The Crow Collection of Asian Art

The Crow Collection of Asian Art has brought to Dallas a new exhibition of modern Asian art—New Vision: Ballpoint Drawings by Il Lee. This is the Korean-born, New York artist’s debut in Dallas after having his work featured in the San Jose Museum of Art, the Queens Museum of Art, the Vilcek Foundation in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Art and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea.
 
This free exhibit runs through Sept. 26, and features much of Lee’s critically acclaimed, history-based work utilizing ballpoint pen as a medium.

Housed within the new LinkAsia gallery, the New Vision exhibition will include eight large-scale works and 50 small works on paper created by Lee between 1997 and 2010.

The largest is visually captivating work entitled BL-095. It was created exclusively with ballpoint pen on a 7 ft. by 12 ft. canvas.

At first, the idea of art created with ballpoint pen seems as mundane as a doodle on a napkin. However, Lee’s work takes the medium to a whole new level. 

For instance, Lee’s process for his work on canvas includes five layers of acrylic matte gel to keep ink from touching the canvas. This allows the ink to pool on the surface for a smoothing effect that causes the expected pen strokes to evolve and morph.

There are also works on untreated paper. Unlike the coated canvas, the paper retains an impression of each pen stroke, creating a chiseled surface texture truly expressing the artists’ emotions.
 
The Asian art connection to Lee’s work is its historical roots in the Asian tradition of sumi ink drawing and calligraphy. But by using a modern ballpoint pen vs. a calligraphy brush, Lee has created a modern twist on the ancient tradition. 

The New Vision exhibition was organized in collaboration with Art Projects International of New York, and includes a catalogue with an essay by Edward Leffingwell.

For $3, patrons can park in the Trammell Crow Center Garage which can be accessed Harwood or Olive Streets, on either side of the museum. There is also metered parking on nearby Harwood, Ross and Olive Streets. Paid surface lots can be found on Ross and Olive Streets.

HelloMetro Tip: Plan on spending at least an hour and a half viewing the works by Lee and the other woks on permanent display at the museum. To make the most of your parking dollars, try making a day of it with a trip to the Dallas Museum of Art across the street and the Nasher Sculpture Center just down the block.

- by Jenn Emerson, Dallas Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Jenn Emerson

A veteran of the advertising world, chances are you bought, drank or drove something because of Jenn’s ad copy. Not one to stagnate in one discipline, Jenn also keeps up her writing Jones for short stories, scripts and features. She really digs working for HelloMetro while exploring new places and meeting new people along the way.