The exhibition was organized by the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design (ASP) in Wroclaw on the occasion of granting the artist an honorary academic title of doctor honoris causa. The granting ceremony takes place on 4th April at 11 a.m. in the Aula Leopoldina at the Wroclaw University. On the same day, we will open a series of exhibitions aimed at presenting the outstanding achievements of the Korean ceramist, who has lived and worked in Germany for forty years, as well as her successors – Pottery Wheel Workshop Young-Jae Lee was born in 1951 in Seoul, South Korea, where she started her education in creating ceramics, continued in Germany since 1972. After graduating art studies in Wiesbaden, she opened her first ceramic workshop. Simultaneously, she attended lectures in art history at the University of Heidelberg. Then, for three years, she was a scientific and artistic employee in Gesamthochschule in Kassel. In 1987, she became a director of the Margaretenhöhe ceramic workshop in Essen. The workshop, successfully managed by Young-Jae Lee, is derived from the traditions and ideas of the Bauhaus.
Young-Jae Lee is the author of the Margaretenhöhe program – a designer, a technologist and a manager, with the achievements of the workshop highly appreciated at the international design fairs of and winning prizes at design competitions. A collection of utilitarian ceramics of the Margaretenhöhe workshop was shown at crafts and design trade fairs, in the applied art galleries in Germany (Frankfurt, Handwerkskammer in Munich, Koblenz, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Augsburg, Art Fair in Cologne, Studio Rosenthal in Hamburg, Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Frechen Museum), as well as in the Hague, Vienna (Impression Trade Fair) and many Italian, Austrian and Spanish galleries. Young-Jae Lee has presented her works in Japan (including Kyoto, Tokyo, Toyama, Nagoya) and in South Korea.
Young-Jae Lee’s success can be contributed to her personality, talent, hard work and passion, which clearly manifest in her works. The artist has been granted awards such as Bampi-Preis (1981) and the Bayerischer Staatspreis gold medal (1989). Her works are presented in numerous museums and collections, including Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum für Kunst Ostasiatische in Berlin, Hetjens-Museum in Düsseldorf, Keramion in Frechen and many others. The most spectacular exhibitions include those at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006, 2008), Museum of Asian Art in Berlin (2011) and Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (2013).
The cycle of multidimensional exhibitions will be an opportunity to showcase the creativity of the artist and the successors of her craftsmanship. Neon Gallery of the Wroclaw Academy of Art and Design will host two exhibitions - the first dedicated to the work of the Korean artist and the second summing up 25 years of the ASP Pottery Wheel Workshop’s activities. The combination of these exhibitions is not accidental, as it was Young-Jae Lee who taught the discontinued years ago technique to then a young assistant and now an associate professor - Katarzyna Koczyńska-Kielan. Thanks to the meeting of both artists, ceramic objects, vessels, sculptures and installations created on a pottery wheel may again be created in the Wroclaw Academy of Art and Design. The exhibitions in Wroclaw will be a summary of many years of Young-Jae Lee’s work. They are also another great opportunity to present Wroclaw as the European Capital of Culture 2016 to a wide international audience, as well as present the Korean artist to the city residents.
Programme of events
April 4, 2016 at 4 PM
Keramische Werkstatt Margaretenhöhe – Young-Jae Lee
Neon Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Traugutta str. 19/21
April 4, 2016 at 5 PM
Pottery Wheel Workshop Exhibition on its 25th anniversary
Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Traugutta str. 19/21
Although the event relates to the anniversary of a workshop of the Academy of Art and Design, it is associated with granting Young-Jae Lee a doctor honoris causa title. In 1989, Katarzyna Koczyńska-Kielan, then an assistant in the First Ceramic Art Workshop, visited the Keramische Werkstatt Margaretenhöhe workshop in Essen, where she met Young-Jae Lee. The consequence of that meeting was not only a common exhibition of both artists. The Korean ceramist, also starting her career, made it possible for the Polish artist to learn the technique not used anymore in Poland. During the following years Katarzyna Koczyńska-Kielan visited the workshop, learning the techniques of pottery wheel. She then conveyed her knowledge and skills to students in Wroclaw. The program of teaching pottery she introduced aimed at restoring one of the oldest ceramic techniques as an equal, contemporary method of forming ceramic matter using a pottery wheel. The aim was to present a versatile technique, modern in the possibility of its use, while keeping a high level of teaching it.
April 4, 2016 at 6 PM
Young-Jae Lee – Vessels
Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, Bernardynska str. 5
The exhibition shows the uniqueness and originality of the author and her work, based on various forms of vessels. The collection of 21 “Spindelvases”, as the artist calls them, will be complemented by flat large bowls. All the elements, through which the author goes back to the traditional forms of ancient Korean vessels, were created on a pottery wheel. By looking back and returning to the roots, the artist presents us with her attitude to ceramics, in which the main idea is the search of harmony and getting close to the ideal of beauty in form and color. In the Korean tradition, spindle-shaped vessels called “moon pots” referred to the purity of nature and served as containers. The exhibits created by the artist form the installation multiplied bodies and gain contemplative nature, power of sculptures and individuality of unique objects. The exhibition is open from 5th April to 8th May 2016.
April 5, 2016 at 4 PM
Everyday life – symbol – sacredness. Korean vessels by Young-Jae Lee
Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, Bernardynska str. 5
A meeting with the artist and a lecture by father prof. Friedhelm Mennekes, PhD, SJ of the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne, combined with the Korean ceremony brewing and drinking tea.
The lecture is conducted in German and translated into Polish.
April 8, 2016 at 4 PM
Young-Jae Lee – Bowls
Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology
Europe - Far East Gallery, Marii Konopnickiej 26
Cracow
The exhibition is the culmination of many years of efforts to present the work of the Korean artist in the Manggha Museum. The installation consisting of 490 cups and 49 bowls will be shown in the newly open space of the Europe - Far East Gallery.
The exhibition is open from 9th April to 14th August 2016.
