22/08/2026
Encounters 조우
c.2026
oil on linen
린넨에 유화
Antonio Hyeok Lee is a Korean artist whose practice explores human nature, cultural difference, and the possibility of harmony through encounter. Born in Busan, South Korea, in 1985, Lee grew up amid the continuing political and psychological tension created by the division of the Korean Peninsula. This environment prompted an early awareness of how people define sameness and difference, a question that continues to shape his artistic language.
Lee studied fine art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan and later earned a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. Living across South Korea, Italy, and Canada has allowed him to experience cultural collision, adaptation, and coexistence firsthand. These experiences inform a practice in which personal transformation is connected to broader questions of identity, community, and social balance.
In his ongoing Encounters series, Lee constructs layered fields of lines, colours, and geometric forms that appear independent yet remain carefully interrelated. Each element retains its own visual identity while contributing to a larger equilibrium. The compositions reflect Lee’s belief that harmonious relationships do not require the erasure of difference, but emerge through restraint, openness, and mutual adjustment.
Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, Lee treats the artwork as a medium through which meaning is completed by the viewer. His paintings invite a gradual shift from visual tension to coherence, offering encounter itself as a space of possibility. Lee currently lives and works in the Vancouver area, and his work has been exhibited in South Korea, Italy, and Canada.
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