Yeji Sei Lee "Where She Was, Not She"

Colony Minami Aoyama

Finished

Artists

Yeji Sei Lee

The Loop Gallery is pleased to present Where she was, not she, a solo exhibition by Yeji Sei Lee.

Lee’s practice has long been rooted in an exploration of personal memory and inherited histories, and how these narratives take shape within shared spaces. Her 2023 solo exhibition “Call me by my name” in Tokyo examined the complex identities of women through the lens of her relationship with her mother. In 2024, In vibrant hues, their voices laid, held in Seoul, turned to the charged atmosphere of Korean marketplaces, where overlapping gazes, voices, and the rhythms of working women were captured through dense, expressive brushwork.

While female figures have remained central in Lee’s past work, this exhibition marks a subtle shift: a move away from identifiable subjects toward the dynamics of the spaces they inhabit. Rather than portraying specific individuals, Lee focuses on the sensorial experience of place — the warmth of shared meals, the hum of labor, the glow of ambient light, and the lingering density of human presence.

At the heart of this exhibition are two large-scale paintings first shown in Seoul, now recontextualized through a spatial composition that foregrounds Lee’s evolving interest in how spaces hold memory and energy.

The title Where she was, not she reflects a quiet departure — from the image of “her” as a fixed subject to a more open, anonymous terrain. Without foregrounding cultural or political narratives, Lee invites viewers to enter the canvas with their own bodies and gaze, to inhabit a space shaped not by story, but by sensation.

Schedule

May 23 (Fri) 2025-Jun 10 (Tue) 2025