Born in 1992 in South Korea, Jiyung Lee is an illustrator and visual artist based in Pantin, France. Her practice begins with collecting familiar objects and images, which she transforms through drawing, repetition, and classification into visual systems and narratives. Alongside editorial and commercial commissions, she explores ways of extending drawing into books, printed matter, and installations.

Hi Jiyung! So happy we get to chat with you. How are you doing these days?

Hi! Thank you for inviting me, I’m very happy to be here. I recently moved back to France after two years in Korea, and with my husband, a cat, we have settled in Pantin, just outside Paris. We’re still surrounded by boxes, but I’m happy to finally have a proper workspace again.

If we knew nothing about you yet, how would you introduce yourself?

I’m Jiyung, a Korean illustrator living in France. I spend a lot of time looking at things, then I draw them and build little collections out of them.

Glutton Poster & Book, 2025, edited by Quintal

You go back and forth between France and Korea. What does your everyday life look like in each? Do you have completely different routines?

Generally my routines are similar wherever I am. I am a stay at home type of person, and my usual day would be working and drawing at home, going for a walk, and spending hours scrolling through second hand market websites. Until recently as a creative routine, I made small 6x9cm drawings everyday. It helped me to relieve some pressure of having to create a perfect drawing. Since moving to France, settling in has put a pause to this routine, but I’m trying to get back into it. I’ve also been going out more lately, because living near Paris, there are so many events and exhibitions, things seem to come up on their own, even when I’m not actively looking for them.

Some of Jiyung’s daily drawings

Do you remember what you used to draw before drawing became something you did professionally?

I think drawing became “professional” for me very early on. I started preparing for art school as a teenager, which was already a kind of professional training I would say.

In Korea, art school entrance exams are very strict and competitive. At the time, we had to paint still lifes in watercolor, realistically depicting everyday objects like cleaning spray bottles, bags of chips and plastic water bottles. The focus was less on creative ideas and more on showing technical skills. I spent half of my teenage years training for it. 

Ironically, I still draw everyday objects today, but in the opposite way. Instead of describing every detail, I try to reduce objects to their most basic shapes. I hadn’t really thought about this before, so it’s funny that this question made me realise it!

You draw things most of us see every day - cups, clothes, food, pigeons… How do you decide, “Okay, you’re interesting, I’m drawing you”?

The nice thing about drawing objects is that there are so many of them in the world, so I never run out of things to draw.

What makes me decide to draw something is usually finding an interesting shape in an everyday object, or noticing a repeating pattern. For example, pigeons are such a common part of the city that I never meant to observe them, but I kept seeing them on the street, and at some point I noticed how graphic the color of their feathers are, the combination of grey, teal, and purple. When I think I’ve found a way that best symbolises an object, that would be the moment I think I want to draw them.

Sometimes it works the other way around. I pick a word or a theme first, and then I look for interesting compositions and shapes within it. I have a monthly drawing group with friends where we all draw with the same theme, and the most recent one was “nostalgia”. Out of all the objects that make me feel nostalgic, I wanted to draw old electronics, because I thought the patterns of the buttons and screens on analog devices would make interesting compositions. What I like about this is that objects carry meanings, so depending on how you combine and arrange them, you can describe even an abstract concept.

Objets Trouvés, 2026, Galerie My Monkey, Nancy, France

Where do most of your ideas actually find you? Are you usually out somewhere, at home, scrolling, reading, talking to someone…?

Everywhere, really. My phone is full of random photos taken on the street, screenshots, and little notes. I’m particularly drawn to shop displays where objects are arranged according to a certain system, as well as supermarket flyers and catalogues. I love looking at how everyday objects are organised, repeated, and presented in grids. There’s something visually satisfying about these arrangements, and they often inspire the way I compose my drawings. I think I’m always collecting these kinds of visual references.

When you start working on an image, how much experimenting happens before you arrive at something that feels right?

When it comes to composition, I do a lot of experimenting, sketching out different arrangements until I find something that feels right. But when drawing individual objects, I usually try to find the right shape in one go, without making too many adjustments. Even if I’m not happy with the result, I just move on and draw another one. I like making many versions of the same object, each slightly different from the others. Eventually, they become a collection of variations. Rather than trying to perfect a single shape, I’m interested in seeing what happens when I repeat it and allow small differences to emerge. In that sense, experimenting is not just something I do before arriving at the final image. It’s part of the work itself.

What does your desk look like in the middle of all this? Please show us the completely unfiltered version!

It’s completely unfiltered. I just had my photographer friend come over to take the picture. 😛

Photo by Jiyung’s friend, Hae Ran

You’re very selective about what makes it into an image and what doesn’t. Does that carry into your everyday life too? Are you a minimalist?

I’ve never really thought about it this way, but yes, I guess I do try to be a minimalist. I still own quite a lot of things, but I’ve heard that minimalism isn’t necessarily about owning as little as possible, but about learning to let go of things you don’t need.

Making art already requires a lot of materials and mental energy, so I like the idea of having fewer distractions in my life. Moving back and forth between Korea and France has also taught me not to accumulate too many things.

I’m not sure if this has actually influenced the way I work, but sometimes, when I want to own something, I just draw it instead. I’d love to get rid of more things by the end of the year, and I want to draw more things!

(Left) Nostalgia, 2026 (Middle) Laundry Accident, 2026 (Right) Coffee, 2026

Can you sketch the first thing you see when you look up from this question? Don’t overthink it!

Here is a sketch of my macbook charger :)

And lastly, what are you dreaming of these days?

Good Korean food.