Lee Yunbok was born in Korea / Seoul in 1970. In 1999 he majored in environmental sculpture at the Department of Fine Arts at Kyungwon University, and in 2003 he was a research student at the Department of Metal Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo.
His sculptures are made from driven and polished stainless steel and are revealing human bodies. Lately, he doesn't start from drawings any more, because the manufacturing process - the feeling of tension and the self-projection into the work during the creation – is gaining more and more in importance.
By having a look at his oeuvre we can slightly understand how much discipline is needed in the corporally tiring everyday process of driving and welding the hard material. The objects may be close to the artist's own nature, because the viewer can't feel the hardness of stainless steel as a metal, and the sculptures are somehow humorous models. According to Lee Yunbok, his life-indoctrinated sculptures will have their fascination and glimmer in every kind of hall they are installed in.

The Shape of the Soul – Yunbok Lee's Recent Works

The movie I am Legend starring Will Smith is a story about the last person in New York, which has been quarantined because of a plague. He is a doctor who has to fight off the former residents the plague turned into violent zombies, zombies that only come out at night. This alone is enough to call it a scary movie, but the part of this largely nonsensical movie that really sends shivers down your spine are not the action scenes. There is a scene in which on one quiet afternoon in a store void of people, our hero talks to an uncomfortably realistic mannequin, one that seems as though it could start talking at any moment, it is indescribably eerie. He was speechless and helpless, not understanding why being in the same space as something in the shape of a fellow human can stir up such an unsettled feeling in him.
This is probably the first place we are confronted with the issue of the soul. Somewhere along the way I had the inappropriate thought that if a soul were to enter that empty shell of a finely crafted doll (I suddenly remember Pygmalion), she’d be a beautiful woman in the flesh. But what is a soul? Where are they? Nobody knows the answers to these questions. What we do know is that our souls are close to us, almost one with us, and like our faces or backs, they are not something we can look at directly. Souls do not reside in pieces of wood or stone. How can we catch something that appears unexpectedly with no way of knowing where it is? It is in this point that I for one, think the significance of Yunbok Lee’s work lies.
Actually, this is not the first time I have seen the kind of shape in one of Yunbok Lee's works that seems to have a soul. Several years ago, at the Soh Gallery, when I saw a certain work of art with organic form bound by a metal sash, I felt as if I sensed a soul locked inside. In contrast, more recent works give the impression the souls are independent, and much more self-sufficient. Yet, it is not the shiny, hammered and beat stainless steel encapsulating empty space itself that is the soul, that is just its shape. Moreover, we must not forget that the essential thing here is the idea Laozi expounds, namely that "Things in existence that are beneficial, are so only because of nothingness".

Incidentally, no matter how close the soul is to us, that does not mean it will show itself very readily. But that is exactly why Yunbok Lee says "Artworks are made on the border between the limits of mind and body. We go to sleep feeling the pain of the body, and so we awake." And again, "---to me the process is a part of the artwork itself" (quoted from memory). The soul always accompanies the dialogue and conflict of works that artists can refer to as pieces of themselves and at the same time entirely separate entities, affecting the materials as something almost non-existent. The accumulation and whole of these subtle events themselves, called "accidents" by the artist, are the tracks, traces, and signs of the soul. So that eventually the work of art, or "metaphor for the soul," speaks to the hearts of those that look upon it.

Yunbok Lee's works of bent steel polished like a mirror are all strangely human. That may be the reason we think we see our souls reflected in them.

Kunio Motoe
Professor, Tama Art University / Curator, Fuchu Art Museum

Lee Yunbok

2003
Research Student, Department of Metal Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, Japan
2000
2000-2002 Part-time lecturing in Oriental Painting and Western Art,
Division of Fine Arts at Kyungwon University, Kyonggido, Korea
1999
MFA, Major in environmental sculpture, Department of Fine Arts,
Kyungwon University, Kyonggido, Korea
1998
1998-2000 Part-time lecturing in visual art at Yeojoo Institute of
Technology Kyonggido, Korea
1997
BFA, Major in environmental sculpture, Department of Fine Arts,
Kyungwon University, Kyonggido, Korea
1970
Born in Seoul, Korea

2008
Space Explorers, Soul Gallery, Beijing, China
Hong Kong international Art Fair, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Hong Kong
7ｔｈ Solo Exhibition, “Lee’s Sculpture Exhibition”, SP Gallery, TSUBAKI Gallery, Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka
2007
KIAF (Korea International Art Fair), SP Gallery (Korea), COEX, Seoul, Korea
6ｔｈ Solo Exhibition, "Lee's Sculpture Exhibition", Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan
"Art in DOJIMA OSAKA 2007", Dojima Hotel, Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2000 SCULPTURE + MCC, Modern culture center, Kyonggido, Korea
2007 POSCO Steel Art Award, POSCO Museum, Seoul, Korea
Seoul Art Fair, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
NAMHANSANSUNG 2007 TOWER ART Exhibition, Namhansansung, Kyonggido, Korea
2006
5th Solo Exhibition, Galerie PICI, Seoul, Korea
Seoul Art Fair, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Gallery Collection Exhibition, Gallery TSUBAKI, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo X Seoul, Korea Cultural Centre, Tokyo, Japan
Regular Exhibition, GANA Art Centre, Seoul, Korea
KIAF (Korea International Art Fair),Gallery TSUBAKI(Japan),COEX, Seoul, Korea
Art Chicago in the Park Fair 2006, SP Gallery, Butler Field, Chicago,
United States America
2005
National competition for the sculptures of Changsung Arts and Cultural Park, Changsung, Jeonranamdo, Korea: Winner of the landscape painting entry, commissioned work is permanently set up on site from Dec 2006 onwards.
CASO (Contemporary Art Space Osaka), Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SIPA (Seoul International Print, Photo & Edition Works Art Fair 2005), SP Gallery, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Art Fair Tokyo 2005, SOH Gallery, Tokyo International Forum, Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
KIAF (Korea International Art Fair), Gallery TSUBAKI (Japan), COEX, Seoul, Korea
Group Exhibition, "The Collectable: Object", SOH Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
４ｔｈ Solo Exhibition, "Lee’s Sculpture Exhibition", Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2004
3rd Solo Exhibition, "Compilations of Existence", SOH Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
KIAF (Korea International Art Fair) Exhibition, Gallery TSUBAKI (Japan),COEX, Seoul, Korea
2003
2nd Solo Exhibition, "Lee's Sculpture Exhibition", Lobby Gallery, Department of Metal Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, Japan
2002
1st Solo Exhibition, "Lee's Sculpture Exhibition", Chang Gallery, Seoul, Korea
"Let's go to zoo", Dukwon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
"The invitation exhibition for modern arts in Uijeongbu city", The Palace of Art, Kyonggido, Korea
"Center, Interface, Circumstance" Exhibition, LOTTE Gallery, Kyonggido, Korea
Group Exhibition, Anyang Art Asociation, Anyang Art Center, Kyonggido, Korea
2001
"Children Playground Design Competition", Merit Award,
Korean Residential Corporation, Korea
"Children, Sculpture, Amusements" Exhibition, Cultural Center,
Kyonggido, Korea
Group Exhibition, Anyang Art Asociation, Anyang Art Center,
Kyonggido, Korea
The Young Artists' Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition,
2001 Korea World Ceramics Exposition, permanently exhibiting at
Kyonggido Sculptural Park, Kyonggido, Korea
"Dream, Fairy Tale, Museum" Exhibition, Jeonwon Gallery,
Yangpyung, Korea
2000
Anyang Art Association's Special Exhibition, Anyang Art Center, Kyonggido, Korea
"Three Sculptors' Exhibition- Lee Yunbok, Park Jin Kyung,
Park Hyeon Kyung", Insa Gallery, Seoul, Korea
The 1st Korean Sculpture Competition and
The 16th Korean Sculptor's Association Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
The 19th Korean Art Grand Exhibition,
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwachun, Korea
1998
2nd Outdoor Sculpture Grand Exhibition, First Prize,
Hongik University, Chochiwon, Korea
The 20th Joongang Fine Art Exhibition, Hoam Gallery, Seoul, Korea
The 7th New Frontier Exhibition, Seoul, Korea
1996
The 7th New Frontier Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

Museum Collection:
Hongik University, Ceramics Expo Park
Changsung Arts and Cultural Park

Present: Member of Korean Fine Arts Association & Icheon Sculpture Association