receiving attention for his first one-person exhibition, Standing at a Critical Point in History (DS Gallery, Gwangju, 2015,), the invitational exhibition Stories of Buddha Drawn with a Pencil (Mugak-sa Temple Lotus Gallery, Gwangju, 2018), and the People of May Who Have Closed Their Eyes, and Have Opened Their Eyes exhibition (May Hall, Gwangju, 2022), and he was invited to exhibit in dozens of group exhibitions. Major group exhibitions include The 3rd Gwangju Biennale Special Exhibition: Human Rights & Art (Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2000), Memories of Gwangju & East Asian Peace (Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan, 2005), May: Gwangju’s Minjung Art of the 1980s (Gwangju Museum of Art, 2013); and he was invited to the 13th Gwangju Biennale main exhibition and exhibited The Pride of Japanese Imperialism in 2021.

 

 

이 상호 (1960년 목포 출생)

 

동국대학교 불교미술학과를 중퇴하고 조선대학교 미술대학 회화과를 졸업한 작가는 불화와 광주의 현실 참여 미술 운동을 작품 세계의 두 축으로 이루어 왔다. 1980년대 초 광주시각매체 연구회에 가입하여 목판화, 걸개그림 제작에 참여했다. 1987년 전정호와 공동작업한 걸개그림 <백두산의 산자락 아래 밝아오는 통일의 새날이여>를 《통일전》에 출품했다가 국가보안법 위반 혐의로 구속되었다. 그 때 받은 모진 고문과 구타는 깊은 트라우마로 작용하여 몸과 마음에 깊은 상처를 주었다. 작가는 전통 불화를 사사 받으며 스스로 회복하는 힘을 얻었다. 최근 동학농민혁명, 일제강점기, 4·19혁명, 5·18민주화운동, 6월항쟁, 촛불혁명까지 근현대사를 아우르는 ‘감로탱’ 작업을 하고 있고, 오월 항쟁의 후유증을 경험한 자로서 시대를 증언하는 작품을 제작해 오고 있다.

 

첫 개인전, 《역사의 길목에 서서》(DS갤러리, 광주, 2015)에 이어 초대전 《연필로 그린 부처님 이야기》(무각사 로터스갤러리, 광주, 2018), 그리고 《눈 감고, 눈 뜬 오월의 사람들》(메이홀, 광주, 2022) 전시로 주목받고 있고 수십 차례의 단체전에 초대되었다. 《제3회 광주비엔날레 특별전-인권과 예술》(광주 비엔날레전시관, 2000), 《광주의 기억과 동아시아의 평화》(교토시립미술관, 일본, 2005), 《오월: 80년대 광주민중미술》(광주시립미술관, 2013), 2021년에는 제13회 광주비엔날레 본 전시작가로 초대되어 <일제를 빛낸 사람들> (2020)을 전시했다.