Lee Ok Nam was born in Chuncheon, South Korea in 1953 and attended Dong-eui University and the same graduate school where she majored in Painting. Based principally in Korea, Lee Ok Nam is currently maintaining her presence in many countries, particularly in Japan, France, United States and Luxembourg. Lee Ok Nam is a disciplinant, devoting herself through the repetitive process of cutting and pasting pieces of papers such as newspapers and Hanji at regular intervals. And along the whole process she dedicates her mind with an introspective approach to seek comfort and repentance, as well as intentionally putting herself on the path of a full-fledged artist.

The art series of her long continuance Wave, is the masterpiece that has placed her a group of promising artists. The series Wave is represented by paper waves undulating at different heights to create ‘mind waves’ delivering vivid emotions from its artist’s mind. Lee Ok Nam’s work can be interpreted as a piece of ‘process art’, or a conceptual art that highlights her auteurism, subjectivity, and agentivity; transcending regular painting works seeking only visualism. Through repetitive actions in her work, Lee Ok Nam’s mind explores a process of being integrated with the artwork itself – the spirit of an artist becoming one with all kinds of objects. Such an experience of being ‘all-in-one’ is based on oriental spiritualism. Also, the ‘process-oriented’ mentality that emphasizes, allowing one’s thinking to ultimately expand to the boundless realm of infinity. The narratives of her works, which contain its own history as an artist that she had overcome, deeply moves into the minds of theaudience then appeal to their inner emotions.

Lee Ok Nam’s works are in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea (MMCA Art Bank), Metropolitan City Hall and Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea, and Naoshima Town Office, Japan.