Lee Myungmi’s Paintings at Apgujeong EHL BIO Cell Center: Landscapes Where Color Lingers

The walls of the Apgujeong EHL BIO Cell Center display paintings by Lee Myungmi, in which flowers, stems, letters, and visible brushstrokes overlap across expansive fields of blue, green, and red. Displayed within a space devoted to life sciences, these vivid compositions catch visitors’ eyes and leave a distinct impression of the setting.

Understanding Lee Myungmi’s Art Through “Play-Game”

Lee Myungmi is a Korean contemporary artist born in 1950. In 1974, she participated in the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival as a founding member and its youngest female artist, establishing her practice amid the experimental movements of the Korean art world in the 1970s.[1]

Her early experiments included burning sponges and attaching vinyl to canvas.[1] From the late 1970s onward, she shifted her focus toward an approach to painting that embraced intuition and chance.

The title of her 1977 solo exhibition, “Play,” offers a key to understanding her work.[1] Wooson Gallery describes “Play-Game” as an attitude that welcomes change and the sensibilities of everyday life rather than adhering to a fixed order.[1] Unexpected color combinations, letters resembling graffiti, and brushstrokes left visible on the surface all resonate with this approach.

Compositions of Everyday Motifs: Flowers, Flowerpots, and Letters

Lee Myungmi’s canvases feature flowers and flowerpots, people and animals, houses, food, clothing, furniture, numbers, and letters.[1] Rather than depicting these familiar objects realistically, she uses them as painterly elements through which to arrange color and line.

Her catalogue includes several works with flowers or flowerpots in their titles, including 〈Drawing a Flowerpot〉, 〈Drawing Flowers〉, 〈Flowerpot〉, and 〈Painting for flower〉.[1] Rather than functioning as a fixed symbol, the flowerpot is an everyday motif that the artist has revisited and reinterpreted over many years.

In the paintings installed at the Cell Center, a blue ground, green stems, white flowers, red fields of color, and text coexist within a single composition. Some may remember the flowers first, while others may recall the intense blue or red lettering. The paintings’ vivid colors introduce a different visual rhythm into a space dominated by white walls and neutral tones.

Brushwork and Recovery: Insights from Her Exhibitions

Lee Myungmi’s paintings often feature irregular boundaries between colors, tilted lines, and bold, visible brushstrokes. New symbols are layered over earlier images, leaving traces of the painting process visible within the composition.

The solo exhibition 《How Many Lee Myungmis Are Needed》, held at Wooson Gallery Daegu from March 5 to May 9, 2026, highlighted compositions that bring together construction and collapse, fullness and absence, seriousness and lightness.[2] This reading reflects the interpretation offered in the exhibition statement.

The exhibition statement for 《How to Cross the Desert》, held at Wooson Gallery Daegu from April 6 to June 9, 2023, described the artist’s return to imagery of flowers, dots, numbers, letters, and animals following a period of physical injury, treatment, and recovery.[3] The exhibition statement likened this process to a journey of “crossing the desert.”[3]

Bright colors and humor remain present in works from this period. Flowers, circles, and vivid colors lend a sense of lightness and movement to compositions that engage with difficult experiences.

Images of Color and Life at the Cell Center

EHL BIO operates the Apgujeong Cell Center, where it presents its work in stem cells and regenerative medicine.[4] Lee Myungmi’s works, which have long explored imagery of flowers and growth, are displayed in a setting dedicated to the study of cells and the human body, with art and science each speaking in their own language.

This connection does not necessarily reflect a specific intention on the artist’s part. The way an artwork is interpreted can depend on where it is displayed and the personal memories of its viewers. For one person, a flower may be a familiar object of daily life; for another, it may evoke a season or a sense of movement.

Science studies living systems by observing cells and tissues. Painting engages the senses through color, line, material, and the movement of the artist’s hand. Lee Myungmi’s paintings at the Apgujeong EHL BIO Cell Center offer visitors a moment to pause and shift their gaze within a space where research and consultation take place.

About EHL BIO

EHL BIO is a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing human health through stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Through scientific research into the self-repair capabilities of cells, it develops new approaches to aging and disease. By combining premium healthcare with advanced biotechnology, EHL BIO provides solutions for healthier, more vital lives.