CV

Born 1986 in Seoul (KR)
Working and living in Amsterdam (NL)
aram@leearam.com

Aram Lee was born in Seoul and lives and works in Amsterdam. As an artist, her research-driven practice revolves around reinterpreting materials found within institutions, often seeking to relocate their role and purpose through performative events, film and video installations. Sometimes taking up processes of performative action with the public, her practice shapes the way objects are described and circulated. Her artworks challenge diasporic amnesia and release impure, spectral and false fictions from the institutions to enable the dissolution of (cultural) predominance and visualize new structures.


Education

  1. 2016⁠​–⁠2017

    Master of Contextual Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven (Cum Laude)

  2. 2014⁠​–⁠2015

    Diploma of Fine Arts, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Stuttgart (incomplete)

  3. 2008⁠​–⁠2012

    Bachelor of Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul

Residencies

  1. 2022⁠​–⁠2023

    Guest Artist in Residence at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, NL (Current)

  2. 2018⁠​–⁠2019

    Artist in Residence at Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL

  3. 2019

    Artist in Residence at Goethe Institute, Marseille, FR

Selected Exhibitions

  1. 2023

    RIJKSAKADEMIE OPEN STUDIOS 2023, Amsterdam, 2023 (link) (Upcoming)

  2. 2023

    Creating the Commons, VU Art Science gallery, Amsterdam, NL (Current)

  3. 2022⁠​–⁠2023

    When Things are Beings, Proposals for the Museum Collection, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  4. 2022

    In the Pause of a Gesture there might be an Echo#3, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  5. 2022

    Depend on me, Punt WG, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  6. 2021

    In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo #2, PuntWG, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  7. 2021

    Domestic Concerns, Matjoe Raum für Kunst, Köln, DE (duo exhibition) (link)

  8. 2021

    Unquiet Objects, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland, USA (link)

  9. 2020

    2020, Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  10. 2020

    To Pluto and back, Unlocked/Reconnected, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  11. 2020

    The plot flipped the eternality, Art Oost, Amsterdam (link)

  12. 2020

    The Unknown Artist, Center for Contemporary Art and Culture (PNCA), Portland, USA (link)

  13. 2019

    Elsewheres Within Here, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  14. 2019

    La Grande Transformation, commisioned by Goethe-Institut Marseille and Heritage Contact Zone, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR (link)

  15. 2019

    Landscape with Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  16. 2019

    Open studios, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL (link)

  17. 2019

    Design im Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, DE

  18. 2018

    Inside out, forecast, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, DE (link)

  19. 2018

    Contextile, Bienale de arte textil contempornea, Guimares, PT (link)

  20. 2017

    Studio ZZM, Zuiderseemuseum, Einkuizen, NL

  21. 2016

    Dream Factory, Vertical Gallery, Plug in City, Eindhoven, NL (link)

  22. 2014

    Das unangreifbare war noch nie so meins, Galerie stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, DE (link)

Activities, Event, Lectures and Artist talks

  1. 2023

    NON NATIVE NATIVE FAIR 2023, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, 14-17, July, 2023 (Upcoming)

  2. 2023

    Beyond Return, Déjà VU Festival, Amsterdam, 15, June, 2023 (link) (Upcoming)

  3. 2023

    Gallery Talk & Screening, When Things Are Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 11 Feburary, 2023 (link)

  4. 2023

    ALL THIRD with Lucy Cotter and Aram Lee, Academie voor Theater en Dans, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  5. 2022⁠​–⁠2025

    Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums, ‘Living Past’ Netherlands National Research (ongoing) (link)

  6. 2022

    Taking Care, Re|Creating Kinship in the Ethnographic Museum in Europe, Research center for material culture, Leiden, NL (link)

  7. 2021⁠​–⁠2022

    The Whole Life Congress Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, DE (link)

  8. 2021

    When Site Lost the Plot: Siteless Specificity, MA Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, KR. (link)

  9. 2021

    Depend on Me, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  10. 2021

    The lives of objects: from domesticity to resource extraction, MA GEO-Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, NL

  11. 2021

    Parasite dinner, fanfare, M4gastatelier, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  12. 2020

    An Improvisation (to Contemplate), Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  13. 2020

    Online Panel: Prevention is Better than Hate, Framer Framed, NL (link)

  14. 2020

    In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo#1, Suns & Stars, Collective Domain in Cultural Memory, online, NL (link)

  15. 2019

    Tropical, Objects, Turns, New alphabet school, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, DE/NL (link)

  16. 2019

    Artist at m4 gastatelier, m4 gastatelier, Amsterdam, NL (link)

  17. 2019

    Granny’s Ghost Stories, Lumière, Maastricht, NL (link)

  18. 2019

    (UN-)LEARNING PLACE, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, DE (link)

  19. 2019

    THEA SEGALL.(Un)edited_ , Witte de With, Rotterdam, NL (link)

  20. 2019

    Tales of the Haunting victims, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL (link)

  21. 2019

    Something or other, School of Design, London College of Communication, UAL: London, UK (link)

  22. 2018

    Magical Riso 2018: Monumental Riso, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL (link)

  23. 2018

    The creative blur Symposium, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG), Hamburg, DE (link)

  24. 2018

    Fantastic Forgeries, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, NL (link)

  25. 2018

    Performance Making and the Archive Conference, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, IN (link)

Text, essay

  1. 2023

    No.5: Learning From Ancestors, Errant Journal (upcoming)

  2. 2022

    Professional Amateur, Depend on me (link), (link)

  3. 2020

    The Untouchables, suns and stars, CDCM-Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (read here)

  4. 2020

    The Museum of Tomorrow, Frame (read here)

  5. 2019

    La grande transformation, Heritage Contact Zone (read here)

  6. 2019

    Landscape With Bear, de Appel, Amsterdam (read here)

  7. 2019

    Post Ghost Bust, Charles Nyples Lab, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here)

  8. 2019

    From Pluto to Pyongyang and Back, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (read here)

Reviews, publicity

  1. 2022

    When Things Are Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (read here)

  2. 2021

    Objecthood: a conversation with lucy cotter by Jess Nickel (read here)

Teaching

  1. 2021⁠​–⁠2022

    guest tutor at Disarming design, Sandberg Institute (MA), Amsterdam