Cheon pyo Lee

Medium is the Same

September 8th - October 14th, 2012

Opening reception September 8th, 6-9 pm

INTERSTATE PROJECTS is pleased to present Medium is the Same, Cheon pyo Lee’s first solo show with the gallery. Lee persistently examines questions of medium and genre through a sensitive and personalized body of work. Medium is the Same employs Lee’s personal economy to create a narrative atmosphere, a space full of lingering tones, endless chatters and moody humor. As an expedition into the complexities of association and narrative, the exhibition comprises two floors with a series of surprises and inversions.

Taking on the dual character of both engine and vehicle, the exhibition allows one to move in and outside the workings of travel and trade. Each individual work espouses a particular approach to fabrication. Chinese Waterfall, Broom, and the altered clapping monkeys within Felicity, investigate the myriad forms of kinetic sculpture, through components such as; custom built gears, bill counters, conveyer belts, and appropriated figurines.

Comparatively, in the basement project space, Lee has created an installation focusing on the journey of a container ship as it dumps toxic waste across the oceans, without a destination or an owner. Within Felicity and Wave Patterns, Lee’s palette acquires a crisp plasticity, mimicking graphic and industrial prototyping. The stylistic differences between the two floors are dismantled in the fragmented debris spotting the wall pieces that double the exhibition’s title, Medium is the Same.

Cheon pyo Lee lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Holds an MFA from Yale University and did his undergraduate work at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago. He has recently exhibited his work at Eyebeam (New York), Zero One (San Jose), The Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), and Whiteflag (New York), in addition to numerous shows in South Korea and Brazil.

Press:

L Magazine Intermediating Mediums at Interstate, September 27, 2012