Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Sammy Seung-min Lee

Sammy Seung-min Lee

Denver, Colorado

Moonlight in Colorado, Comb box is a sculpture of a small wooden shipping-crate like cube chest, marked with “fragile” stickers. A hinged cover is raised, which holds a small convex mirror, reflecting upside down a viewer standing in front of the piece. Below that, are two shallow drawers with dark mother-of-pearl floral inlay fronts, the top holding a wig of dark and blonde hair, and in the second drawer, a paper microphone. Behind the piece is a projected video showing a feed of social media messages in Korean.

Moonlight in Colorado, Comb box

2024

62” Topographic model is a dark gray aluminum casting of a vacuum-sealed storage bag from the artist’s baggage. Among the textured wrinkles of the back, are visible outlines of objects, including a flip-flop, and back of a picture frame.

62” Topographic model

2024

Mamabots - Ms. Daegu, Hindsight 2020, Ma(ma)bot are 3 blocky sculptural figures hanging on a white wall. Each is composed of an assemblage of picture frames, encased in a wrinkly, paper-like skin, with circles in the skin exposing fragments of the pictures inside. The left tan mamabot has a palm perched on its head, and raises one arm. The center mamabot is black, with feathers springing from its head and looped strings hanging from left arm. The right mamabot is tan, has an arm raised with a wand, and a vegetal necklace.

Mamabots - Ms. Daegu, Hindsight 2020, Ma(ma)bot

2020 - 2021

Street Art Cart is a mobile installation reminiscent of a street food cart with two bicycle wheels. On a white plinth, the cart table holds an assortment of brass containers and steamer baskets, paper castings of dishes hang from the back, and a black fringe hangs from the edge. On the wall are two large vertical paper castings of raised Korean letters.

Street Art Cart

2018 - ongoing

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Sammy Seung-min Lee

Sammy Seung-min Lee, a Korean woman with dark shoulder length hair and light skin tone smiles warmly, looking to the right in a white shirt. She stands in front of a brick wall with a large paper casting hanging.

Sammy Seung-min Lee (b. 1975, Seoul, South Korea) explores sculpture, bookbinding, and installation in her interdisciplinary practice. Rooted in a diasporic perspective shaped by migration and bicultural identity, her work explores how cultural traditions persist, adapt, and hybridize across time and place. Using hanji (Korean mulberry paper) and other found materials, Lee transforms traditional craft techniques into sculptural forms that examine themes of identity, displacement, and resilience. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Denver Botanic Gardens (2022), Emmanuel Art Gallery (Denver, 2021), and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (2014), with an upcoming solo at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver in 2026. She has participated in residencies at the Studios at MASS MoCA, Anderson Ranch, and RedLine Contemporary Art Center, among others. Notable highlights include a performative collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma during his Bach Project tour in 2018. Lee is a recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Fellowship (2023–24), fellowships from Ewha Womans University (2024–26), and Colorado Creative Industries. She is the founder and director of Collective SML | k, a Denver-based project space supporting Asian and Asian American artists through residencies and community programs.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2025

Website / Social Links

“ I manipulate paper into a tactile, leather-like ‘skin’ through soaking, layering, pounding, and binding—transforming it into both shield and membrane. This hybrid material becomes a vessel to navigate the thresholds between cultural memory and assimilation, body and place, migration and belonging.”