Youngmin Lee

About the Artist

Youngmin Lee is a textile artist uses bojagi tradition and techniques to create her work. Her interest in textiles led her to study Clothing and Textile in college and received an MFA in Fashion Design in South Korea. She has researched bojagi making and techniques and endeavor to apply her findings to both in traditional and contemporary art. After she moved to California in 1996, she actively works on preserving the bojagi tradition that embodies the philosophy of recycling and up-cycling, as the works are made from pieces of fabric leftover from other projects.

She is working closely with Asian American community with community engaged projects and workshops at the Asian Art Museum, Oakland Museum, Richmond Art Center, Mendocino Art Center, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In addition to teaching in person, Youngmin created the educational DVD Bojagi: The Art of Wrapping Cloths in 2013 to reach people from afar. She teaches at the local public school to introduce and educate Korean traditional textile art. She received the grant from Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship in 2019 as a mentor artist and taught bojagi to her apprentice.

She founded the Korean Textile Tour in 2017 to introduce Korean traditional textile art and culture to bridge broader audiences. Youngmin’s works have been exhibited and collected throughout the United States, South Korea, UK, Romania, and Turkey. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has her works in the museum collection. Her three bojagi artwork is currently showing at the Korean gallery in the museum until September 2022.