A Conversation with Jennie Jieun Lee and Julie Moon

Jennie Jieun Lee (b. 1973 Seoul, South Korea) is a ceramist who has spent more than ten years defying the conventional limitations of her chosen media. The experimental approach to her practice sees her capitalize on the natural fragility of her medium, and apply a unique abstract gestural method to glazing. Her works range in scale from domestic size vessels to wall based compositions, to large scale structural installations. Conceptually her work is driven by ideas which speak towards representation, art and societal histories, and form. By challenging the historical perception of ceramics as symbols of controlled domesticity, Lee crafts busts, vessels, and paintings that blur the line between intention and chance, beauty and distortion.

Lee earned her MFA from California State University Long Beach and a studio diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is the recipient of several grants including Tisch Faculty Fellowship (2022), Art Matters Foundation Grant (2019), The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2017), and the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2016). She has collaborated with fashion designer Alexander McQueen; and her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Recent exhibitions include Cooper Cole, Toronto; Alexander Gray Associates, Germantown; AF Projects, Los Angeles; Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; Martos Gallery, New York; The Pit, Glendale; and Marlborough Chelsea Viewing Room, New York. Lee currently teaches ceramics at School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and lives and works in Sullivan County, New York, USA.

Julie Moon is a Toronto-based ceramic artist. Her dedication to her practice is motivated by material and process. The universality and tactile qualities of working with clay offers a refreshing contrast to our screen-dominated lives. The surface of her sculpture and vessel works is a canvas for expressing individualism and diversity. Julie often draws from popular culture, using an accessible visual language that resonates with broad audiences. Her work pays homage to the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 70’s and 80’s, while embracing the inclusive spirit of the 1960’s and 70’s counterculture movement. Simultaneously, Julie’s admiration for the bold and clear aesthetics of modernism and post-modernism, is also very apparent.

Julie has received numerous artist grants and participated in several artist residencies and teaching opportunities around the globe.