Kang Seung Lee

Untitled (Tseng Kwong Chi wearing a “SLUTFORART” t-shirt), 2024

Archival pigment print, sambe, sealing wax, antique 24K gold thread on cotton rag

19 x 13 inches

Edition of 50

For GYOPO’s 2024 annual edition, artist Kang Seung Lee continues his investigations of the reimagined lives and legacies of overlooked historic figures lost to the AIDS crisis. In his distinctive style of graphite drawings, Untitled (Tseng Kwong Chi wearing a “SLUTFORART” t-shirt) draws from Lee’s body of work that meticulously recreates self-portrait photographs by Hong Kong-born artist Tseng Kwong Chi (1950-90) who was active in the queer NYC art scene in the 1980s. “SLUTFORART,” a playful motto of Tseng’s, is emblazoned on a darkened shirt worn by a suggested figure of Tseng whose disembodiment acts as a multi-note nod towards the late artist’s erasure from the art canon and his death due to AIDS-related complications. Lee digitizes his drawing of Tseng and layers the work of another queer contemporary, artist Martin Wong (1946-99). Randomized “SLUTFORART” letters in Wong’s ASL alphabet are wax stamped onto squares of sambe, a hemp fabric used in Korea for funerals, then sewed onto the print with antique 24-karat gold thread. In a series of reproductions honoring Tseng and Wong, Lee patinates notes of reverence, translation, memory, and loss.

Photo by Paul Salveson

Printed by The Lapis Press

Special thanks to Commonwealth & Council

Kang Seung Lee is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Korea and now lives and works in Los Angeles. His work frequently engages the legacy of transnational queer histories, particularly as they intersect with art history. Lee’s work has been included in international exhibitions such as the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Made in LA at Hammer Museum (2023); New Museum Triennial (2021); and Gwangju Biennale (2021). His work is in the collections of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; RISD Museum, Providence; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford; among others.