Moka Lee.

Exceptional contemporary portraits by Korean artist Moka Lee.

Lee (b. 1996) is a Seoul-based figurative painter whose work explores the complex relationships between subject, viewer, and artist. Drawing inspiration from social media, analog photography, cinema, and the Modern Masters, Lee creates psychologically charged paintings that evoke the quiet tensions and conflicts of contemporary life.

Her process, reminiscent of digital printing, produces compositions that are both physically flat and layered with subtle tonal depth. Derived largely from online imagery, her subjects resist direct interpretation, instead revealing layered meanings and personal dissonances tied to identity and perception.

Lee has held solo exhibitions at Jason Haam and Carlos/Ishikawa in London, and participated in group shows at institutions including the Seoul Museum of Art, the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum Head. Her work was featured at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2023, and she was named to The Artsy Vanguard in 2025. She earned her BFA from Sejong University and is currently studying painting at the Korea National University of Arts.