Sarah Lee
Discovery#89
Egon investment scores
Liquidity
3/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
3/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
7/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Market position
Recent sales highlights
| Work | Price | Venue & Date |
|---|---|---|
| Moonrise Over the Sea | — | Phillips New York, March 12, 2024 |
| Forest I | — | Phillips, September 14, 2023 |
| Forest I | — | Phillips Hong Kong, September 14, 2023 |
1 further sales on record for Sarah Lee — inside Egon.
- Pricing
- Market Phase
- Emerging artist transitioning from primary-only to early secondary market presence
- Estimate Ranges
- Note
- Actual hammer prices not publicly disclosed for most recent auctions, indicating strong gallery control and collector discretion
- Small Works Prints
- $3,300-$5,800 USD (HK estimates for small paintings)
- Temporal Context
- 2022-2024: Early secondary market formation with 4 tracked auction appearances, primarily smaller works and prints. Primary market through Albertz Benda and Anat Ebgi.
- Current Market Status
- Gallery-controlled primary market with limited secondary market presence
- Liquidity
- Market Depth
- Very limited - early stage secondary market
- Annual Volume
- Approximately 2-4 auction lots per year (2022-2024)
- Collector Base
- Growing, primarily contemporary art collectors focused on emerging painters
- Geographic Distribution
- Strong in New York and Los Angeles; emerging presence in Hong Kong and Asian markets
- Comparables
- Positioning
- Positioned as emerging contemporary painter with institutional backing from Albertz Benda and Anat Ebgi
- Peer Artists
- Contemporary landscape painters in similar career stage with gallery representation at mid-tier galleries
- Differentiators
- Nocturnal landscape focus, Korean-American perspective, pandemic-era work resonance
- Collector Base
- Primary Collectors
- Contemporary art collectors, Asian-American art collectors, emerging art enthusiasts
- Institutional Interest
- Smithsonian Institution (11 works confirmed), potential other institutional acquisitions through galleries
- Primary Market
- Note
- Price transparency limited as typical for emerging artists with strong gallery representation
- Availability
- Works available through primary galleries
- Gallery Pricing
- Contact Albertz Benda or Anat Ebgi for current pricing
- Auction History
- Date Range
- 2022-2024
- Auction Houses
- PhillipsArtsy Auction
- Total Lots Tracked
- 4
Institutional presence
- Exhibitions
- Museum Collections
- Note
- Limited public information on other museum collections; likely in early stages of institutional acquisition
- Curatorial Interest
- Lee's work represents an exciting alternative to identity-based figuration that has dominated painting practice in previous years and signals a shift towards a more mystical approach to artmaking.
- Confirmed Collections
- Institution
- Smithsonian Institution
- Significance
- Major validation for emerging artist
- Art Fair Participation
- Art Basel Hong Kong (2025)Frieze Seoul (2025)The Aspen Art Fair (2025)Art Taipei (2018, 2019)EXPO Chicago (2017)
Career & Biography
- Career
- Key Milestones
- BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2011)Founded Nail in a Pocket, non-profit artist-run project space in Chicago (2017)MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017)First gallery representation with mh PROJECT nyc (2021)Representation by Albertz Benda, New York (2023)Representation by Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles (2024-2025)Work included in Artists Against Anti-Asian Violence Benefit Auction (2021)Phillips auction presence (2022-2024)
- Identity
- Years Active
- 2011-present (approximately 14 years)
- Current Location
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Personal Background
- Her earliest landscapes were painted during the pandemic, their serenity and mystery emerging from a socially shaped and collectively shared moment.
- Artistic Context
- Thinks about the 'other world' where there are no others, no noise, just a solitary sensation of being. Believes night and winter are the 'other world' that magically pauses the rhythm of life.
Artistic Profile
- Evolution
- Critical Reception Evolution
- Growing recognition from 2021 onwards; transition from emerging artist to mid-career recognition; increasing institutional and critical attention
- Influences
- Finely painted, haunting landscapes hail from European rather than East Asian tradition. Reproduction of Millais's Ophelia hangs alongside French illustrations and photos of Northern Lights in studio
- Legacy of Surreal artists including Giorgio di Chirico, Yves Tanguy, and Marion Elizabeth Adnams or transcendental artists including Agnes Pelton and Lawren Harris
- Romantic landscape tradition
- European painting tradition
- Northern Lights and natural phenomena
- Themes and Subjects
- Subjects
- Oil paintings that foreground the interplay of elemental forces, where aerial, aquatic, sylvan, lacustrine, and lithic motifs converge into speculative landscapes
- Forest clearings, celestial skies, and distant horizons, shaped by quiet reflection and poetic ambiguity
- Unpopulated nocturnal forests
- Mysterious light sources in darkness
- Small creatures and details (luna moths, flowers)
- Movements and Periods
- Techniques and Mediums
- Innovations
- Contemporary nocturnal landscape painting that bridges Surrealism and transcendental art
- Pandemic-era work that captures collective experience of isolation
- Places unexpected elements in each canvas (creatures, flowers) sometimes barely discernable. Small touches combined with multiple light sources lend uncanny glowing atmosphere
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Catalogue Raisonne
- None
- Publications and Media
- Active presence
- Artsy Profile
- Active with auction results and exhibition listings
- Artist Website
- sulhwalee.com
- Media Coverage
- Growing coverage in contemporary art publications
- Major Publications
Title Year Issue Publication Source Index Type In Her New York Studio, Artist Sarah Lee Paints at Night to Find the Dark, Rich Shades for Her Alluring Scenes of Nature — — Artnet News 71-1,71-6,89-2 Studio visit/profile Sarah Lee: At Moonlight — Winter 2024 Juxtapoz Magazine 73-1,89-2 Feature Contemporary Artists are Tapping into the Age-Old Allure of Nocturnal Scenes 2023 — Artsy 27-3,59-3,89-2 Thematic article Enigmatic Wonder and Magic Envelop Sarah Lee's Illuminated Landscapes 2023 — Colossal 27-3,59-3,89-2 Feature — 2022 Issue 158 New American Painting 27-3,59-3,89-2 Curated selection INTERVIEW, 코리안 르네상스 시대의 개막 2 — September 2023 리빙센스 (Living Sense) 27-3,59-3,89-2 Interview - Documentary Coverage
- Featured in studio visit articles and gallery press materials
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
Year Fair 2025 Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Frieze Seoul 2025 Aspen Art Fair - Representation
- Gallery Tier
- Mid-tier contemporary with upward trajectory
- Exhibition History Galleries
Year Location Gallery Source Index 2022 London PMAM 32-1,41-1 — New York 1969 Gallery 32-1,41-1 2022 Los Angeles Bill Brady Gallery 32-1,41-1 — Milan Carl Kostyal 32-1,41-1 2021 New York ATM Gallery 32-1,41-1 — Paris Galerie Hussenot 32-1,41-1 2021 New York mh PROJECT nyc 37-1,37-3 2024 Paris Stems Gallery 27-1 2023 Los Angeles Gana Art 27-1
- Geographic Reach
- Works available through Albertz Benda and Anat Ebgi; limited secondary market availability Strong presence in New York, Los Angeles, expanding internationally (London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Seoul)
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