Steven Young Lee, "Gourd Vases with Dodos", 2018, porcelain, cobalt pigment, glaze, 18 x 19 x 10"

STEVEN YOUNG LEE

Featured works


ARTWORK & INSTALLATIONS

SHATTERED DREAMS AND MOVEMENTS OF CHANGE



 

TIGER / TIGER AND MAGPIES



MELTING POINT

2021 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary & Heller Gallery | North Adams, MA & New York, NY

Survey of a ​diverse ​group of artists whose use of the melting point is central to their practice.

 View the exhibition page HERE

Featuring Gourd Vases with Dodos


BLUE, RED, & WHITE CUP PANELS



STEVEN YOUNG LEE


ABOUT


American, b. 1975, Chicago, IL
lives and works in Helena, MT

Steven Young Lee has been the resident artist director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana since 2006. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a one-year cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C.

Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA that featured contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition of ceramic production. In 2019 he will have a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum.

He is represented by the Duane Reed Gallery, Ferrin Contemporary and The Archie Bray Foundation Gallery. His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, The Newark Museum, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, as well as many private and public collections.

Lee received his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University. Originally from Chicago, he lives in Helena with his wife, Lisa and their two children Gavin and Florence.

Steven Young Lee, “Cup Panels”, 2013, porcelain, copper inlay, glaze, shelving-glass, aluminum, 46 x 50 x 4″

ON RED, WHITE, AND BLUE CUP PANELS

This piece comprises three panels, each containing 100 hand-thrown porcelain cups in a ten-by-ten grid. It was originally created for installation at the Jane Hartsook Gallery in New York, NY. The cups are decorated with motifs appropriated from various cultures — Chinese, Korean, French, Dutch, English, etc. In the creation of all 300 cups, the patterns evolved from their original source throughout the process, paralleling the organic development of the visual language of historical pattern as it evolved with ethnic influence.
The title of the piece references three genres of decoration in ceramics — blue and white, red and white, and white on white, while also isolating the representation of color i.e. red, white, and blue to associate with contemporary connotations. In addition, the proportion of the panels correlates to a large color field painting that allows the various motifs to create a single homogenous color representation.
Lee chose to use cups as a vehicle for the decoration because of their status as an archetypal form. And as one of the more intimate ceramic forms, they are relegated to be a small but integral part of the structure of the installation. To reinforce the place of the cup in the whole, the cups are not sold individually, their meaning plays a more expanded role as part of a larger whole.

Janet Koplos reviewed a recent show of Lee’s at Greenwich House Pottery in Ceramics Art and Perception. Click here to read the article.

CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS

Counterpoint: Three Clay Artists

2023 | Korea Society | New York, NY
September 14 – December 8, 2023
View the exhibition page HERE

ARE WE THERE YET?

2023 | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
July 15 – September 2, 2023
View the exhibition page HERE

Ferrin Contemporary, "Are We There Yet?", 2023, Exhibition Installation View with work by Chris Antemann, Steven Young Lee, Kadri Pärnamets, & Kurt Weiser, Photo by John Polak Photography

SELECT PAST EXHIBITIONS

CLAYSCAPES

Everson Museum of Art | Syracuse, NY
April 13 – October 20, 2024
Featuring Cristina Córdova, Paul Scott, & Steven Young Lee

NEWS & FEATURES

CANARY SYNDROME

Canary Syndrome September 27–November 4, 2018 at Ferrin Contemporary Ferrin Contemporary is pleased to present Canary Syndrome, a group show featuring recent works by U.S. and U.K.-based artists including Elizabeth...

REVIVE, REMIX, RESPOND

THE FRICK PITTSBURGH 7227 Reynolds St., Pittsburgh, PA February 17–May 27, 2018 ABOUT THE EXHIBITION In 2017, twenty contemporary artists were invited to respond to and produce new works that...

NEW YORK CERAMIC & GLASS FAIR 2018

NYC&G FAIR 2018 Bohemian National Hall, New York, NY | January 18–21, 2018 Bringing together a carefully selected and distinguished international group of more than 25 galleries offering all things...

PORCELAINIA: East Meets West

PORCELANIA: East Meets West November 10–December 8, 2016 Cross MacKenzie Gallery, Washington, DC EVENTS Talk and Reception with curator Leslie Ferrin and artist Paul Scott Talk Sunday, November 13, 2016,...

NEW YORK CERAMICS & GLASS FAIR 2017

ABOUT THE NYCGF New York Ceramics & Glass Fair Bohemian National Hall, New York, NY January 19–22, 2017 Click here for more Bringing together a carefully selected and distinguished international...

NEW YORK CERAMICS & GLASS FAIR 2016

ABOUT THE NYCGF January 21–24, 2016 Bohemian National Hall 321 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021 HOURS Thursday to Saturday 11:00am–7:00pm Sunday 11:00am–4:00pm (no admittance Sunday after 3:30) EVENTS...

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