Sookyi Lee

Sookyi Lee is a contemporary realism artist born in Seoul, Korea. She earned a BFA from Hong-Ik University in Korea and her MFA from Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Upon her graduation, she continued her career as a full-time artist and worked as a faculty at the Academy of Art University, teaching drawing classes. 

She received many awards including First Place in Drawing awards at Portrait Society of America's 2017 and 2019 international competitions and Certificate of Excellence Award in 2022. Also, Haynes Gallery Award and Honorable mention at the Art Renewal Center's Salon International competition in 2019. Sookyi actively teaches in US and Singapore while working as a full-time artist. 

To her, a deep understanding of art is a lifelong mission, and painting is her way to appreciate life. Sookyi's paintings are not only the representations of the outside world but also reflections of her inner self. By imagining stories about subjects and considering emotional reactions of viewers, Sookyi aims to go beyond the superficial representations and convey the characters of her subjects.