Stephen Lee is a Korean-American sculptor based in Dallas, Texas. Born in South Korea and immigrating to the United States as a teenager, Lee draws from a dual set of cultural influences that inform his work both consciously and subconsciously.
He studied sculpture at Occidental College in Los Angeles and industrial design at California State University, Long Beach, leading to a 20+ year career designing consumer products and retail merchandising for companies such as KitchenAid, JCPenney, and Samsung.
In 2021, Lee returned to sculpture, bringing with him a deep skill set in design and development, which he now applies to his creative practice. His small-scale works have been exhibited at prominent art fairs across the country, and he has been awarded public art commissions in Texas and Oklahoma.
Statement
Visual language is no different from that of spoken or culinary. When arranged with sensitivity and intent, it creates visceral meaning that resonates with viewers. I am highly attuned to this part of the craft.
I build as though I’m drawing in space. In forged steel, each hammer strike becomes a mark, not unlike pointillism in painting. Layering and carving mortar becomes its own form of impasto. Steel and mortar are my primary materials because they let me build intuitively, edit freely, and avoid rigidity. This process honors the time and decisions the work lives through, resulting in handmade textures that aim to embody authenticity and vulnerability.
Within this framework, I explore what I call the “elegance of complexity”. My sculptures mirror how I see the world: layers of interwoven tensions that make coexistence fragile yet just compatible enough to adapt and keep moving. I often hold multiple perspectives at once and feel the nuanced pull between instinct and analysis, and that internal landscape shapes my work. I call it elegant because that complex web of tensions is the single life-force of our system.