Michelle Jane Lee’s art is minimalist in form yet muscular in content. There is a complexity, density; to put it simply, there is a lot of heart in the often times sparse drawings and paintings.
In Lee's latest series of systematic drawings and installations, highly personal letters written by the artist are translated into idiosyncratic grids of colored squares and patterns. Utilizing a color alphabet developed by the artist, the narrative transforms into the abstract. Through this act Lee gives the viewer an emotive experience of color while also pointing to the very abstractness of language.
Lee spent her childhood in Seoul, Korea, lived and studied in Chicago and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
2006 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2005 Yale University, Yale/Norfolk Art Residency
2006 'Mail Order Brides' Tulip Gallery, Chicago, IL
2011 'Transregional Aesthetics' Castle Inn Gallery, Delaware Water Gap, PA
2011 'Chain Letter' Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2011 'Group Show' Gallery 3209, Culver City, CA
2010 'Who Are These People' Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2010 'Five Years Later' The Purple Pineapple Project, Los Angeles, CA
2008 'Apocalypse' Lasso Gallery, Chicago, IL
2007 'Group Show' Midwest Fest, Chicago, IL
2005 Yale University, Yale/Norfolk Art Residency