NEW YORK, NY.- Art Projects International announced a recent accession of two major works by Il Lee — Untitled 978W (1997-98) and BL-07835 (2007-08) — to the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia).

Untitled 978W (above) is an important large-scale black ballpoint ink on paper work from the “978” series of powerful drawings from the late 1990s, each measuring up to 82 x 61 inches. BL-07835 is a six-foot wide blue ballpoint ink on canvas work that presents one of Il Lee’s iconic forms.

Untitled 978W and other large-scale blue ballpoint ink on canvas works were prominently exhibited in the artist's critically acclaimed mid-career retrospective IL LEE: Ballpoint Abstractions at the San Jose Museum of Art in California in 2007 with a review by Kenneth Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle. More recently, Untitled 978W was exhibited in a major survey Il Lee: New Paintings/40 Years in New York at Art Projects International in New York in 2016.

Il Lee (b. 1952, lives and works in New York) is celebrated for his pioneering work with ballpoint pen that began 40 years ago. His work, with its unorthodox media and distinctive style, and artistic contributions have received worldwide recognition. He has been the subject of numerous major solo exhibitions, including his critically-acclaimed mid-career survey at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2007. His work has been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Vilcek Foundation, Queens Museum, Crow Museum of Asian Art, Palms Springs Art Museum, Arkansas Arts Center and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea. His work is represented in major collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, Vilcek Foundation, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul) and Société Bic (France). Reviews and feature articles about Il Lee have appeared in major publications including the New York Times, New Yorker, Artnews, Art in America, Art Asia Pacific, San Francisco Chronicle and Newsweek. Il Lee is featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s The Artist Project, an online video series exploring the museum’s collection, as well as in the book The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, published by Phaidon, London (2017).