V.W.L Magazine (Spring 2013)

V.W.L The Art of Valerie Won Lee

GANGNAM STYLE (30 X 60CM)

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V.W.L SPRING 2013

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‘ASIA’

with Guest E-­‐Artist "Gerardo Arturo Gómez Flores"

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Green Tea (30 X 60CM)

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V.W.L SPRING 2013

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PUPAE (100 X 65CM)

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MONK (30 X 60 CM)

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V.W.L SPRING 2013

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AKA (30 X 60CM)

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WHEN THE WATER SNAKE GOES THROUGH THE AKA DOOR (100 X 73CM)

POINTY HAT (30 X 60CM)

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THE ART OF VALERIE WON LEE

"Valerie Won Lee is a recently discovered, rapidly emerging artist of note. With her most recent exhibits in Paris, the French-Korean artist's work in gaining attention for its strongly distinctive style...." People in Korea magazine, Sept. 2012 Valerie Won Lee’s art is markedly ‘abstract figurative’ in style.

Her art is futuristic in tone, making striking use of connective lines, form and montage.

Cross-cultural and social themes hover in the background. The viewer is invited into Won Lee’s vision, be it a dreamscape or the stuff of nightmare, to experience a series of messages on every canvas.

Won Lee has travelled extensively on her artistic path. The fusion of Asian and international influences in her art results in portraits replete with sadness, arrogance, sassiness and even some cruelty. Her work possesses keen-eyed observations on the human condition. The eyes of her subjects, who for the most part are women, convey powerful passion, and occasionally anger.

Frames, windows, stars, planets and rain permeate the background in many of Won Lee’s paintings. Checkers reflect her feeling that life is like a chess game, that strategy wins through. Some of Won Lee’s work is therefore what one might term ‘chess-art’.

Though a dark motif runs through much of Won Lee’s work, it is not an absolute. Her art is a constant journey and evolution, following the vision of an artist very much of the modern world, yet who connects with history.

Art is a powerful inspirer of change. Won Lee’s contribution to this is, and will be, significant. As she puts it: “Creating is breaking the rules.”

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V.W.L SPRING 2013

BIOGRAPHY

Valerie Won Lee’s artistic motivations spring from her experiences as a world traveller.

Adopted at an early age, an Asian growing up in Europe, Won Lee assumed the culture into which she was thrown, France, yet retained a close link to the culture from which she had been separated, Korea.

Art is a lifelong journey for her. Entirely self-taught, experimentation is at the heart of her art. She travelled independently worldwide for fifteen years. Journeys that inspired passionate social and cultural agendas for her life and work.

When a child, Won Lee wanted to be a fashion designer. She spent time drawing faces, unusual haircuts and clothes. Over time, she understood that her passion was drawing.

When she started to travel, she adopted pastels, then finally acrylics and oils. Typically, her paintings go through many iterations before she settles on the final composition. It’s a very organic process, little of the design of each painting is pre-planned.

Won Lee’ s work is assembled by collections. Aged 20, she worked for some of the most top fashion emporia such as: Voyage, Issey Miyake, Christian Lacroix,Alberta Ferretti. Her latest collection, a blend of fashion and art, is named ‘Fashion Victims.’

Won Lee has had many life experiences that continue to influence her art. Among them, returning to her native Korea, teaching children living in a garbage dump in Guatemala City, at the “Refugio de La Paz” in El Salvador, living with Pacific tribes, traveling in very remote areas in South East Asia, traveling across seas, deserts, mountains, and living in many cities worldwide.

Won Lee’ s work is a journey through cultures, classes and her vision of the world. In this, it mirrors her own life.

Won Lee presented her first exhibition in February 2012 in Niort, France, at the local Commission of Culture, and in collaboration with a local Lao-Thai cultural and spiritual organization. In summer 2012, she exhibited her ‘The Roaring Twenties’ collection at the Bataclan in Paris, a famous concert venue.

‘The Roaring Twenties’ exhibition attracted the attention of People in Korea magazine, which published a six-page feature article on her life and work. In this interview, Won Lee was emphatic that artists should not be obliged to pay to be exhibited, as is often the case among emerging artists.

In part to side-step this pay-for-exhibit system, in 2012 Valerie Won Lee established a virtual, online magazine, ‘V.W.L.’, that so far attracts over 20,000 visitors.(www.vwlart.com)

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E-Artists

'People Magazine' in Korea quoted me in Autumn 2012 saying:

"Using technology as an artist is about sharing, it's about helping each other as artists"..."a lot of places and magazines require the artists to pay for being published, which I don't agree with at all".

So, I've decided to do something about it.

I’m creating a special section in the V.W.L seasonal magazine, dedicated to talented, passionate and committed artists I meet on the Internet.

The section will be called ‘E-Artists’.

It's a space where selected artists will be able to freely introduce themselves. For free. If you'd like to feature here, please contact me at the email address below.

I’m delighted that Gerardo Arturo Gómez Flores, a fantastically talented artist whom I have had the honour of meeting through the Internet, has agreed to be V.W.L Magazine’s first ‘E-Artist’.

info@vwlart.com.

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V.W.L SPRING 2013

GUEST ARTIST – GERARDO ARTURO GÓMEZ FLORES (El Salvador)

“Gerardo Arturo Gómez Flores (Flowers) is the name I was given when I was born. I was raised in a very “Magical” way; I remember the stories that my grandmothers told me. I had a very vivid imaginaBon and it seemed that there wasn’t a difference between the world of dreams and what people call “real life”. Since a very young age I started doing things like painBng, drawing, I used to make my doodles on the white walls of my house. It was lots of fun.

I’ve never seen Art as something as “I” do, but something that I am and everybody and everything is, is beyond logic, beyond reason, therefore it contains everything, and it is not limited by our mind. My main moBvaBon has been to discover; art has given me the opportunity to experience the world as a unity, to feel the world instead of seeing it through the limitaBons of the condiBonings of society.

This has been a very big adventure since the doodles on the walls of my house. I don’t know if you become an arBst or have to born that way; I haven’t taken that Btle too seriously either. The most important thing for me is to be sincere about what I do. At the moment I’ve been promoBng my work independently, I’ve done some collaboraBon projects with musicians, skate shops, and also workshops and lectures in schools and universiBes. I’ve been using the Internet as a plaMorm also.

I feel very happy that in El Salvador, the country I in which live, there are a lot of young arBsts doing great things also. I’m part of a generaBon that wants to move forward from the scars of the Civil War in the 1980’s. There are a lot of new focuses, new ideas beyond the fragmentaBon of our society that was caused by old doctrines. We are Bred of the manipulaBon of poliBcs and media. ArBst believe more in humanity rather than illusory ambiBons; at least, that is the kind of art and arBsts that make more sense for me, especially because of the history of our country.

I would love to have the opportunity of keep learning and discovering. Traveling is something that interests me a lot because you can see and experience all kind of new things. Art, of course, is what I want for the rest of my life.

I would like to thank V.W.L Magazine. I feel very honoured to be the first Guest E-­‐ArBst featured here; this is a very good iniBaBve for promoBng arBsts and to know about their percepBons.

If you’d like to put in touch with me I can be contacted through my website www.gerardogomezart.com , my email address gerardogomez.arBsta@gmail.com . I’m on facebook (facebook.com/gerardogomezart) and Twi[er (@gerardogomezart) also.”

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“Visiones de la nueva humanidad”

By GERARDO ARTURO GÓMEZ FLORES

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