Visit the Prometheus and Pietà online viewing room here

The Hole is pleased to present Prometheus and Pietà, the New York solo debut of South Korean painter Lee Gihun, from the North Chungcheong Province. The exhibition includes thirty-two new paintings and a live painting performance by the artist over opening weekend. Lee creates dark post-industrial landscapes populated by animals and hybrid beings, merging painting and drawing in each work with acrylic and oil pastel on canvases that reach up to eight feet in scale.

The new paintings in this exhibition fall into two ongoing bodies of work. In the “Prometheus” series, figures carry fire through damaged landscapes. In the “Pietà” works, one figure cradles another in a pose borrowed from Christian iconography. Across both series, Lee balances melancholy with hope. His worlds are marked by power lines, factories, barbed wire and ruined architecture, yet the figures within them are active and cooperative: they carry, assist, build and move together.

Visually, the paintings recall the dark surrealism of Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy, but Lee consistently introduces light into these spaces. Sometimes this appears literally, as torches or flames, but just as often it comes through a playful or tender sensibility that softens the severity of the settings. Lee grew up in a rural village where two national parks coexisted with the country’s largest cement factory. Surrounded simultaneously by the grandeur of nature and the monumental machinery of industry, we see the paradoxical environment marked by abundance, wounds, rapid growth, and inherent contradictions in the paintings. Lee’s technique is virtuosic but also displays a light touch: ocean spray, drifting smoke, or distant haze are rendered with remarkably few marks. The surfaces are not overworked: just enough is described to allow the world of each painting to cohere and breathe.

Often presenting a live painting performance with his exhibitions, Lee considers them an essential element in his work:

"When I do live painting, I usually work with music inspired by traditional Korean Pungmulnori, which is primarily percussion-based. Pungmulnori has traditionally been performed at festivals, ceremonial rituals, and communal gatherings—often as a way to celebrate, offer prayers, or dispel negative energy while wishing for peace and well-being.

During live painting, the resonance created by the music connects closely with my performance, forming another layer of shared energy. At times it feels like a ritual, and at other times like a joyful celebration, where the rhythm gradually builds and the painting naturally comes into being. The energy of the music, the presence of the audience, and my act of painting come together as one unified work."

It was the live painting performances that first caught my eye, and that point of connection is very contemporary. As visual culture shifts from still images toward video—and as art circulates increasingly through screens, filtered by algorithm that also privilege it—it may no longer feel sufficient to produce a compelling static image. Attention now demands “activation”. While the problems with this shift are obvious, it is also worth considering what it can enable: painting does not have to remain a solitary, antisocial act. Painting in public, in real time, and in connection with others offers a different model. It pushes back against isolation and invites participation. At a moment when creativity is increasingly artificial and automated, watching something handmade unfold in front of you feels both human and necessary. Lee is technically skilled enough to open his process to viewers without diminishing the artwork, providing not just a point of entry for his work but into the world of creativity itself.

Lee Gihun (b. 1980, Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea) lives and works in his hometown in Korea. His work has been exhibited internationally with recent solo exhibitions in London, Rome, Miami and Copenhagen and live painting performances at the Paris Olympics (Korea House) and in Berlin with Mercedes-Benz. Alongside his painting practice Lee is an international award-winning illustrator.