Jimin Lee is a painter and a print media artist who utilizes the most mundane objects of contemporary existence - books, an espresso coffee-maker, a blender and hair rolls- to explore the hidden complexities of the commonplace. "I choose common, useful objects which have contact with my body," states Lee. "They are not merely bare, utilitarian objects, but metaphorical interpretations of human relationships."
Lee, who was born in 1965 in Inchon, Korea, is a graduate of Seoul National University with a BFA in painting (1990) and MFA in printmaking (1992). She studied printmaking with Tadayoshi Nakabayashi at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music on a Japanese government scholarship. She also holds a second MFA in Printmaking from San Francisco Art Institute, USA.
Lee has had solo shows at Anchor Graphics, Chicago; QCC Art Gallery, The City University of New York; Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco; do ART Gallery/Hyundai Window Gallery, Seoul; Shirota Gallery, Tokyo and AndrewShire Gallery, Los Angeles. Notable group exhibitions include Crosscurrents: 8 American Contemporary Printmakers at Il Quadrato di Omega, Rome, Italy and Tradition & Innovation II at Museum Zallerein Halle 6, Essen, Germany.
Lee's work is in the collections of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers State University, the New York Public Library and OCC Art Gallery at the City University of New York, among others.
Since 1995 Lee has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area and she is an assistant professor and heads the print media program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.