ARTIST BIO
Ellee SY Lee
Ellee SY Lee is a Korean-Canadian, Toronto-based visual artist creating imaginary, semi-abstract paintings that explore diverse visual experiences. She immigrated to Canada as a teenager, where she discovered her love for art-making. Painting, in particular, became a liberating way for her to connect deeply with her subconscious and emotional state. She received her BFA from OCAD University in 2006 and pursued abstract art for several years. However, her personal circumstances brought her back to Korea, where she paused her artistic practice for nearly a decade. After returning to Canada, she realized that her connection to art had never faded, and this led her to rekindle her passion for painting. She has been actively participating in art fairs and exhibitions since 2023.
Her work springs from a confluence of personal memories, the rhythms of nature, and a deep engagement with Korean traditional art, intertwined with the visual sensibilities of Western art movements such as Post-Impressionism and Post-Pop Landscape. At its core is an exploration of life’s dynamic flow—where she perceives vibrancy, beauty, harmony, and the interconnectedness of all things.
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She is currently immersed in three ongoing series: Innerscape, an inward journey into her own visions; The Way Things Are, a meditation on irregularity and the uncontrolled; and Walking with You, a celebration of everyday beauty. Working organically and intuitively, she builds layers of simplified shapes and lines, bold colour, shifting perspectives, mark-making, flatness, and texture, allowing the unexpected to lead the process. The paintings that emerge invite a sense of mysticism, dreaminess, and quiet reflection.
Artist Statement
I make imaginary paintings that oscillate between abstraction and representation, exploring forms, mark making, perspectives, and painting styles. I find inspiration in a wide range of sources: personal memories, nature, philosophical notions of the Eastern and Western, scientific views on the world, and other artworks like that of Post impressionism, Spiritual abstraction, Post-pop landscapes, and more. The strange aspect of painting which gives a sense of connectivity and sensibility keeps fascinating me and makes me continue to experiment painting on its visuality. Moreover, through painting, I want to embrace naturalness, simplicity, and spontaneity, hoping that it can offer a vicarious escape and temporary respite from a fatiguing and monotonous world.
All artworks are subject to availability.
This series of Innerscape is inspired by the Korean traditional landscape, “San Su Hwa” which depicted mountains and waters with simple lines and spontaneous mark-makings and emphasized the beauty of naturalness.
Innerscape 1-IV-25 No.46
Innerscape 12-IV-25 No.47
Innerscape 2-IX-25 No.62
Innerscape 28-VII-25 No.51
This series of Walking With You is inspired by my memories and impressions of the scenery of the places I’ve seen during a walk. I like to go to different parks in the city and find the beauty of their landscapes. So I’m compelled to transform them into a painterly space. In the process, I use photo references as a starting point. Then, I stretch them from different directions and reconfigure them within the interplay of perspective, colours, lines, and shapes.
