The paintings in Fallen Sakura look cut from the same scene, as do her paintings over the last few years. Drinking glasses, phones and cigarette packets, all synonymous to nightlife, often reappear on her tables, each curiously cropped or precariously placed. It’s as if she’s constantly double exposing the same panoramic moment, zooming into sections to illuminate them and give them special attention. Lee’s paintings present life cast through a kaleidoscope – each of her disposable elements repeating in on themselves, spiralling into one another on the surface. Her mercurial canvases are seemingly free of limitation and time – permeating across every fibre, always looking forward, but with an eye, inescapably, on the past.
Yoora Lee (b. South Korea 1990) lives and works in Chicago. Selected exhibitions include: BURN IN, Jude Gallery Chicago, Chicago, IL (2021), A Missed Encounter, Galerie Mighela Shama, Switzerland, Geneva (2021), The other art fair highlight group show, The Hoxton, Chicago, IL (2021) Summer Camp, Tchotchke Gallery, New York, NY (2021) Launch Exhibition, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL, (2020) Long hello, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, USA (2020)