Exhibition

Winners of KICB International Competition

Excellence Prize of the KICB 2019(Ceramics for Use)

Jeongwon Lee, Korea

  • Jeongwon Lee received a B.A. in ceramics from Seoul National University of Science and Technology in 2008 and an M.F.A. in ceramics art from Seoul National University in 2013, in Korea. She is currently in a Ph.D program at Seoul National University. In 2016 and 2017 she participated in Talking about Vessels at Yeongam Pottery Museum and Summer of White Porcelain at Yanggu Porcelain Museum in Korea. She also participated in overseas exhibitions in 2018, including the ITAMI International Craft Exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Crafts ITAMI, Japan and COLLECT, Sattchi Gallery, London, UK. In 2019, she was awarded the Eine Belobigung erhalt, BKV Prize, Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein e.V, Munchen, Germany. She was also recognized at a number of competitions.

Re-Formed_ Linear Series / 2018-2019 / White porcelain, pigment, polishing

View More Works

This series of vases features variations in subtle forms made by slip casting and effective treatment of the surface by glazing and polishing. Every one of these vases is of superb design, but when grouped together, they evince a different design sense. Lee focuses on transforming the original form into a new form by extending or removing primary elements such as dots, lines, and planes that constitute three-dimensional objects. She wants to reveal shadows and color sense that show as different planes intersect within her work consecutively.

Review
Jeongwon Lee’s vases are an example of how Korean craft draws on its heritage and traditions. Yet in these porcelain forms she resists the constraints that this heritage could make on her and presents us with a wholly contemporary body of work. The precision and subtlety of her work is evident in these simple, quite minimal, works and in the process by which they are made. Each piece is slip cast and then glazed and often using a beautiful blue green glaze, although here it is blues, pinks and greys. Then it is polished such that subtle variations in colour and shadow are created by the extrusions. Her work is highly polished both literally in the sense that it is beautifully executed but also in being conceptually well considered and intelligent.

International Committee KICB 2019

Rosy Greenless
Executive Director, British Crafts Council