Emily Lee is a chinese-american artist, writer, and organizer from the Texas Gulf Coast. They were raised monolingual in a bilingual household, in the same town where, in 1901, engineers struck a petroleum oil reserve that single-handedly led the entire United States into the oil age.
Through their practice, Lee considers how first-hand experiences are mediated by language, material, time, vision, and architecture. They believe in the possibilities of a practice-based research methodology, in which studio time and material messiness is actually a primary source material for further learning. The installation of Lee’s material objects is integral to the work itself, and each component of the work maintains a relationship to the peripheral, immaterial, and subterranean elements of the space it’s shown in. The work itself often takes the form of installations that change with time and are composed of materials local to the site including aluminum, wood, clay, images, drawings, videos, and performance.
Emily Lee has shown their work in Texas and New York. In 2021, they founded All the Sudden, a neighborhood project space dedicated to fostering context-specific exhibits and economic self-sufficiency for artists of all disciplines, which earned a Critic’s Pick Award in the Austin Chronicle. They are the recipient of the Roy Crane Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Grant, The Rhodes Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art, and Future Front TX’s Microgrant. Their writing has been published by French & Michigan and Southwest Contemporary (upcoming).
Through their practice, Lee considers how first-hand experiences are mediated by language, material, time, vision, and architecture. They believe in the possibilities of a practice-based research methodology, in which studio time and material messiness is actually a primary source material for further learning. The installation of Lee’s material objects is integral to the work itself, and each component of the work maintains a relationship to the peripheral, immaterial, and subterranean elements of the space it’s shown in. The work itself often takes the form of installations that change with time and are composed of materials local to the site including aluminum, wood, clay, images, drawings, videos, and performance.
Emily Lee has shown their work in Texas and New York. In 2021, they founded All the Sudden, a neighborhood project space dedicated to fostering context-specific exhibits and economic self-sufficiency for artists of all disciplines, which earned a Critic’s Pick Award in the Austin Chronicle. They are the recipient of the Roy Crane Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Grant, The Rhodes Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art, and Future Front TX’s Microgrant. Their writing has been published by French & Michigan and Southwest Contemporary (upcoming).