Lee Jaehyun (b.1979) is a trained architect who practiced sculpture in his 20s and 30s. In 2018—only a year away from his 40s—he shifted his focus to painting, quickly catching the attention of collectors as a contemporary Korean artist. Lee’s painted works are still evolving forward through his iterative experiments with diverse materials and media.

The subjects of Lee’s paintings are largely traced back to his childhood. The oft expressionless characters in his paintings are significant figures in his life. Those childhood recollections hearken back to the Korean capital’s Sanggye-dong neighborhood. Located on the outskirts of the northeastern quarter of Seoul’s urban sprawl, the neighborhood was founded in the 1960s by squatters and demolished not long after redevelopment plans were declared in 1985.

The artist’s earliest memories were of being alone at home after both his parents headed out to work. A timid child, he would tremble alone in the evening darkness of the shanty town, terrified even by small sounds. Now in his mid 40s, Lee recalls those lonesome years with forlorn reflection; a heavy greyness that sits inside and on canvas.

Plush dolls appear regularly in his works—named Betty, Hannah, Chopchop, and Thomas. The offset eyes gaze askant, the differently shaped noses and small mouths altogether curious. They were the artist’s childhood friends, refuge and comfort in the raw reality of those years. The pink porcine brief-bag is an homage to the one is father carried, an element of the artist’s past.

Lee’s works are markedly layered and textured in his matière and technique, the colors and contours thick with distress and confusion of childhood, upon which he has decided to cast light and move onward.