Artist Statement: About Segmentation Series
The Segmentation series begins with a fascination with cellular biology—the process by which a single unit divides to form a complex organism. Inspired by the translucent structures of embryonic life, the work uses glass to examine the tension between the visible and the concealed. Biology renders life legible by staining it; this work reverses that gesture—color is laminated deep inside, then withheld beneath a lapped surface. Through segmenting and reassembling solid glass, the work draws from biological division, transforming geometric forms into layered structures built from internal variation.
Translucency plays a central role in shaping how the work is perceived. Rather than offering full transparency, the material diffuses light and limits direct access, allowing only partial visibility into the structure. What is seen is never complete; internal variation is present but cannot be fully grasped from a single viewpoint. Between full visibility and complete opacity, translucency describes a range of conditions—neither total knowledge nor total absence, but something in between. In this way, perception itself becomes unstable—what appears clear is contingent, and what remains hidden continues to shape the whole.
Form becomes a site of inquiry within the work. Rather than selecting forms arbitrarily, the work engages geometry as a way of thinking through perception, structure, and difference. The cube and the cuboid are understood not as fixed or opposing conditions, but as positions within a continuum. Subtle differences in proportion or angle may be measurable but not immediately perceptible, allowing variation to exist without being clearly recognized. These subtle shifts echo differences that exist between individuals—present, yet not always perceived. In this sense, form becomes a way of examining how we perceive and evaluate others—where distinctions may exist, but remain unseen even as judgments are formed. What appears resolved is not fully knowable; what is visible is only ever a fragment of a larger whole. And this is not a deficiency. An almost-cube is more interesting than a perfect one—richer in its variation, incomplete, still forming.
Translucency plays a central role in shaping how the work is perceived. Rather than offering full transparency, the material diffuses light and limits direct access, allowing only partial visibility into the structure. What is seen is never complete; internal variation is present but cannot be fully grasped from a single viewpoint. Between full visibility and complete opacity, translucency describes a range of conditions—neither total knowledge nor total absence, but something in between. In this way, perception itself becomes unstable—what appears clear is contingent, and what remains hidden continues to shape the whole.
Form becomes a site of inquiry within the work. Rather than selecting forms arbitrarily, the work engages geometry as a way of thinking through perception, structure, and difference. The cube and the cuboid are understood not as fixed or opposing conditions, but as positions within a continuum. Subtle differences in proportion or angle may be measurable but not immediately perceptible, allowing variation to exist without being clearly recognized. These subtle shifts echo differences that exist between individuals—present, yet not always perceived. In this sense, form becomes a way of examining how we perceive and evaluate others—where distinctions may exist, but remain unseen even as judgments are formed. What appears resolved is not fully knowable; what is visible is only ever a fragment of a larger whole. And this is not a deficiency. An almost-cube is more interesting than a perfect one—richer in its variation, incomplete, still forming.
“The optical properties of glass—transparency, translucency, and reflection—become central to the meaning of the work.”
— William V. Ganis, "The Tao of Glass" Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, 2023
— William V. Ganis, "The Tao of Glass" Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, 2023
I.M. (Im) Perfect, glass, 7 x 7.25 x 7 in. 2025
I.M. (Im)Perfect Cuboid
A cube carries a promise—equal dimensions, right angles, a form stable and resolved. This work resembles a cube but does not keep that promise. Its proportions deviate, subtly enough that the difference is measurable yet rarely perceived. The deviation is not a failure of craft but a deliberate condition of the form, as imperfection is a condition of being.
One segment is absent. It is not lost or broken; it was never there—an inheritance of absence carried within the structure, the way incompleteness is carried within a life.
Inside, light passes through layers that are never fully visible at once. Each position offers a partial view; the whole withholds itself from any single vantage. A person is known the same way.
One segment is absent. It is not lost or broken; it was never there—an inheritance of absence carried within the structure, the way incompleteness is carried within a life.
Inside, light passes through layers that are never fully visible at once. Each position offers a partial view; the whole withholds itself from any single vantage. A person is known the same way.
CUBE SEGMENTATION: TRANSLUCENT STILLNESS, glass, 7.25 x 7.25 x 7.25 in. 2025
CUBE SEGMENTATION: ATMOSPHERIC GEOMETRY, glass, 7.25 x 7.25 x 7.25 in. 2025
GREEN OVOID DIATOM, glass, 11 x 8 x 8 in. 202
GREEN TETRAHEDRON DIATOM, glass, 10 x 9 x 9 in. 2024
MITOSIS, glass, 8.5 x 14.5 in. 2019, Loewe Foundation Craft Prize Finalist work
GREEN PARALLELEPIPED SEGMENTATION, glass, 7.75 x 15 x 6.5 in. 2023
ORANGE GOLD OVOID SEGMENTATION, glass, 10 x 8 in. 2024
MULTI-COLOR CUBE, glass, 6.25 x 6.25 x 6.25 in. 2024
MONOCHROMATIC CUBOID, glass, 8.75 x 8.25 x 8.25 in. 2023
SPACE, glass, 7 x 12 in. 2021
DIATOM SEGMENTATION, glass, 5.75 x 12.25 in. 2018
WHITE GREEN DIATOM SEGMENTATION, glass, 8.5 x 10 x 8.5 in. 2020
GREEN YELLOW DIATOM SEGMENTATION II, glass, 5.75 x 12 x 12 in. 2020
GREEN YELLOW DIATOM SEGMENTATION I, glass, 8.5 x 12 in. 2020
GREEN COSMARIUM SEGMENTATION, glass, 7.25 x 10 x 7.25 in. 2018
CAMELLIA (Commissioned by Chanel; in the Chanel Collection), glass, 5.5 x 12.2 in. 2017
PARALLELEPIPED SEGMENTATION, glass, 9 x 12 x 9.75 in. 2017
WHITE-ORANGE CHROMOSOME SEGMENTATION, glass, 7 x 12 x 16 in. 2017
HEAD-THORAX-ABDOMEN, WHITE EMBRYO SEGMENTATION, glass, 3, 7.5 x 13 x 7.5 in. 2014
HEAD-THORAX-ABDOMEN, WHITE DROSOPHILA EMBRYO SEGMENTATION, glass, 6.3 x 9.8 x 6 in. 2013
CELL-BUILDING BLOCK, glass, 14 x 14 x 14 in. 2016
BLUE-YELLOW CUBOID SEGMENTATION, glass, 10.5 x 9 x 5 in. 2015
ORANGE CYLINDER SEGMENTATION, glass, 5.7 x 11.5 in. 2017, Collection of Barry Art Museum
CELL CUBE WITH PURPLE MANIPULATION, glass, 9 x 8 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. 2012, Collection of Corning Museum of Glass
"Jiyong Lee has balanced this skill with a rigorous conceptual development. To me, this is what makes his work superior."
— Tina Oldknow, Former Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, quoted in "Night And Day" American Craft, 2013
“Beautiful, enigmatic, and organized by a logic that seems just out of reach, Lee’s pieces hint at the unknowable potential packed into even the tiniest building blocks of all living things.”
— Susie J. Silbert, Former Curator of Postwar & Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, “Mysterious Nature”, 2016