Haerim Lee = Rim Lee's art stimulates dialogue with communities through painting, public murals, ceramics, artist books, and photography. Her practice is rooted in ethnographical research, exhibiting her work in public and gallery spaces. She investigates the history of an architectural site—such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Cabrini Green, or the murals on the South Side of Chicago or in Gary, Indiana— and translating into in her studio practice. Her practice critiques of institutionalized demarcations of power. Originally from S. Korea, a monoethnic country, she is interested in multi-racial dynamics, particularly in the South Side of Chicago where she currently living in the neighborhood with diverse ethnicities from different backgrounds and cultural heritage. Unlike homogenous culture, living in the particular environment helps her to learn other people stories and create a learning space together. Although it creates racial complexities, it generates to think power dynamics and how to understand one another.
Born in 1982 in Seoul, S. Korea, Lee graduated from the MFA Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in the Painting and Drawing Department as well as MA Program at the Visual and Critical Studies, and was an instructor in Arts and Street Culture at SAIC. She has had solo shows at Woodland Pattern (2023) in Milwaukee, Parlour and Ramp (2021), Gallery Noone (2017), and Kasia Kay Art Project (2012) in Chicago, and Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (2012) in South Korea. She has participated in group shows including Autoethnography (2021) at Heaven Gallery Chicago, Artists Run Chicago 2.0 (2020) at the Hyde Park Art Center, Young Eunji Keeps Memories: Consistently (2020) at Youngun Museum of Contemporary Art in S. Korea, Korean Eye: 2020 (2019), Out of Context (2019) at Chicago Artist Coalition (2019), The Art of Being Dangerous (2018) at the Hyde Park Art Center, The Body (2010) as a part of the Chicago Humanities Festival.
She was awarded the Ignite Fund from the Andy Warhol Foundation and 3Arts (2022-2023), the Love, Unity & Values (LUV) Institute’s Parade of Hearts Project grant (2021), an Ox-Bow fellowship (2021), and Make Together from the Hyde Park Art Center (2020). She also received the Downtown Gary Public Art Competition award from the Legacy Foundation (2017) and was one of the finalists for the 3Arts Award (2023).
She participated in public artist talks and conferences including Artist Talk Faculty Activation at the Art Institute of Chicago (2023), “The Project of Togetherness” with the New Art School Modality(2024) at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, Artist Talk at Woodland Pattern Wisconsin (2023), Artist Talk at Illinois State University University Galleries (2022), ICI Summitt 2023 at the City Colleges of Chicago (2023), Humanities Festival: Celebration of the Arts and Humanities (2023) at Olive-Harvey College, the City Colleges of Chicago.
She was a resident artist in ACRE (2022), Parlour and Ramp (2021), Ox-bow: Conversation in Practice (2021) fellowship resident artist, a Center Program Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center (2018), Hatch Projects Residency at the Chicago Artist Coalition (2017-18). She is currently a resident at CPS Lives (2023-).
Committed to multicultural, participatory education, she is currently working as an adjunct faculty at Chicago State University (2024-) and the City Colleges of Chicago. She works as a lead teaching artist at Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) satellite programs. She hosted various art workshops and seminars at Illinois State University (2022) and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (2023).