Currently on view at Jason Haam in Seoul, South Korea, is artist Mike Lee's breathtaking and magnificent solo exhibition of new works, "Idyll by the Tide."

Lee’s recent paintings mark a gradual expansion of a visual language that has long been grounded in precision, restraint, and personal history. Where his earlier work relies on monochrome, graphic structure, and immaculate surfaces, Lee’s practice has increasingly opened itself to autobiography, color, technology, and the complexities of contemporary life. His experiences as an Asian American have become an important undercurrent, while his incorporation of AI since 2023 has introduced another layer of mediation between imagination and image-making.

In Idyll by the Tide, these developments converge along the shoreline. Families, friends, and solitary figures occupy expansive passages of sea, sand, and sky, rendered through translucent washes of oil that give the paintings an atmospheric looseness. Against these fluid environments, Lee’s figures retain a sculptural precision, creating a compelling friction between human presence and an increasingly unstable pictorial world. AI-generated source material remains visible in subtle anatomical inconsistencies, further complicating the relationship between technology, authorship, and the handmade mark.

Mike Lee currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea. He received his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, in 2006. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Nanjing, including exhibitions at Jason Haam, Half Gallery, and Sifang Art Museum. Lee has also participated in group exhibitions at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Honolulu Museum of Art in Honolulu, and the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles, among others.