Lee Jae-Hyo

Working with wood and metal, Lee Jae-Hyo produces immaculately formed, intricate sculptures that reveal a mastery of his materials and a winking, sophisticated wit. Lee eschews traditional distinctions between the fine and applied arts and makes both functional and functionless works, presenting benches, stools, and tables alongside abstract, biomorphic forms. Burnt-black wood often serves as the sculptural ground into which Lee Jae-Hyo embeds discs of fresh wood or bent steel bolts and nails. His wood-on-wood combinations read as playful meditations on the multifaceted nature of wood itself, while the nails that often cover his wooden surfaces seem transformed into worms or spermatozoa—recalling a slithering, energetic galaxy of organisms.