YU Department of Industrial Design Lee Gi-taek introduced with Korean surrealism photo
[December 11, 2017]
<Department of Industrial Design Junior Lee Gi-taek who works as a surrealism artist>
A man brushes his teeth in the bathroom. Another ego of this man appears in the mirror and pours mouth wash for him. The artwork, ‘Bathroom’ (photo below) was created by Lee Gi-taek (24), a junior at the YU Department of Industrial Design. Mr. Lee took the photo and edited it to express ‘another me helping me after a long day’.
This piece will be published as a Korean surrealism artwork in a high school art textbook next year by Jihaksa Publishing Company. This is stirring up big news as there are very few cases in which a student’s artwork was carried by a textbook.
Mr. Lee is already famous on social media platforms as a surrealism artist. He took on a different path from his major that mainly designs products. He said, “Three years ago, I decided to draw while serving in the military for self-development and so I began drawing with colored pencils whenever I had time. At the time, I usually drew hyper-realism pieces to look like photographs and I drew pictures in magazines or scenery from the military. But I thought that it was pointless to draw something exactly the way it looked so I decided to add my thoughts in it. I began adding elements that could not exist in reality."
He uploaded his drawings on his social media account whenever he was on leave. It was for fun, but visitors to his account called his works surrealism. He would draw shoes as if it were real and express the laces with fingers, or combined hands and a necktie on top of a dog’s head as part of his unique artwork, and visitors to his page gradually began to grow. Lee’s social media account became more popular as both the general public and other artists began to visit his site. He studied about surrealism on his own and one day learned about the artwork of the Swedish surrealism artist Erik Johansson, and from then on, he decided to express surrealism no longer from drawings, but with photos.
<Bathroom (Digital camera photo / Variable size / Lee Gi-taek, 2015>
After being discharged from the military, he began to take photos of everyday life and use Photoshop to create unique works and continued to upload them on social media account. The number of visitors continued to grow and he now has over 17,000 followers. Lee’s work caught the attention of a textbook publisher who saw his work and the publisher contacted Lee through his social media account and after a year of review, it was confirmed to carry his work in the textbook.
Though it started just as a hobby, he continuously uploaded his work and after a while, his social media followers gave him the title ‘artist’. Thanks to this, the Korean Artists Welfare Foundation officially recognized him as an artist in February of last year, and he is now active as an official artist.
He also holds various exhibits. Seoul COEX suggested that he hold an exhibit and so he held an exhibit once last year and once this year. Last year, he took a leave-of-absence from school to concentrate on artwork and he leased a small studio in Seoul and has been holding art exhibits in Shinchon and other areas. He returned to school this year and is currently working on his school as well as his artwork simultaneously.
“When people ask me about surrealism, I say that it is child-like imagination. I show them my works and tell them let their imagination carry them away. Many professional artists say that my works are ‘B-grade sentiments’, but my ideas are interesting. My classmates used to tease me saying that I was an ‘attention monger’, but now they say that they want to be a part of my works and respect my works.”
He hopes to become a professional artist after graduating. Lee said, “I currently work mainly with photographs, but I plan to produce videos and integrate design,” and added, “I want my works to be shared not only in Korea, but abroad as well.”
