Lee’s paintings create an optical illusion that blurs the boundary between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. Differing from other Korean painters of the same era who wanted to express their most intimate sentiments through paintings, Lee seeks to present a rational, logical composition that embodies uniformity and objectivity. Lee also drew inspiration from his personal experience of traveling on a train, speeding through the landscapes. His flat and illusionistic Nucleus painting series recaptures the instantaneity and fleetingness of such experience. The constant movement exuded from undulating lines evokes a sense of psychological tension and restlessness.

Lee Seung Jio (1941-1990) is a pioneer of Korean geometric abstraction who emerged with the avant-garde group of artists in the 1960s. Lee co-founded the Origin Group alongside his contemporaries Suh Seung-Won and Choi Myoung-Young in 1962, a movement pursuing a return to the pure form of art.