Lee Seung Chul - May 16 to June 8, 2023

Lilac Gallery New York is pleased to present “Crowned” an exhibition of works by Lee Seung Chul. Bringing for the first time this outstanding collecting of works from his Coq-Imperial collection, with striking colors and vibrant textures found in this debut exhibit. Running from May 16 to June 8, 2023.

Lee Seung Chul has made a set of drawings with free and strong gestures. The double character of the rooster is very well presented. "Crowned" is focused on the rooster has become a real symbol and we know that it is him who is watching us. He shows us that he dominates, but we see that he crows. He sings with strength, but he looks lost. He is stamping his feet, but it also looks like he is shivering.

The gestures have power that the bold charcoal makes even more sensitive, and we understand that Lee Seung Chul has succeeded in making the rooster a true living symbol. In the paintings, this effect is even more striking thanks to the use of color, which takes our eye even further. Each rooster appears in the paintings as a figure undergoing a metamorphosis. The animal rooster is in the process of becoming the symbol rooster, that is, the magic rooster, the shamanic rooster.

It is known that in Chinese astrology, the year of the rooster is divided into several periods each associated with a rooster of earth, metal, water, wood and fire. Lee Seung Chul is fully aware of the transformative power that the rooster embodies. His work as a painter reaches us here with its powerful colors, with the luminous backgrounds that project these roosters to the depths of our eyes and minds, with the expressiveness of their heads, the shaking of their feathers, the immensity of their eyes that seem to question the sky.