The Lycoming College Art Gallery will host “Transplanted Forest: Seung Lee,” a solo exhibition by Korean American contemporary artist Seung Lee, from Nov. 7 to Feb. 6, a press release said. The exhibition features paintings, drawings, and an immersive, large-scale installation that invites visitors into a meditative bamboo environment — an evolving, light-filled space that foregrounds strength, flexibility and renewal.

At the heart of the exhibition is “Bamboo Forest for the Future,” an installation that Lee first developed in 2022 at the Garage Art Center (Queens, N.Y.) and Gallery 90 (Center Moriches, N.Y.). Reimagined for the Lycoming College Art Gallery, the work transforms the gallery into a contemplative landscape of towering bamboo forms and expansive works on paper, encouraging visitors to sit, breathe, and reflect on our present moment and the world we are shaping together.

“Bamboo became my companion during the pandemic — demanding care, offering calm, and teaching resilience,” said Lee. “Its strength helps us stand upright in difficult times; its flexibility reminds us to adapt and spring back from adversity. Together, these virtues point us toward balance, health, and hope.”

Working from his studio on the North Fork of eastern Long Island — surrounded by dense bamboo groves — Lee cultivated a daily practice he calls “bamboo management,” clearing paths that evolved into spaces for drawing and meditation. That lived engagement informs the exhibition’s visual rhythm and its ecological underpinnings: bamboo stands are known to produce over 35 percent more oxygen than trees, help prevent soil erosion through dense root systems, and absorb high levels of nitrogen that can reduce water pollution. Within the gallery, these facts resonate as a quiet call to environmental stewardship and community care.

A professor of art at Long Island University Post, Lee has exhibited extensively across the United States and internationally, including Turkey, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea. His work was selected for Woori Bank of Korea’s 2018 VIP Calendar.

Lee’s honors include commendations from the New York State Governor, Nassau County Supervisor, Suffolk County Supervisor, New Jersey City Mayor, the Best Artist of the Year from the Korean American Professors Association (2022), and the Best International Korean Artist award from the Korean Art Association (2011). He has served as an invited panelist for organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Fellowship, Decentralization Grants for New York Artists, the International Documentary Film Festival, the Berkshire Museum, the Long Island Museum, the Heckscher Museum of Art, the Islip Art Museum, the Long Island Art League, and the International Nature Art Biennial, among others.

“This exhibition brings together art, place, and purpose,” said John Yogodzinski, gallery coordinator at Lycoming College. “Seung Lee’s immersive approach creates a sanctuary in downtown Williamsport — an invitation to slow down, reconnect with nature, and imagine a more balanced future.”

For more information, visit lycoming.edu/art/gallery or email yogodzinski@lycoming.edu.