Artists

Heesoo Lee creates her works in porcelain and white stoneware. She paints landscape and floral imagery on her pieces with underglazes, slips, and glazes. By layering the painting materials, Heesoo is able to achieve a level of depth, color, and realism rarely found in high-fired ceramic painting.

“You can’t correct it, or walk away from a piece and come back to it later, the way you can with a painting. Yet I like the subtle, elegant effect, and the way you have to be humble with the clay. I put my energy, my feelings, into the work, and I think people can feel that.”

Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Heesoo earned her BA in Art from Ehwa University. After apprenticing with Julia Kirillova in Berkeley, California, Heesoo began a full-time studio practice. From there, she relocated to Maui, where she established a thriving studio business. Heesoo was a summer resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in 2013 and returned as a long-term resident this fall as the 2014 Speyer Fellow.