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| MichaelLee / PROFILE |
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My statement
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Good fiction, while by definition “untrue,” nevertheless elicits human empathy by way of its emotional believability. I regard my work as fiction that strives for a kind of believability while maintaining a stubbornly artificial appearance. I create highly stylized and unrealistic landscapes to provoke a viewer’s sense of what constitutes visual truth.
They are theatrical spaces in which natural elements operate as outward manifestations of inner psychology.
The genre of landscape implies a relationship between an observer and his surroundings.
How we illustrate this connection exposes a power dynamic where causality can be debated. Is it landscape—the outer world—that produces an intellectual or emotional position within us, or do we impose one upon it? I find the potential ambiguity of the relationship fascinating because it raises doubts concerning landscape’s long-held connection with the sublime and the spiritual. While remaining an ardent fan of
artists whose works reverently address these themes, I have a compulsion to paint the instability, frustration, and confusion that are in attendance on such quests. The destabilized landscapes I make are at once sincere and absurd, stylized and cartoon-ish enough so as not to be mistaken for any real locale yet menacing enough to provide a sense of impending danger for the would-be truth seeker.
In my work it is intentionally unclear whether Nature or the human recording of it is responsible for creating obstacles to movement and vision. No vista opens up to allow a perch for peaceful contemplation. Space and perspective are awkward and claustrophobic. Figure and ground separate in some areas only to fuse together in others. Pattern, graphic form, serial imagery, and a limited, high contrast palette are devices used to both simplify and emphasize the artificial quality of the images.
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Professional history
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GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 A Stone’s Throw: Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop & Los Angeles
Printmaking Society Exchange Show Los Angeles Union Center for the Arts L.A.,
CA
Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Members Show RBPW NY, NY
The Big Show Silas Marder Gallery Bridgehampton, NY
2007 Night of a Thousand Drawings Artists Space NY, NY
2006 Confluence The Society for Cultural Exchange Pittsburgh, PA
Love & Spirit Musee de Monoian NY, NY
Spalding Gray Tribute P.S. 122 NY, NY
2005 MSU Art and Design Faculty Exhibition Montclair State University Upper Montclair,
NJ
Summer Residency Exhibition Cooper Union NY, NY
Wish You Were Here A.I.R.Gallery NY, NY
2004 New American Talent, the 19th Exhibition Arthouse at the Jones Center Austin, TX
curated by Jerry Saltz
2003 Lightshow Clocktower Art Space NY, NY
Douglas Dibble Memorial Art Exhibition Hunter College NY, NY
2000 Snapshot The Contemporary Museum Baltimore, MD
1999 MFA Thesis Exhibition Hunter College NY, NY
1996 21 Artist Books Hunter College NY, NY
1995 New Work: Michael Lee and Susan Weinthaler Galerie Felvie Austin, TX
ART FAIRS
2008 Bridge Art Fair Miami Beach, FL curator: Eddy Steinhauer
2007 Pool Art Fair NY, NY curator: Lisa Gui with Frere Independent
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
2008 Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Fellowship RBPW NY, NY
2005 Summer Artist Residency Program Cooper Union NY, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2006 Maud Newton “Michael Aaron Lee, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and demons within”
Oct. 7, 2006 Maud Newton.com
2004 Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin “Curator Weaves New Craftiness…” July 1, 2004
The Austin American Statesman
Rachel Koper “Saltz Exposes Himself” June 18, 2004 The Austin Chronicle
Carolyn Porter “They Like Me, They Really Like Me…” June ‘04 Glass Tire: Texas Visual Arts Online
Robert Faires “New American Talent” June 11, 2004 p.33 The Austin Chro
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member of College Art Association (US)
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