Seojung Lee

I believe that everything has its own purpose, and that every work of art has something to say about it. I spend much of my time exploring the meanings artworks generate and the ways they extend beyond art itself, translating those ideas into different forms of writing. To write about art is to look closely at an artwork, an artist, or an exhibition long enough for something to unfold. At its foundation lies care, a sustained affection for art.

The meaning and potential of an artwork emerge through the entangled relationships between artist, artwork, viewer, writer, and reader. These relationships do not remain fixed in the present; they move across time and space. Individual works created within distinct contexts, artists and viewers separated by different eras and places, writers who translate art into text and readers who interpret those words based on their own experiences: through layers of understanding and misunderstanding, meaning accumulates.

Within a single piece of writing, works from different media, disciplines, and contexts can become newly connected. In that sense, art writing is less a means of explanation than a way of thinking alongside the work itself—a practice of tracing unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated things.

I take as a point of departure the places where personal narratives intersect with social contexts within broader historical currents. I am particularly drawn to moments when minor narratives unsettle dominant history, when personal stories expose structural questions, and when small experiences reveal cracks in larger discourses.

These interests shape the way I write. I aim for language that remains accessible without becoming flattened. Clarity matters, but so does preserving the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the work itself. Lately, I have been learning to leave things unresolved.