Seung Eun Lee

1966 Born in Seoul, Korea.
1989 Graduated Ewha Womans University majoring Korean Painting.
1989~2005 Participated in several group exhibitions
2003 Diploma of flower arranging in Beorma Institute, The netherlands
2012 solo exhibition of "Wood-It‘s myterious inside", Seoul

I had a chance to visit Izmailovskiy Park since I lived in Moscow from 2006 along with my husband who is a buisiness man. There, for the first time I saw the unpainted wooden forms of matryoshkas but I never imagined people can paint on them unless you are a master of it. Luckly I met the master of matryoshkas, Zhanna Nikolaeva and she tought me how to start painting matryoshkas right from the begining.

After the lessons I started to put my own imaginations on it because It was not a tough job for a person like me who has already majored in art. Soon I wondered what would it be like if I combine the most Russian and the most Korean while most of the people visiting Russia took the matryoshkas only as a Russian folk doll or a tourist souvenir.

Now the main theme that I concentrate on is "Giseng" who is from the history of Korea. Giseng is the women who mostly deal with men but never a prostitute but rather an artist. I try to put them on matryoshkas to smooth the pains of their lived and also the grief of their artistis souls.