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Obituary: Jung Lee Sanders
By Camilla Alvarez-Chow
Portrait of JUNG LEE SANDERS. Courtesy Art Projects International.
New York-based Art Projects International (API) announced the passing of its founder and director Jung Lee Sanders, who died on August 6 after a year-long battle with cancer.
Sanders founded API, a contemporary art gallery and art advisory in New York, in 1993, to support artists from diverse international backgrounds and promote Korean art and culture. There, she created and produced exhibitions, events, and publications that led to API artists’ works being acquired by prominent institutions and collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Hong Kong’s M+, and the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, among many others.
Born in South Korea (her birth date remains private), Sanders lived in Seoul, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, where she attended the now-closed Epsom School of Art and Design in England. She then went to New York to further her education at the Pratt Institute, obtaining a master’s degree in interior and environmental design. Sanders went on to work at various architectural firms in New York and Seoul, before pursuing her doctoral degree in the late 1980s at New York University in the arts and humanities.
While completing her doctorate, Sanders focused on the development of 20th-century American art museums in relation to institutional purpose and function. It was during this time that she recognized the lack of galleries and institutions in New York that specialized in, and focused on, supporting contemporary Asian artists. The realization led to her establishing API; its first location was in the SoHo neighborhood, but it has since moved to Tribeca, where the gallery is still located.
In 2008, Sanders partnered with the Vilcek Foundation—an American organization that raises awareness about immigrants’ contributions to the arts and sciences—to create its inaugural exhibition “Il Lee and Pouran Jinchi.” The foundation’s president, Rick Kinsel, recalled: “Jung’s guiding philosophy was that a curator’s responsibility is—first and foremost—to the artist: That the focus of an exhibition shouldn’t be about simply showing or selling an artist’s work, but to make meaningful connections on the artist’s behalf. To use every resource you have as a curator and conduit to get to know the artist and their work, and to share that with the world.”
Sanders served as a member of the board for the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF), an organization that focuses on philanthropic efforts and provides support to underprivileged Korean American individuals and families. Beginning in 2022, she served on the board of directors of the Vilcek Foundation. The following year, in a decision regarding the USD 20,000 Vilcek Foundation grant, she championed support for Asia Art Archive (AAA) in America. The board unanimously approved AAA as its beneficiary in 2024.
Jung Lee Sanders is survived by her husband and their daughter, as well as her brother, and two sisters. The API has announced that a memorial service will be held in the near future.
Camilla Alvarez-Chow is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.
