Jaehyo Lee Sculpture

Korean sculpture on display in Montgomery

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- "Sculpture by Jaehyo Lee" is on view through May 8 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Lee's sculptures manifest his materials' most essential nature. His charred wooden forms studded with burnished steel bolts reveal a refined aesthetic that balances raw sculptural mass with delicate bright lines.

Assemblages of tree trunks and limbs shaped into geometric and biomorphic forms fascinate viewers with the contrasts of rough bark and smooth wood grain.

The museum will sponsor a reception for the exhibit from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Jan. 20 in comjunction with the opening of three other exhibits: "Print Portfolios by African-American Artists from the Paul R. Jones Collection of the University of Alabama," on view through Oct. 9; "Color and Light: Photographs by Carl Burton," through March 13; and "Winning IDEAs: Selected Product Designs 2008," also on view through March 13.

Jaehyo Lee graduated from Hongik University in South Korea in 1992. He won the Hankook Ilbo Young Artist Award in 1997, the Osaka Triennial Award in 1998, the Kim Sae-Jung Award in 2000, and the Japan Hyogo International Competition Award in 2004.

His work has been exhibited in South Korea, China, Japan, New Zealand, Israel, England, and the United States. It is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea; the Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, South Korea; the Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art, Japan; the Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Japan; and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University.

He is represented in New York City by the Cynthia Reeves Gallery, which has loaned the art for this exhibition. The exhibition is sponsored by the James W. Wilson Jr. and Wynona W. Wilson Family Foundation; MAX, Your Community Credit Union; Adam and Dawn Schloss; and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; until 9 p.m. Thursday; and noon until 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free; donations are welcome. Information, call 334-240-4333 or visit the Web: www.mmfa.org.