gwisin baljaguk (ghost prints) now on view at Boston City Hall galleries

I am pleased to share that my solo exhibition "gwisin baljaguk (ghost prints)" is now on view at the Mayor's Office Gallery at Boston City Hall.

Timothy Hyunsoo Lee's first solo exhibition in Boston explores the experience of existing between cultures, never fully here nor there. Drawing from his life as a queer immigrant who arrived in New York City as an undocumented child, Lee examines how gestures of invisibility and hypervisibility function as survival strategies for immigrant communities navigating layered identities within hostile environments. Lee's photosensitive cyanotype processes mirror the lexicon of immigration, with "exposure" functioning as a metaphor for assimilation. Through overexposure, images become ghostly, haunting the spaces they inhabit—much like Lee's experience of being "like a ghost between two cultures, wandering aimlessly through both and belonging to neither." For Lee, abstraction is both visual language and lived condition, a method of camouflage enabling movement between identities.

Central to the exhibition is Lee's investigation of mugwort, a plant species revered in Korean culture yet labeled invasive in the United States. Mugwort's dual status becomes a potent metaphor for the immigrant experience: thriving in unwelcoming ecosystems, present but unseen, vital yet unwanted. Lee is drawn to how these "undesirable" plants exist alongside the margins—in sidewalk cracks, at curb edges, around abandoned lots—much like the immigrant communities he grew up in. Like the complex root systems through which invasive species propagate beneath the surface, diasporic communities form networks of mutual aid that sustain migration across generations and beyond biological ties. The use of gold, often an offering in Asian cultures, simultaneously evokes notions of wealth and the American dream: shiny on the outside, concealing complex realities beneath.

The exhibition brings together works that dance flawlessly between figuration and abstraction in the same way that the artist has grown accustomed to “code-switch” to survive both as an immigrant and as a queer man. Perpetually switching between masks of existence, the works trace pathways of migration and performances of belonging. Gwisin Baljaguk serves as a tribute to diasporic communities that have called Boston home, inserting these metaphors into a civic space where transit and public policy intersect. Amidst nationwide conversations around who deserves to belong, the exhibition raisesurgent questions: How do we label invasive species? How genuine is belonging if it requires constant performance? What version of ourselves gets to flourish and which ones appear only as ghosts?

gwisin baljaguk (ghost prints)

Mayor's Office Gallery, Boston City Hall (Boston, MA)

February 17 - May 8, 2026