SuLi (Soyoung Lee) is a visual artist who works across multimedia and dismantle boundaries between different dimensions. She expands two-dimensional art works into wearable clothing, bags, and accessories, and incorporates practical materials such as fabric and thread alongside with a variety of recycled and industrial items. She also challenges the traditional divide between crafts such as free-form hand crocheting and hand felting—and fine art. Her distinctive postmodern practice was selected for the 2026 Hill Center competition. When she was invited to a 2025 group exhibition “Soaring” at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, her work was featured as the lead image and critical review in a Washington Post. The two-person traveling exhibition “Fashion as Art as Fashion,” which toured Stendahl Art Gallery in New York and In Gallery in Miami, received positive reviews and featured in numerous fashion and art journals: Fine Art, Fiber Art, Ocean Drive and Belle Armoire among others.
Born in Korea, SuLi first encountered a vibrant spectrum of colors during her teenage years in places such as Sierra Leone, Africa and Wellington, New Zealand. She studied Visual Communication (Graphic Design) at Wellington Polytechnic in Wellington, New Zealand, before returning to Korea, where she completed both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Decorative Arts at Ewha Womans University. She then moved to the United States and earned a master’s degree in Costume History at New York University, followed by further studies in Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She worked as a Collection Associate intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and Contemporary Art Archivist at Sotheby in New York.
Selected Exhibitions
“2026 Hill Center Regional Juried Show,” Hill Center Galleries, Washington DC, Jan.21, 2026 – May 2, 2026, Received an Honorary Mention award.
“Inner Routes: Cartographies of Becoming,” Kate Oh Gallery, New York, NY
Invitational Group Show March 4- 13, 2026
“Rays of the Sun,” Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, Washington, D.C.
Solo Exhibition, October 2025
“Soaring Narsha,” American University Museum at Katzen Art Center, Washington, D.C.
Invitational Group Exhibition curated by Professor Jung Sil Lee, June 2025
“Departure Golden Jubilee Art Exhibition” Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, Rockville, Maryland, HMAA Group Exhibition, September 2025
“New Beginnings,” Korean Cultural Center, Washington D. C.
HMAA Group Exhibition, May 2025
“Balanced,” Asian Arts and Culture Center at Towson University, Towson, Maryland
HMAA Group Exhibition, June 2023
“Coexistence,” Hilton McLean, Virginia:
Invitational Group Show, March 2023
“Holiday Show,” MK Gallery, Tysons, Virginia
Invitational Group Show, November 2018
“Color of May – Jewelry Exhibition,” Laif Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Invitational Group Show, May 2009
“Future. Tense.,” Textile Center of Minesoda, Minneapolis
Invitational Group Exhibition, 2003
“7th Biennale Art to Wear 2003,” Art to Wear Juried Exhibition, Yakima, WA
February 2003
“Art to Wear” Cambridge Art Cooporative, Cambridge, MA
Invitational Group Exhibition, September 2001
“SuLi’s Jewelry Collection” The Essex House, New York, NY
Solo Show, January 2001
“Art to Wear Show 2000” Fort Collins, Colorado, September 2000
Received a Juror’s Award for “Matisse Coat”
“Art as Fashion as Art,” In Gallery, Miami, Florida
Invitational Wearable Art show, May 2000
“ Fashion as Art as Fashion,” Gallery Stendahl, New York, New York
Duo- Exhibition, March 2000
“Body Work III”, Korean Cultural Center in New York, NY
Invitational Group Exhibition, July 1993
Reviews
“Hill Center D. C. Juried Show Honorary Mention Award Recipient: SuLi from VA”, 2026, Jan 26 The Korea Times, D.C. Reviewed by Christina Chong
“SuLi’s Solo Exhibition ‘Rays of the Sun,’ Drawn in Hand-Crocheted Form” The Korea Times D.C. 2025, October 16, Reviewed by Christina Chong
“31 artists for 31 visions of Korean American Experience", Washington Post, 2025, July 11,, SuLi’s “Sun” was selected as a lead image and reviewed by Art critic Mark Jenkins
“SuLi’s Collection of Felted Clothing” Fine Arts Magazine, 2000 Spring, Page 79,
Reviewed by Dennita Sewell, Curator of Pheonix Art Museum
“Abstract Works from an Ancient Technique” Fiber Arts Magazine 2000 November/December, Volume 27, No. 3 reviewed by Patricia Jacobs
“The Fusion of Fashion and Art”, The Korea Times, New York 2000, March 11
Artist Writings
“The Pursuit of Individual Freedom in Rudi Gernreich’s Fashion Designs,”
May 1998, published in The Costume, 38th Volume, the Costume Society of Korea
“An Analysis of the Representation of Costume in Nineteenth Century Painting” May 1997, Published in Violet Vision
“The Application of Gauguin’s Paintings in Fashion Design,” March 1987, Thesis for MFA Degree, College of Arts, Decorative Arts Department, Ewha Womans University
Teaching Experience
University of California Davis, California
Guest Lecturer, May 2001
Lectured on Japanese Fashion and its cultural ramifications for the course ‘Japanese Popular Culture’
Kun-Guk University, College of Arts, Seoul, Korea
Lecturer, Aug 1993 to July 1994
Kyung Won University, College of Arts, Seoul, Korea
Lecturer, Aug 1993 to July 1994
International Fashion Institute, Seoul, Korea
Lecturer, August 1993 to July 1994, Created a new curriculum for Color Design
Related Experience
Founded SuLi Concept Inc; Handmade one of a kind Jewelry and Accessory company, 2001 – 2015
Sotheby’s Inc. New York, NY
Contemporary Art Department Fine Art Archivist, 1997 -1998
The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Collection’s Assistant, January 1996 – January 1997
Education
M.A. New York University in History of Costume
MFA Ewha Womans University, College of Arts
BFA Ewha Womans University, College of Arts
Studied Visual Communication(Graphic Design) at Wellington Polytechnique, Wellington New Zealand
Studied Textile Design at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) New York, NY