Jiyong Lee (born 1971) is a studio artist and educator based in Carbondale, Illinois. He has been a professor of art at Southern Illinois University, where he has led the glass program since 2005. Born and raised in South Korea, Lee earned his MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, where he also taught before relocating to Carbondale. His teaching career spans prestigious institutions, including The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Domaine de Boisbuchet in France, Canberra Glassworks in Australia, and Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin, Ireland, among many other art centers worldwide. His numerous accolades include being a finalist for the 2021 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize (Spain), receiving the Bavarian State Prize at the International Trade Fair (Germany), and the Emerging Artist Award from the Glass Art Society. Lee’s work has been featured in prominent publications such as Glass Quarterly, American Craft, Neues Glas (Germany), New Glass Review of the Corning Museum of Glass, and American Art Collector. His art has been exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally, with recent highlights including Thoughts on Thickness in Milan, Italy, the Translucency exhibition at the Tallinn Applied Art Triennial in Estonia, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize exhibition, and KOREA NOW at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. His works are included in collections at the Barry Art Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, and Chanel France.

 

Lee’s Segmentation Series draws inspiration from his fascination with cell division. His use of glass, with its dual qualities of transparency and opacity, symbolizes the intersection of biological clarity and mystery. Just as cells begin to segment and form life, Lee’s meticulously crafted laminated glass surfaces evoke the enigmatic nature of cellular structures and, on a broader scale, the transient and ambiguous nature of existence. As viewers interact with his sculptures, the interplay of light reshapes the forms, offering ever-changing perspectives. The subtle intricacy and seemingly simple forms in Lee’s work mirror the tension between clarity and complexity that permeates life itself.