Portrait of YOUNG LEE GRINDERCourtesy of Art Projects International.
Art Projects International (API) has announced the death of its founder and director Jung Lee Sanders, who passed away on August 6 after a years-long battle with cancer.
Sanders founded API, a New York-based contemporary art gallery and art consultancy, in 1993 to support artists from diverse international backgrounds and promote Korean art and culture. There, she conceived and produced exhibitions, events and publications that resulted in the API artists’ works being acquired by major institutions and collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, M+ in Hong Kong and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, to name a few.
Born in South Korea (her birth date remains secret), Sanders lived in Seoul, Hong Kong and the UK, where she attended the now-closed Epsom School of Art and Design in England. She then moved to New York to continue her education at the Pratt Institute and earn a master’s degree in interior and environmental design. Sanders then worked in various architectural firms in New York and Seoul before completing her PhD in humanities at New York University in the late 1980s.
During her PhD, Sanders studied the evolution of 20th-century American art museums in terms of institutional goals and functions. During this time, she recognized the lack of galleries and institutions in New York that specialized in and supported contemporary Asian artists. This realization led her to found the API, which first opened in SoHo but has since moved to Tribeca, where the gallery remains.
In 2008, Sanders worked with the Vilcek Foundation—an American organization that raises awareness of immigrants’ contributions to art and science—to create the inaugural exhibition, “Il Lee and Pouran Jinchi.” The foundation’s president, Rick Kinsel, recalls, “Jung’s guiding philosophy was that a curator’s responsibility is first and foremost to the artist: the focus of an exhibition should not be to simply show or sell an artist’s work, but to make meaningful connections on behalf of the artist. You should use every resource you have as a curator and educator to get to know the artist and their work and share it with the world.”
Sanders served on the board of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF), an organization that focuses on philanthropic efforts and supports underserved Korean American individuals and families. As of 2022, she served on the board of the Vilcek Foundation. The following year, she championed a decision on the Vilcek Foundation’s $20,000 grant to support the Asia Art Archive (AAA) in America. The board unanimously approved the AAA as the beneficiary in 2024.
Jung Lee Sanders leaves behind her husband and 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.
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