Hye Rim Lee is an intermedia artist currently based in Auckland and frequently working in Seoul and New York. She works across digital, sculptural and performance platforms, particularly specializing in 3D animation and other computer-generated imagery. In her animation artworks, Lee uses her animated character TOKI to explore a variety of themes, from feminine identity and cyber culture to shifting identity, grief, loss, and the role of new technology in our lives.

Through TOKI, Hye Rim delved into her own sense of shifting identity as a Korean-born woman living in New Zealand, moving to New York, and then back to New Zealand. Hye Rim studied at Elam School of Fine Arts, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Intermedia and Time Based Arts before a trip to Korea in 1997 inspired a deep fascination with the mediums of moving image and animation. She is represented by Scott Lawrie Auckland and Waterfall Mansion & Gallery New York.

Hye Rim’s works have been exhibited all over New Zealand and the world, including Kukje Gallery in Seoul, Max Lang Gallery in New York, Galerie Volker Deihl in Berlin, and at a number of collateral exhibitions at the Venice Biennale. Her works are part of the major art collections at Seoul Museum of Art, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Hara Museum Japan, Byron Aceman Collection Canada, C-Collection, Principality of Liechtenstein, Te Papa Wellington, Adam Art Gallery Wellington, The University of Auckland, Ernst & Young, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery New Plymouth.