I am your Body: Chapter 2 - Flesh Keunmin Lee

Keunmin Lee: Hallucinated Forms and Crimson Realities

Keunmin Lee’s practice explores the fragmented and surreal, drawing deeply from personal hallucinations that have shaped his perception of the human form. His work is characterized by vivid use of crimson red, particularly the intense shade of ‘Crimson Red Deep,’ which recurs throughout his paintings as both a visceral and symbolic element.

Central to Lee’s work is the disassembled human body, often reimagined as abstracted masses or anatomical parts in various states of transformation. These forms—muscle, skin, and organic structures—emerge from his memories and are meticulously reconstructed into cohesive yet haunting compositions. His paintings convey a tension between disintegration and unity, reflecting on the fragility of human identity and the layers that define it.

Lee’s works often incorporate objects like plates and bowls, which act as metaphors for containment and relief. These vessels, depicted alongside fragmented bodies, symbolize moments of solace and the contrast between physical boundaries and the semantic categorizations that the artist seeks to critique. Through this interplay of form and symbolism, Lee creates paintings that are as much about the internal as they are about the external—an exploration of the human condition rendered in vibrant, haunting imagery.