Exhibition view

National Art Museum of Ukraine

Lee Sun Don, Michael Murphenko
Inner Light
24 June – 8 August 2010
Curators: Kostiantyn Doroshenko, Oksana Barshynova

  The exhibition “Inner Light” brings together the works of two artists with very different cultural roots – Lee Sun Don from Taiwan and the Ukrainian artist of British origin – Michael Murphenko. Two world-view systems – those of the East and of the West – demonstrate, by means of artists’ painting, their deep unity, relying on the idea of the artist as the medium. The exhibition in the National Art Museum of Ukraine becomes the point of meeting of these artists’ original paths towards finding forms of personal self-expression.
  Lee Sun-Don was born in 1959 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He studied Mathematics in Soochow University, Taiwan and he made his first painting in the age of 34 during the deep meditation, when he realized that it is possible to express dharma (a universal law of Buddhistic doctrine) through lines, forms, and colors. A Buddhist Master, Lee Sun-Don is best known in the international art circles as the pioneer of “totemic energy of painting”. Lee is the first Asian artist to hold a solo exhibition of oil painting in Venice Biennale, one of the most influential and large-scaled international art fairs. Today Lee Sun-Don’s works are exhibited in the prestigious art galleries of Europe, Northern America and Asia and are extremely popular within collectors’ circles.
Michael Murphenko was born in 1974 in Glasgow, Scotland. Studied art at St. Lucas Art School, Brussels, Belgium. Now he lives and works in Ukraine, and even changed his last name Murphy for Murphenko. Works of Murphenko are included in the collections of various private collectors in Ukraine, Belgium, United Kingdom and USA.
  The closeness of the styles of Sun-Don and Murphenko is astonishing, especially considering the abyss between their cultural traditions. However, their works are so obviously well-rhymed, that we can talk about new, already post-postmodernist trends of the development of world art.

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