Lehmann Maupin Seoul presents Recombinant, a dual exhibition of new work by Mandy El-Sayegh and Seoul-based artist Keunmin Lee. The exhibition takes its title from recombinant DNA, a phenomenon in genetics in which pieces of genetic information from separate genes, cells, or organisms are exchanged to create new forms. The show is the result of a process of collaboration and exchange between the two artists, who met several years ago after El-Sayegh discovered Lee’s work through a search-engine algorithm that suggested its similarity to her own. The pair began a correspondence—largely through sharing images, since they do not speak a common language—discovering aesthetic connections and intersecting artistic impulses within their practices. Recombinant brings together works which, in different ways, use imagery of the body (often in abstracted forms) to connect to wider themes, particularly around how individual subjects struggle to find modes of self-representation within societal structures.

Lee’s large-scale paintings are notable for their use of biomorphic forms: painterly abstractions that suggest organs, flesh, limbs, or circulatory systems, rendered in such close proximity as to become overwhelming and inscrutable. Often appearing as fragmented parts of the human body, his subjects are depictions of what he recalls from hallucinations during his hospitalization. Lee’s paintings attempt to give form to some parts of these memories; the body is visualized in a manner stripped of any social context, and the individual becomes simply the bodily—flesh, muscle, and blood vessels. Frequent use of red hues also adds to the abstract quality of Lee’s painting, rather than a sharp, explicit exposure of visceral imagery. This is an intentional choice made by the artist, and is aimed at “refining” the image of each hallucination.